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Willie Nelson’s Willie and Family Live album certified quadruple platinum

This album was recorded live at Harrahs, at Lake Tahoe, in April 1978.  It was remastered, and re-released in honor of Willie’s 70th birthday, and additional tracks were added.

Song List:

Disc One:

1. Whiskey River
2. Stay A Little Longer
3. Funny How Times Slips Away
4. Crazy
5. Night Life
6. If You’ve Got The Money I’ve Got The Time
7. Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys
8. I Can Get Off On You
9. If You Could Touch Her At All
10. Good Hearted Woman
11. Red Headed Stranger Medley:
    • Time Of The Preacher
    • I Couldn’t Believe It Was True
    • Blue Rock Montana/Red Headed Stranger
    • Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain
    • Red Headed Stranger
    • Just As I Am
12. Under The Double Eagle

Disc Two:

1. Till I Gain Control Again
2. Bloody Mary Morning
3. I’m A Memory
4. Mr. Record Man
5. Hello Walls
6. One Day At A Time
7. Will The Circle Be Unbroken
8. Amazing Grace
9. Take This Job And Shove It (with Johnny Paycheck)
10. Uncloudy Day
11. The Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line
12. A Song For You
13. Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms
14. Georgia On My Mind
15. I Gotta Get Drunk
16. Whiskey River
17. The Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line

Bonus Tracks:

• Till I Gain Control Again (Previously unreleased)
• Georgia On My Mind (Previously unreleased)

https://cultfollowing.co.uk

An album from country legend Willie Nelson was advertised as a record “destined to become a collector’s item”.

The double album was released as part of Nelson’s attempt to pay off debts owed to the IRS. Though The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories? was made as a way to pay Nelson’s tax debt, the album was well-received by critics. Adverts at the time suggested it could be a future collector’s item, as it was initially released as a mail-order exclusive. A wider release came over a year on from the June 1991 release date, cementing the album as one of Nelson’s strangest, but strongest recording collections. The album itself is a collection of greatest hits, hidden gems, and covers from Nelson. He and an acoustic guitar are all that feature on the album, which successfully generated $3.6million for the IRS at the time.

Adverts for The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories? tipped the album as a future cult classic. In a made for TV commercial which dubbed Nelson “America’s Country Music Superstar,” an appeal was made for members of the public to help the Always On My Mind singer out of his tax debt.

A voiceover is heard saying: “Willie Nelson. He’s been there for those who’ve needed him and he’s helped thousands of people across this land. Now, Willie needs your help, and is reaching out the best way he can, through his music.” The advert would go on to suggest the album is a future “collectors’ item” given the scarcity of the release.

While not originally available in stores, The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories would go on to receive a wider release. The narration adds: “With your purchase, you not only get the satisfaction of knowing you helped one of America’s greatest treasures, you also receive twenty-five unique songs recorded by Willie through the years.

“The IRS Tapes reflect Willie Nelson’s growth as a country music superstar, and are destined to become a collector’s item.” Nelson said at the time of the album’s release he was hoping for a hit, and that selling millions to generate funds for the IRS was not impossible.

He told The New York Times in 1991: “You got to be positive. It’s not unheard of. I could sell three million albums. I’ve done it before.” It was reported at the time that at least four million copies would wipe the debt Nelson owed to the IRS. While it did not sell that many copies, it would not take long for the songwriting sensation to get back on his feet.

www.variety.com
by: Chris Willman

Forty-five years after “Honeysuckle Rose,” Amy Irving is set to release an album of her interpretations of 10 Willie Nelson songs — all picks suggested to her by Nelson, who also contributes a guitar solo to a song plucked from that film, “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground.”

The forthcoming album, “Always Will Be,” is teased today with a title track that features a guest appearance by Amy Helm, a singer-songwriter in her own right and the daughter of Levon Helm. (Listen below.) Steve Earle is among the other featured artists on the album, due out April 25 on Queen of the Castle/Missing Piece Records. Irving will promote the new record with a handful of gigs, starting with a show May 4 at City Winery in New York City and another at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY on May 31.

“Always Will Be” is the second musical effort from Irving, known for her performances in films like “Crossing Delancey,” “Micki and Maude,” “The Fury” and “Carrie” as well as “Honeysuckle Rose.” It follows on the heels of the actor’s musical debut, 2023’s “Born in a Trunk.” She tells Variety what led her into the realm of music as well as the specifics of her salute to Nelson’s material, which includes songs from some of the lesser-covered corners of the country legend’s catalog.

“We stayed friends all these decades,” Irving says of Nelson. “We’ve been in each other’s life all this time. He’s one of my favorite people, one of my best friends. We are pretty much in communication now daily.” (Testament to that is a voice mail from Nelson that Irving threw into the title track.) Nelson sang on a track on her debut album two years ago, and following that collaboration, “Willie sent me a bunch of songs that he thought I should sing, and I chose the 10 that I wanted to sing.” In the tradition of Nelson’s concept albums of the 1970s, Irving shaped the material into what she considers a narrative sequence. “I kind of wanted a trajectory: You first meet someone, you go through life together, you lose them — I just thought I could tell that story with his songs.”

(In a press announcement, Nelson is quoted as saying, by way of explaining his instigation of the project, “I knew she’d probably do a lot of my songs and I knew they’d be good. You know, I’m just an old hustler.”)

Irving tells Variety that music is her focus right now — and perhaps it always will be, though she doesn’t have a trajectory laid out. “I’m thinking right now that unless something irresistible were to come along, which doesn’t seem to happen a lot for women of my age in the world of film, I think I like focusing on the music right now.,” she says. “And I’ll see where it takes me. I’m not sure there’ll be anything after this second album. The thing is, I don’t present myself as someone who says, ‘You must come here, listen to me sing!’”

Her son, Gabriel Barreto, produced the album and serves as her manager as well, and she credits him with introducing her to some of the Americana artists who are featured on the album. Another key collaborator whose contributions have invigorated her is her arranger and band leader, Jules David Bartkowski, a.k.a. Goolis. “What he does with songs that I present to him takes it to a different place,” Irving says. “And that’s what’s really been fascinating to me, to see how a country song could become a punk song — just watching the process. …

“I don’t have the ego necessary, I think, to sell myself as a singer. But I enjoy it, and, I know I can carry a tune, and I like to be able to use my acting chops to tell the stories. Getting up and singing in tune is not enough: I think you have to drop the whole song into your body and spit it out, having been processed through every element you have of your whole life experience. As an actor, that’s what you do with roles, and now I’m doing it with songs. It’s very gratifying and I feel I have something to offer in that way.”

As for the choice of Nelson material, “Some of the songs were personal to me,” Irving says. “For instance, ‘Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground’ was written for my character in ‘Honeysuckle Rose.’ And ‘If You Want Me to Love You I Will,’ he wrote for me to sing to him in the movie. That’s the one we’ve turned into a punk song! He wrote some songs when I was hanging with him, and then some of them are from his past. And I just chose the ones that I could relate to, and that I could drop into my body and spew it out a little differently, with the help of Goolis’ arrangements. For ‘I Guess I’ve Come to Live Here in Your Eyes,’ Goolis (her band leader) said, ‘Let’s think of it as a French pop song.’ You just approach things a little differently, and the whole tone changes. I mean, Willie sings a lot of these songs a little bit more romantically, whereas we’ve gone to Brazilian carnival in one, we’ve gone to New Orleans for another. We’re kind of taking it and playing, and it’s a very interesting playground for me to be in.”

There’s lot’s more!

Read entire article here.

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?This Month’s Box: Pretty Paper, Willie NelsonOur December Luck Family Record Club selection, Willie Nelson’s Christmas album Pretty Paper, is a mainstay on all of our turntables this time of year, and we hope it will bring you joy this season – in your home, or wrapped for a loved one if it’s already in your collection. Club members will also get to place Willie’s guitar on the tree this year, as the album comes with an exclusive Christmas-scented “Trigger” ornament. While chock full of holiday standards sung in the way only Willie can, the standout is the title track. “Pretty Paper” was inspired by a man Nelson saw outside a Fort Worth department store selling gift paper, ribbons, and pencils from the street, on hands and knees due to a spinal disorder. The song, according to Willie, was a tribute to him.The poignant ode is wrapped in joyful and familiar tunes that we, for one, can’t wait to have on repeat. We hope you’ll listen along with us.?

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