Artist: Willie Nelson and Family
Title: Let’s Face the Music and Dance
Label: Sony Legacy
Release Date: 2013
Format: MP3 @ 320 K
Once again repeating a pattern that's quite familiar from over the past two decades, Willie Nelson follows up his star-studded 2012 Legacy duet with Let's Face the Music and Dance, an intimate record of standards recorded with his longtime backing band, the Family. Apart from Willie's son Micah, there are no guests here -- just his sister Bobbie on piano, drummer Paul English, Mickey Raphael on harmonica, Kevin Smith on bass, Jim "Moose" Brown on organ, and Billy English batting cleanup on guitar and drum -- and the album sounds as if it were cut in the living room late one night, the bandmembers easing into songs they've always loved but never played. This may include Willie's original "Is the Better Part Over," a neglected tune from the late '80s, but the emphasis is on standards from the Great American Songbook, punctuated by a bit of Western swing and rockabilly (the latter arriving via a cover of Carl Perkins' "Matchbox"). While there's no denying Willie's voice sounds a little ragged -- scars of his 79 years are readily apparent -- it doesn't distract from the lazy, loping pleasures offered here, as the focus is not on the singing but the playing, how the Family is so familiar with their individual idiosyncrasies they sound like one seamless unit, easing from solo to solo, sometimes just enjoying their ragged, relaxed groove. So, there are no surprises on Let's Face the Music and Dance but there don't need to be: it is, as always, a pleasure to hear Willie & the Family play the music they love best.
Track List:
01. Let’s Face the Music and Dance
02. Is the Better Part Over
03. You’ll Never Know
04. Vous Et Moi
05. Walking My Baby Back Home
06. Matchbox
07. Twilight Time
08. I Can’t Give You Anything But Love
09. I’ll Keep on Loving You
10. I Wish I Didn’t Love You So
11. South of the Border
12. Nuages
13. Marie (The Dawn Is Breaking)
14. Shame On You
Personnel:
Willie Nelson - vocals, guitar
Mickey Raphael - harmonica
Jim "Moose" Brown - Hammond b-3 organ
Paul English - snare drum
Bobbie Nelson - piano
Billy English - gut-string guitar, snare drum
Kevin Smith - upright bass
Micah Nelson - percussion
