Pop Notes

As time slips away, Willie taking stock

Willie Nelson faces his mortality on his albums Last Man Standing and God’s Problem Child.
Willie Nelson faces his mortality on his albums Last Man Standing and God’s Problem Child.

A couple of years ago, Willie Nelson saw the light.

Death was creeping up on him as it is on all of us, perhaps even gaining ground. His closest friends and inspirations -- Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Leon Russell, Hank Cochran, Ray Price -- are gone.

Funny how time slips away, as Nelson wrote in 1961.

The man who helped inspire and define the outlaw movement in country music, and one of its fiercest individualists who fought hard for creative freedom, is 85 now. After more than 70 albums, Nelson stands as one of the greatest American songwriters, the writer of classics such as "Crazy," "Whiskey River," "Hello Walls," "Funny How Time Slips Away," "On the Road Again," "Healing Hands of Time," "Night Life."

Many artists -- Cash, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Haggard, among others -- have approached aging and its realities and death with somber tones or bittersweet melancholia tinged with regret and lamentation. Some embrace it, grudingly perhaps, and reveal a learned wisdom and an unshakable belief in hope and love that most of us will probably ignore as we make our own mistakes.

Facing reality -- the diminishing of body and mind -- seems to have inspired Nelson on his current album, Last Man Standing, and its predecessor, God's Problem Child (both on Legacy). On these two albums, his songwriting is richer and edgier. His voice reflects the vulnerability and decline age can bring; adding a patina of wisdom earned through experience and living a life that might have careened from restless abandon to what appears acceptance and peace.

Some of the credit for this creative resurgence belongs to producer/songwriter Buddy Cannon. Just as Cash had Rick Rubin, Nelson's collaboration with Cannon has resulted in some outstanding music. Last year's God's Problem Child was one of Nelson's best, deepened by his bout of bad health and sharpened by the social media rumor mill's conviction he was dead.

Take these dark and funny lyrics from the shuffle tune titled "Still Not Dead":

"Well I woke up still not dead again today/ The internet said I had passed away/ But if I died I wasn't dead to stay/ And I woke up still not dead again today."

The album's music, sparse and haunting, is a near perfect foundation and support. Bleak? At times, certainly, but listen closer. Along with humor, there is a real gratitude for the time that he still has and an appreciation of the beauty around him.

Nelson reflects on hope, that we should never give up, in "True Love"; and "Little House on the Hill" can be read as his vision of an afterlife. "Your Memory Has a Mind" is a playful love song.

The album's title song, written by Jamey Johnson and Tony Joe White, may be the last song Russell recorded before his death.

God's Trouble Child also features "He Won't Ever Be Gone," Gary Nicholson's heartfelt and heartbreaking tribute to Haggard, and the moving Donnie Fritts song "Old Timer." Both get poignant vocals from Nelson. "Old Timer" walks the border between a more youthful self-image and the reality of what stares back at you in the mirror: "You think that you're still a young bull rider/ But you look in the mirror and see an old timer."

. . .

So, what does Last Man Standing offer us? Nelson and Cannon face it head-on in the album's title song.

"It's getting hard to watch my pals check out, it cuts like a worn-out knife." ... "One thing I've learned about running the road is forever don't apply to life."

Nelson gives shout-outs to Jennings, Haggard, Price and Norro Wilson, those who "lived just as fast as me," setting us up for a possible pity party. But Nelson doesn't go there.

"I don't want to be the last man standing" he sings, then pauses and adds, "Or wait a minute, maybe I do/ If you don't mind, I'll start a new line/ and decide after thinking it through."

"Something You Get Through" is especially moving, dealing with the loss of a loved one. "It's not something you get over/ but it's something you get through," he sings. "But love is bigger than us all/ The end is not the end at all."

There's more than mortality on Nelson's mind. "Me and You" laments the gap between friends who fall out over political viewpoints and finds comfort in home and hearth. "Ready to Roar" celebrates the end of the workweek. And yes, weed and booze figure in a good-timin' man's weekend revelry.

Nelson looks to his next life as a preacher or an eagle on "I"ll Try to Do Better Next Time": "I hope that my spirit will make someone happy/ When I've gone to come back again."

And the music? It's bluesy, lively honky-tonk and jazz-hued ballads.

So as Nelson explores mortality and thoughts about life and the afterlife, he clearly sees connection, humor and, above all, love ... lessons learned and shared on God's Problem Child and Last Man Standing.

On both albums, Nelson is standing tall. Very tall.

Email:

ewidner@arkansasonline.com

photo

Album cover for Willie Nelson's "Last Man Standing"

Style on 05/20/2018

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