www.rollingstone.com
by: Jon Freeman
A country legend, some rising radio stars and burgeoning Americana singer-songwriters make up this week’s list of songs you need to hear right now.
Willie Nelson, “Last Man Standing”
Thursday, March 8th, 2018
“Last Man Standing” tracklist:
Last Man Standing
Don’t Tell Noah
Bad Breath
Me And You
Something You Get Through
Ready To Roar
Heaven Is Closed
I Ain’t Got Nothin’
She Made My Day
I’ll Try To Do Better Next Time
Very Far to Crawl
On March 7, 1983, Willie Nelson, pictured here with wife Connie Nelson, received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame Awards ceremony in New York City.
1978
On March 4, 1978, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings recording of “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” is number one (and stays there for four weeks).
Music legends Willie Nelson and Glen Campbell have been nominated for the Academy of Country Music Award for Vocal Event of the Year for their poignant duet “Funny How Time Slips Away.” The 53 rd Academy of Country Music Awards will air live on Sunday April 15, at 8 PM ET/PT on the CBS Television Network.
“I’m so proud of my dad and so glad his music is still being enjoyed and recognized in the music community. He always put his heart and soul into every song he ever sang,” said Ashley Campbell.
Written by Nelson 57 years ago, “Funny How Time Slips Away” was recorded for Campbell’s Grammy -nominated farewell album, Adis, released in June 2017 via UMe to rave reviews. The collaboration between longtime friends takes on a new gravitas as the two trailblazers reflect back together on where the years went. Hailed by Rolling Stone as “a marvelous, albeit heartbreaking, tribute to their enduring love and respect for one another,” the song is even more significant following Campbell’s death last year from Alzheimer’s. In November, the collaboration won the Country Music Association Award for Musical Event of the Year.
Adis capped off an extraordinary career for Campbell that spanned more than six decades and 50 million albums sold. Hailed as one of the best of his career, the album received an incredible reaction around the world from the likes of Rolling Stone, USA Today, NPR, Uncut and many others. It debuted in the Top 40 of the Billboard 200 garnering Campbell his 16th Top 40 album and his 19th Top 10 Country Record.<
The album Campbell had always wanted to do, Adis was recorded following his “Goodbye Tour” which he launched after revealing he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Produced by longtime friend and bandmate, Carl Jackson, the 12-track collection features Campbell singing songs from some of his favorite songwriters like Jimmy Webb, his longtime collaborator behind some of his biggest hits like “Wichita Lineman,” “By The Time I Get To Phoenix,” and “Galveston,” and the title track. Other songwriters featured include Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Fred Neil, Roger Miller, Jerry Reed and Dickey Lee.
Last year, their collaboration won the 2017 AMA Award for Musical Event of the Year.
On March 2, 2016, before his concert at the Rosa Hart Theater, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Willie Nelson was presented with the Key to the City by Lake Charles Mayor Randy Roach.
On February 23, 1983, Willie Nelson wins Best Country Vocal Performance for ‘Always On My Mind. The song won three times during the 25th annual Grammy awards including awards for songwriters Wayne Carson, Johnny Christopher and Mark James earn Song of the Year.
Album Track listing
Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell shows a “Willie Nelson Blvd.” sign as he called for support for honoring the music icon.
www.chron.com
AUSTIN — Austin has no “Whiskey River,” but it will have a downtown street named for Willie Nelson.
The Austin City Council voted Thursday to add the iconic Texas balladeer’s name to Second Street downtown.
The Austin American-Statesman reports the city will install “Willie Nelson Boulevard” along the street. The street will retain Second Street as its formal name, but businesses and residents along the street will be able to receive mail using the new name.
Meanwhile, the nonprofit Capital Area Statues group is raising money to put a life-size statue of Nelson on Second Street in front of the “Austin City Limits” studio.
Nelson has lived in the Austin area for nearly 40 years.
On February 10, 1986, “The HighwayMan” album, is certified gold for Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson
1. Highwayman
2. The Last Cowboy Song
3. Jim, I Wore A Tie Today
4. Big River
5. Committed To Parkview
6. Desperados Waiting For A Train
7. Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)
8. Welfare Line
9. Against The Wind
10. The Twentieth Century Is Almost Over
www.digitaljournal.com
The Headwear Association Announces 9th Annual Headwear Hall of Fame Inductees. Inductees are Tom Petty, Jennifer Aniston, Willie Nelson, Erykah Badu, Joseph “Reverend Run” Simmons and Ava Gardner.
The Headwear Association (THA) has announced the inductees for the Headwear Hall of Fame, and the honors go to Tom Petty, Jennifer Aniston, Willie Nelson, Erykah Badu, Joseph “Reverend Run” Simmons and Ava Gardner.
“This is the Ninth Annual Headwear Hall of Fame Induction. Every year, The Headwear Association recognizes individuals known for their signature style, which of course includes wearing a wide variety of hats,” said THA President, Garth Watrous. “We received dozens of nominations for the Headwear Hall of Fame via social media, including overwhelming support for Tom Petty. It is bittersweet that Petty joins this year’s inductees, but we are excited to welcome this year’s stylish individuals to the Headwear Hall of Fame.”
The THA Headwear Hall of Fame now totals 54 stylish individuals. The diverse group includes Princess Diana, Johnny Depp, Pharrell Williams, Jennifer Lopez, Samuel L Jackson, Diane Keaton, Humphrey Bogart, LL Cool J and more.
See the complete Headwear Hall of Fame here: http://theheadwearassociation.org
Members of The Headwear Association nominated more than 50 legendary hat wearers, living and deceased. The Headwear Association board of directors voted and approved the final six honorees who will be formally inducted into The Headwear Hall of Fame at the 110th annual THA Gala event at The Central Park Boathouse on April 26, 2018.
The Hall of Fame Inductees:
Tom Petty wore hats on stage for decades, but perhaps his most iconic look is his ubiquitous top hat. Petty ruled MTV with innovative videos including “You Got Lucky,” “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” “Into the Great Wide Open” and “You’re So Bad,” all of which featured custom Top Hats.
Willie Nelson is a country legend who has regularly paired cowboy hats with his signature braids for decades. A staple of the Outlaw Country genre, Nelson pairs his Stetson cowboy hats with a little edge, and a lot of attitude and style.
Joseph “Reverend Run” Simmons is Hip Hop Royalty. From leather fedoras and Kangols back in the day, to his current penchant for wide brim fedoras, RUN DMC founder, Reverend Run, always tops off his style with a hat.
Erykah Badu burst onto the music scene with “Baduizm” and her signature African Turban in 1997. Since then the legendary singer has made turbans and outrageous hats part of her signature style. The internet is awash with images of Badu in glorious headwear, and there are even YouTube tutorials about how to style a turban like Badu.
Jennifer Aniston is known for her understated, classic style. Hats have been a signature wardrobe staple for Aniston for many years, and she is often seen in jeans and a fedora.
Ava Gardner was one of Hollywood’s most glamourous screen sirens. The American Film Institute ranked Gardner as one of the Top 50 Screen Legends of all time, and her style was equally legendary. Her hats were exquisite and she was breathtaking in them. Fun Fact: Gardner was married to fellow Headwear Hall of Famer, Frank Sinatra.
For more on The Headwear Hall of Fame visit the THA website: http://theheadwearassociation.org
The Headwear Association is a 110-year old trade association, the oldest in the fashion industry.
Our birth was a chance meeting of traveling hat salesmen in 1907 who had just finished their seasonal selling trips in NYC. The first dinner was held at the Waldorf Astoria (then on 34th Street) on January 30, 1908 with 34 industry members present.
Our mission is to promote hats and the headwear industry throughout the world, and to foster goodwill and fellowship among those engaged in the headwear industry. The 110th annual THA Gala will be held at The Central Park Boathouse on April 28, 2018, and is open to anyone in the fashion and headwear industry.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/3619647#ixzz56FWyjOwc
photo: Mark Humphrey
If anyone ever had any doubt, it’s now official — Willie Nelson is a man of letters.
He’s also broken another through another boundary in obtaining the official honor.
The Texas Institute of Letters has named Willie as a recipient of one of the 2018 awards bestowed by the non-profit organization founded in 1936 with the self-avowed mission of celebrating Texas literature and recognizing “distinctive literary achievement.”
That’s right folks, literary achievement.
The group’s website states the Texas Institute of Letters’ elected membership “consists of the state’s most respected writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, journalism and scholarship” and “gives awards to recognize outstanding literary works.”
They include winners of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, the Academy Award, Tony Award and the MacArthur “Genius” grants, the TIL says. Membership is based on literary accomplishments and can be obtained only one way — through being elected by existing members.
When it came to this year’s awards, the organization decided to amend its bylaws to add songwriting to the list of writing genres it formally honors.
This is the first year the TIL has recognized a songwriter based on literary accomplishments and Willie is the first songwriter on which the award has been bestowed.
Willie’a among a group of 19 Texas writers selected for this year’s induction. The announcement includes a short bio of each of the recipients, with most of the blurbs citing the books or other forms of literature the author has created.
I love the reason for Willie’s induction, which is brief and directly to the point: It simply states “He’s Willie. Do we need to say anything else?”
Nope, not as far as I’m concerned.
I admired Willie’s songwriting all the way back to when he wore suits, ties and turtleneck sweaters — though not all at the same time. His earliest songs were big hits for others: “Crazy,” for Patsy Cline; “Hello Walls” for Faron Young, “Night Life” for Ray Price, and “Funny How the Time Slips Away,”recorded by a beaucoup of artists.
As a kid, I knew a great poet when I heard one.
Look at the lyrics to “Hello Walls,” when Willie, singing as a man distraught at a woman leaving him, talks to the walls, the window and the ceiling, respectively.
I especially like the way he addressed the window: “Well look here, is that a teardrop in the corner of your pane? Now, don’t you try to tell me that it’s rain.”
Now that’s poetic!
Willie now joins Bob Dylan, winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, as a songwriter who’s been bestowed with a major literary award — and it’s fitting that songwriting is being placed on par with other types of writing when recognizing the poetic achievements of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Although some spoilsport critics complained about granting a songwriter the Nobel Prize for literature, I had long thought Dylan more than worthy of the honor as a great poet — so what if he sang his words? So did Homer when the ancient Greek recounted the tales “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey.” The same goes for Willie.
Now, that the Texas Institute of Letters has shattered its own glass ceiling by recognizing Willie’s literary achievements as a songwriter, can others be far behind? Surely, Kris Kristofferson, another Texas native and long considered one of the most poetic and literary songwriters in any genre, deserves inclusion. His trifecta of “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night” and the great “Sunday Morning Coming Down” alone ought to warrant inclusion, along with hordes of lesser-known gems in his songwriting catalogue.
I don’t know if the Texas Institute of Letters grants posthumous awards, but if it does, what about Texas songwriting master Guy Clark, who wrote the great “Desperadoes Waiting for a Train” and countless other great songs, or Townes Van Zandt, probably best known for writing Willie and Merle Haggard’s hit “Pancho and Lefty” and the Don Williams hit “If I Needed You” along with dozens of others.
They are not only among the greatest Texas songwriters — they’re among the best that America has ever produced.
As for Willie, he’s also set to join rocker Neil Young in a new western film directed by actress Daryl Hannah, titled “Paradox.” Willie’s sons Lukas and Micah Nelson, who often perform alongside Young these days, are also in the film. It’s uncertain if it will be coming to a theater near you, but it’s set to premier at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin next month.
While Willie is being honored by the Texas Institute of Letters for his literary accomplishments as a songwriter, he’s authored or co-authored a number of books, and the ones I’ve read are insightful, funny and well-written.
Some of his books include: “Willie: An Autobiography,” “The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart” and “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die: Musings from the Road.”
I especially like the title of his most recent autobiography, hilariously titled “It’s a Long Story: My Life.”
Here’s hoping the story continues for a lot, lot longer.
Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com
www.latimes.com
by: Allen J. Schaben
Step aside, Bob Dylan: Willie Nelson is also a literary star.
Dylan was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, an honor that drew criticism from writers of prose and poetry who were upset to see the prize go to a musician. Now Nelson, the country music legend, will become the first songwriter to be inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters, one of the most prestigious literary organizations in the Lone Star State.
The Dallas Morning News reports that Nelson will be riding high, joining 18 other inductees, including novelist Bret Anthony Johnston, playwright Kirk Lynn and screenwriter Richard Linklater, in the new class, which will be honored in San Antonio this April. There’s no word as of yet whether Nelson will attend the ceremony or if he’ll be on the road again with his band.
In a news release, the institute offered this justification for the Red Headed Stranger’s selection: “He’s Willie. Do we need to say anything else?”
The institute’s president, Steven L. Davis of Texas State University, gave the Dallas Morning News a fuller explanation. It turns out that songwriters weren’t always on the institute’s mind.
“We began having discussions among the TIL council about quality writers whose works don’t always result in ‘books’ — playwrights, screenwriters, and, of course, songwriters,” Davis said. “The best writers in these genres are every bit as accomplished as authors of books — and yet the TIL has traditionally overlooked them, instead bestowing membership on authors of books.”
Nelson’s selection required a rule change to make songwriters eligible for induction into the institute. Nelson has cowritten several books, including “It’s a Long Story: My Life” and “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die,” but to be blunt, he’s better known for writing songs like “Crazy” and “Hello Walls.”
www.texasinstituteofletters.org
The Texas Institute of Letters is a non-profit Honor Society founded in 1936 to celebrate Texas literature and to recognize distinctive literary achievement. The TIL’s elected membership consists of the state’s most respected writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, journalism, and scholarship. Induction into the TIL is based on literary accomplishments. Application for membership is not accepted. The rules governing the selection of members and officers are contained in the TIL By-Laws. The TIL annually elects new members, gives awards to recognize outstanding literary works, and supports the Dobie Paisano Fellowship Program for writers.
www.DallasStar.com
by: Michael Merschel
The Texas Institute of Letters, one of the most august and literary organizations in the state, has just elected a class of 19 writers to its elite ranks.
Among the noted screenwriters, poets and journalists is the group’s first inductee to be honored as a songwriter: Willie Nelson.
The short explanation of how the musician ended up in the venerable organization, which has been around since 1936 and has focused on authors, is found in the group’s press release:
“He’s Willie. Do we need to say anything else?”
For a longer explanation, I asked TIL president Steven L. Davis, who is also curator at the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University. He emailed back with a Texas-worthy tale:
“Here’s what happened,” he wrote. “I come from a literary archive where, as you know, we have a broad view of what qualifies as ‘literary writing’ — and we include screenwriters and songwriters in our archives.
“So we began having discussions among the TIL council about quality writers whose works don’t always result in ‘books’ — playwrights, screenwriters, and of course songwriters. The best writers in these genres are every bit as accomplished as authors of books — and yet the TIL has traditionally overlooked them, instead bestowing membership on authors of books.”
So a vote was held to change the rules to say:
Members shall be practicing writers who have demonstrated substantial literary achievement in their genres — which can include fiction, nonfiction prose, poetry, journalism, history, playwriting, songwriting, screenwriting, or any other genre that springs from the written word. In rare instances, persons who are not practicing writers may be considered for membership.
Davis says that not everyone agreed that songwriting qualified as a literary art. But the change was passed, at which point “a couple of our distinguished TIL fellows and past presidents put together a nomination on behalf of Willie Nelson.” It takes an 80 percent vote for a nominee to make it through.
“Willie made it with flying colors, as he should,” Davis said. “We did hear from Willie that he is ‘tremendously honored’ to be elected to the TIL.”
The new members will be inducted at the group’s annual meeting, to be held April 6-7 in San Antonio. A full list of the 2018 honorees — which includes The Dallas Morning News’ own Alfredo Corchado, is listed below, with hometowns/residences noted as provided by the TIL.
On January 9th, 1990, Willie Nelson’s “Stardust” album was certified quadruple-platinum.
1. Stardust
2. Georgia on My Mind
3. Blue Skies
4. All of Me
5. Unchained Melody
6. September Song
7. On the Sunny Side of the Street
8. Moonlight in Vermont
9. Don’t Get Around Much Anymore
10. Someone to Watch over Me
11. Scarlett Ribbons
12. I Can See Clearly Now