To All The Girls
Sony Music
Willie Nelson continually finds time to put out records. The environmentalist who lives in a solar-powered community in Hawaii, helped to set up Farm Aid and is an outspoken advocate for the legalisation of marijuana, and is as active today as he has been at any stage of his career. To All The Girls is a collection of duets with some of the better known names in country music.
As is the way with Nelson albums there are some tunes by the man himself as well as interpretations of others’ tunes. The lead track and one of Nelson’s best charting singles in some time is the pairing with Dolly Parton From Here To The Moon And Back. It is the type of song that is deserving of country music royalty and makes the aging singers sound like loved up pussy cats.
John Fogarty’s Have You Ever Seen The Rain? finds Nelson joined by his daughter, Paula. The snail-paced delivery gives the tune extra weight and this pairing is far more than a campfire experiment put on record. Nelson teams with Loretta Lynn to Miranda Lambert and all in between in the course of 18 songs that pull on the heartstrings.
Sure, an album of duets is hardly ground-breaking, but as there is little that Nelson hasn’t done over the course of more than 60 albums he can do as he chooses. To All The Girls is one of his many good ones.
CHRIS HAVERCROFT
