Willie Nelson

One of Willie Nelson's most overlooked albums, Spirit is a dimly lit and sparse collection of songs as beautiful as anything plucked by Ry Cooder on the Paris, Texas soundtrack. His hayseed narratives are melodiously weaved into acoustic arpeggio guitar dances, lilting fiddle lines and subtle piano textures.

Spirit is Willie Nelson's variation on American Recordings, Johnny Cash's 1994 return to
glory: low-key, acoustic, stripped to the rugged fundamentals of a good song and a
superior voice. Nelson brings his own bunkhouse-Romeo charm to the concept; these are
songs of amour and wonder, rendered with a sumptuous ease. The album is so hushed in
tone and gentle in temperament that at times it seems weightless, lacking in emot... More >

So bare-boned in language, instrumentation, and melodic contour you barely notice it at first, this turns out to be Nelson's strongest new album in over a decade, his most indelible songwriting in at least two. His latest case of love lost leaves him meeting his maker but not his mortality--if his "life will never be the same again," it's not because he's gonna keel over like some 63-year-old. In fact, the pain has fired him up, so that he not only surrounds the winning "We Don't Run" with new standards, but plays the hell out of that acoustic guitar with the big hole in it. (Grade - A-)