If Willie Nelson has yet to make the same sort of comeback that Johnny Cash in 1994 and Loretta Lynn earlier this year, it's because he's never really gone away: Nelson has entered his seventies without a noticeable decline in quality or output. The man who wrote Patsy Cline's "Crazy" was an outlaw before alt-country was a glimmer in its papa's eye. He made one of country's first concept albums (The Red-Headed Stranger) and was doing standards albums three decades before Rod Stewart and George Michael. He was doing them well, too-- Stardust remains not just one of country music's best covers albums, but one of its best period.
But relatively recent Willie Nelson LPs like Spirit, Teatro, and The Rainbow Connection hold their own against his most famous work. In addition, Nelson has been touring constantly-- whether by himself or recently with Bob Dylan-- he's guest-starred on "Monk", and he's the only person who can share a stage with both Toby Keith and The Dixie Chicks. Through a steady stream of collaborations, live albums, and assorted covers, Nelson has expanded his influence and fan base across genres and generations.
His gazillionth album, It Always Will Be, resembles late-70s/early-80s Nelson albums like Always on My Mind both in its impressively diverse mix of originals and covers and in its easygoing sound. Nelson's plainspoken cover of Waits and Brennan's "Picture in a Frame" reveals how so few words can convey a sentiment so big that it reduces even Willie to a low moan of "oh yeah." Toby Keith manages to give Nelson a genuinely affecting story-song in "Tired", which almost sounds like a liberal condemnation of big-business government. Nelson's gentle delivery communicates that song's tremendous beat-down fatigue through knowing understatement.
Both Norah Jones and Lucinda Williams attune their voices to Nelson's signature singing style, creating an evocative late-night vibe on "Dreams Come True" and amplifying the simmering heartbreak on "Overtime", respectively. But this dynamic is missing on the duet "Be That as It May", written and sung by Willie's daughter Paula Nelson. The song is a wonderful piece of country pop that proves she inherited her father's songwriting genes, but she sings in a painfully melismatic style, which-- combined with her country twang-- makes for a distractingly overworked performance.
Nelson really hasn't changed his musical style or his creative approach since his first albums in the 1960s and 70s, but songs from every stage of his career still hold up remarkably well. Not only has he aged incredibly gracefully-- his voice has lost nothing-- but he wears his wrinkles like medals, knowing his increasing age just adds more gravity to It Always Will Be, especially the three songs he wrote and sings himself. "Texas" is a slow, simple mariachi blues that showcases Nelson's own distinctive picking, and "My Broken Heart Belongs to You" recalls the sober, somber lost-love songs of Spirit. "It Always Will Be" is an affecting pledge of devotion, a song so sturdy that it gives the album's title a new meaning: It sounds just as timely and timeless as anything he's done.
