Album of the Day

After RCA threw their hands up with him, Willie Nelson headed to Austin, TX, grew his hair out and started to make music far removed from the constraints of the Nashville hitmaking machinery. The album that emerged, 1973's SHOTGUN WILLIE, was one of the opening salvos in the outlaw country movement, broadening the traditions of Hank Williams and Lefty Frizell to include singer-songwriter individuality. Nelson proves an engaging storyteller on originals like the title track, and he makes covers of songs like “Whiskey River” and “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer)” definitive with his masterful phrasing. Finding common ground between hillbillies and hippies, SHOTGUN WILLIE is expertly played, touched with humor and filled with inventive stylistic turns. Willie Nelson celebrates a birthday today, and we'll fire off a salute to the legendary performer with this breakthrough album!