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Nelson’s Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album win was announced during the 2017 Grammys Premiere Ceremony, which was streamed online before the televised awards show. Unfortunately, Nelson was not at the award show to accept his award; in recent weeks, he’s canceled a number of concerts due to an undisclosed illness.

Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin is a collection of songs penned by George and Ira Gershwin. Songs on the album include “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “I Got Rhythm” and “Love is Here to Stay,” among others. Wilson partners with Cyndi Lauper for “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” and with Sheryl Crow for “Embraceable You.”

Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin was produced by Buddy Cannon and Matt Rollings and is available via Amazon and iTunes.

When Willie Nelson recorded his concept album Red Headed Stranger in Garland, Texas, in 1975, he insisted on simplicity for the tracks.  But according to the books Willie, by Michael Bane, that simplicity proved a bit too much for the studio musicians and his record label.

As Willie recorded the song, “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” he stopped the session, played through the tune with just guitar and vocal and asked the band to play only what was necessary.  Several of the musicians, realizing that they basically had nothing to do, voluntarily got up and left the session.

Willie remembers that his record label was also not exactly receptive to the bare-bones product.  “They expected more Shotgun Willie, something more tempo,” he says in the book. But the label released the album along with the sing, “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” which surprisingly started climbing the charts.  It became Willie’s first No. 1 hit in October of 1975.

“Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” was also responsible for another Willie milestone.  On Feb. 28, 1976, Willie picked up his first Grammy award, winning the honor for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male.

Congratulations to Beyonce and Willie for their grammy awards tonight.

In 1979 the Country Music Association ratified what everybody already knew: Willie Hugh Nelson was named Entertainer of the Year, the highest award country music can give.  Of the five nominees — Kenny Rogers, Barbara Mandrell, the Statler Brothers and Crystal Gayle — Willie was probably the dark horse.  The clear favorite was Kenny Rogers, riding the huge success of ‘The Gambler.”

After sitting through the entire awards show and watching Kenny Rogers grab every award in sight, Willie figured he was off the hook.

“I thought Kenny was about to clean sweep,” Willie says.  “So I was surprised.  I was shocked.”  He was wearing his usual jeans and a neat cowboy shirt, his long hair pulled back in braids.  He took the microphone and thanked the audience modestly, started to turn away, then turned back to the audience.

“When you talk about entertainers,” Willie said, “Entertainers for years, not just one year, but entertainers over the years — I like to think about people like Little Jimmy Dickens, Faron Young, Ferlin Husky and all those people, and “I’d like to see these guys up here one of these years, because they certainly deserve to be.”

The applause was deafening.

Afterwards, Willie spoke again about his heroes, country music stars from the 1950’s who had a tremendous influence on the country music stars of the 1970s.  If Willie Nelson had his way, they would never be forgotten.

Later, he was asked if he thought he was singing with more confidence.  He paused for a long time before he answered.

“Yes, there’s a lot to that,” Willie said.  “There were a lot of years when I felt like I was singing to myself.  A lot of times I was. There was me and two couples out on the dance floor, and that was it.  The crowds have gotten bigger, and as the crowd gets bigger, your confidence grows.  Maybe you’re doing it right.”

Again, it seemed that Willie Nelson’s career couldn’t get any bigger.  Even The New York Times gushed the praises of the leather-tough singer from Texas.

“He plays with the vibrant enthusiasm of a Fats Waller,” wrote Al Rheinhart in the Times, “With the gleeful fulfillment of an artist who has finally found his audience, and through them, himself.  He is truly happy to be there, playing is music, and it shows.”

“An objective look at the present state of Willie Nelson’s nearly three-decade-long career indicates that he not only learned form the error of his ways, but he’s in fact gone a step further and turned them all into triumphs,” wrote Willie-watcher Bob Allen in country Music Magaine in 1980.  “For at least the last three years, some journalists have been predicting that his career was bound to peak any second now, and that it would all be downhill from there.  But the fact is it just seems to be gaining more and more momentum, almost by the day, and his universal popularity continues to grow.”

Willie, as usual, was philosophical — “I feel like I’ve made all the mistakes,” he says, “and I hope I’ve learned from them.”

Willie
by Michael Bane