Country Review: Willie Nelson-Ride Me Back Home

Release Date:  June 21, 2019
Label:  Legacy Recordings
Website 

When Willie Nelson sings, people listen. Throughout his storied 60-year career, The Redheaded Stranger has become a genre unto himself. His mastery lies in the poetic, heartfelt expressions of romance, loneliness, and the exploits of an outlaw’s life on the road.

Willie’s 69th studio album Ride Me Back Home thematically does not wander far from home. Yet there are echoes of melancholy, remorse, and gravity, which force the listener to sit up and take notice. In late-stage releases from Bob Dylan (Tempest), Johnny Cash (American series), and Leonard Cohen (You Want It Darker), one hears underlying themes of the wrath of time, the futility of existence and death. These undercurrents serve as haunting reminders of what is to come and serve a warning for all to live every moment as if it were your last. In Willie Nelson’s inimitable style, Ride Me Back Home follows suit.

The title track is classic country fare serving a double-metaphor signifying a returning to his roots and a longing for a time when the world was a bigger place. “Come on Time” follows by pleading with the powers that be to give him more, and an acceptance that in the battle of Willie vs. Time, Time will ultimately prevail.

Willie’s cover of Guy Clark’s “My Favorite Picture of You” is a standout track. Heartbreaking lyrics layered on soft and subtle country chords is Willie at his finest. Reminiscent of his 1998 masterpiece, Teatro, the spacing between the lyrics and notes in this song is used to dramatic effect, proving what is left out can be as important as what is put in. “Just a moment in time that you can’t have back. You never left, but your bags were packed.”

Willie’s commonsensical wit is at the forefront of the upbeat “Seven Year Itch,” and “Hard to be Humble” while “Nobody’s Listening” and “Maybe I Should Have Been Listening” ride a rueful tone of sadness and remorse.

The sole misfire on the album is “Just the Way You Are,” a compulsory cover of the Billy Joel classic. The iconic Hammond organ sounds of the original do not port well to Willie’s country guitar jangling. When Willie sings, “I said I love you.” I couldn’t help envision him shouting this to his wife because she couldn’t hear him the first time. 

In Ride Me Back Home, Willie Nelson packages a set of covers, retreads, and new material co-written with Buddy Cannon to form a dark, yet delightful whole. As the last part of a trilogy beginning with 2017’s God’s Problem Child and 2018’s Last Man Standing, Ride Me Back Home is ironic as well. After being on the road so long, it is hard to imagine Willie ever turning back.

Key Tracks Include: “Ride Me Back Home”, “My Favorite Picture of You”, “Seven Year Itch”, “Nobody’s Listening”

Tom Endyke-MuzikMan.net Staff
October 9, 2019

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Tracks:
01. Ride Me Back Home
02. Come on Time
03. My Favorite Picture of You
04. Seven Year Itch
05. Immigrant Eyes
06. Stay Away from Lonely Places
07. Just the Way You Are
08. One More Song to Write
09. Nobody’s Listening
10. It’s Hard to Be Humble
 

Country-Blues Review: Willie Nelson -Last Man Standing

Release Date: April 27, 2018

Label: Legacy

Website

Willie Nelson is a National Treasure. He just keeps keepin’ on like very few recording artists do. In fact, many of them never live as long as Willie. 85 years young and he is still going strong.

Willie’s music has really grown on me over the years and most recently really caught my ear. The latest release is a country blues fest called Last Man Standing.

His tongue in cheek and matter of fact lyrics will put a smile on your face and warm your soul. The music is superb, it’s as simple as that. I love the combination of blues and country and always have. To make an outstanding record you need polished and experienced professionals like Willie. That would also include anyone he decides to bring into his camp to record his next album. That is exactly what you can expect from Last Man Standing.

I think the amazing thing about Willie is his resiliency throughout the years and the ability to make meaningful music. Some of the tracks are quite funny, like “Bad Breath.” Willie sings “It’s better to have bad breath than none at all.” That very point-blank frankness of the lyric tickled my funny bone.

Then there are tracks on the more serious heartfelt side like “Something You Get Through.” He sure can sing a ballad. As far as I can tell the man has not lost a step in his ability to play the guitar, compose a song and deliver it in his own unique way. 

Willie’s pensive “Last Man Standing” is a matter of fact and true to life story regarding the unavoidable finality of our time here on this planet. At first, he says he doesn’t want to be the last man standing then states, “Wait a minute, maybe a do!” He has lost some lifetime buddies like Waylon and Johnny etc. (Check out The Highway Men). Even though losing a good friend is a serious matter the man still can find the humor in what life brings us. That is an essential tool he uses frequently in his lyrics.

Listen to Willie sing “Heaven Is Closed” and hell is overcrowded so I think I will just stay where I am. Again, this points to the fact that perhaps this is the reality of the world we now live in. Then the bluesy country fried “She Made My Day” is a great tune about a relationship between a man and woman. This one line says it all… “She made my day but it ruined my life.” 

Last Man Standing is Willie Nelson at his very best. This will be one the hottest selling country albums in 2018, I have no doubt.

5/5 Stars

Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck

May 7, 2018

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Tracks: 
01. Last Man Standing
02. Don’t Tell Noah
03. Bad Breath
04. Me And You
05. Something You Get Through
06. Ready To Roar
07. Heaven Is Closed
08. I Ain’t Got Nothin’
09. She Made My Day
10. I’ll Try To Do Better Next Time
11. Very Far To Crawl
 

Country Review: Patty Mattson-Throwdown

Release Date: November 10, 2014

Label: Indie

Website

Patty Mattson has released a new album called Throwdown. The recording features seven strong tracks and the voice of a talented woman with the strength and conviction to deliver the words.

Even though this recording clocks in at just over 23 minutes Ms. Mattson packs it all into one powerful package with her vocal style and straight forward approach. It’s non-stop entertainment from start to finish.

The musicianship is fine throughout the run of this CD and a suitable match for Patty. All thanks go to Simone Sello for a masterful job multitasking and playing all the instruments (with the exception of drums on two tracks courtesy of Billy Pace). I did cover her last full length The Road and was quite impressed so it looks like she picked up right where she left off!

When I heard “Dear Momma” and “Daddy” it made me get all emotional and I suppose that is just what it is supposed to do so a job well done Patty. With all the sentiment aside, the opener and title track “Throwdown” is real kick up your heels and holler off the rooftop number. It’s full of energy and it rocks down the house. Now that is the way you are supposed to open an album. Along those same lines you should close out an album strong as well, so it keeps your listeners coming back for more, well, she does it again with perhaps the strongest cut on the album “I Can Feel It Comin’.”

This album feels like an EP but the range for that format is 3-5 songs. I think the difference here besides two more tracks are that it’s so darn good, you feel like it ends much too soon. That is a good thing for Patty Mattson. Why this lady is not a star right up there with folks like Carrie Underwood and the like, is beyond me. She has what it takes, and delivers the goods time and time again.

4/5 Stars

Key Tracks: Dear Momma, Throwdown, I Can Feel It Comin’

Tracks: 
01.Throwdown
02.Dear Mama
03.Guess Life’s Not
04.Always What It Seems
05.Stranger To Love
06.Daddy
07.I Can Feel It Comin’
 

Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck-Write A Music Review Founder

December 3, 2014

Review Provided By Write A Music 

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