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1. Mom and Dad’s Waltz
2. Look What Thoughts Will Do
3. I Love You in a Thousand Ways
4. Always Late (With Your Kisses)
5. I Want to Be With You Always
6. She’s Gone, Gone, Gone
7. A Little Unfair
8. I Never Go Around Mirrors
9. That’s the Way Love Goes
10. Railroad Girl
11. If You’ve Got the Money, I’ve Got the Time

Hailing from a state known for trailblazing country, Lefy Frizzell and Willie Nelson are Texas’ most distinctive sons in the singing and songwriting departments. After penning and crooning some of honkytonk’s finest songs — and inspiring Nelson to play music back when his nickname was still Booger Red — Frizzell died a broken man in 1975. Two years later, Nelson released a batch of his favorite Frizzell numbers. This expanded reissue includes one bonus track: an alternate take of Nelson’s 1976 chart-topping rendition of Frizzell’s plaintive voice soared up and down octaves like a trick pilot, Nelson, backed primarily by his acoustic guitar, harmonica and piano, leans into the songs with a blusey feel, giving emotional drama to weepers such as “Always Late (with your kisses)” and “I Never Go Around Mirrors.” If Nelson’s original intent was to remind listeners of his forebear’s breathtaking artistry, he accomplished his goal.

– Holly George-Warren

Back in Austin, Willie was testing Columbia Records’ definition of artistic control. Lefty Frizzell’s death in 1975 had inspired Willie to do an album of nothing but Lefty songs dedicated to his favorite honky tonk singer. The suits at Columbia were less than thrilled when they first heard about the idea, especially since the label had dropped Lefty three years earlier. But two years later, after Willie’s version of “If You’ve Got the Money” from the album The Song in Your Mind shot straight to number 1 on the country singles chart in the summer of 1976, Columbia brass came aound and released the Lefty tribute. Even then, label personnel tried to get him to title the album Songs For a Friend, figuring record buyers didn’t know Lefty Frizzell from Johnny Wright. But Willie held his ground and To Lefty from Willie was released in 1977, featuring 10 of his favorite Lefty songs, including, I Love You a Thousand ways,” which reached number 9 on the country singles chart that summer, “Always Late (with Your Kisses),” “Mom and Dad Waltz,” and “Railroad Lady,” Lefty’s last single before he died, written by Jerry Jeff Walker and Jimmy Buffett. The album charted as high as number 91 on Billboard’s album chart, a testament to Willie’s star power more than Lefty’s legacy.

from Willie Nelson: An Epic Life
by Joe Nick Patoski