Willie Nelson – Heroes (Legacy)

When an artist sits atop the commercial and artistic legacy of Willie Nelson, the temptation is to make every album an event, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to invite guest vocalists for a series of duets. Nelson has taken this route more than most, sometimes with excellent results (cf. his LPs with his buddies Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings), and sometimes, erm, not (anybody remember his blues record?). Heroes is his latest entry in his ongoing series of “& Friends” records, and it’s one of the better ones.

Sure, there’s some stunt casting – Haggard appears on the stately “A Horse Called Music,” while old and new friends Billy Joe Shaver and Jamey Johnson show up on the well-intentioned if bland “Hero.” Ray Price joins his old buddy on the traditional C&W ballad “Cold War With You,” a track that unfortunately shows how much Price’s powers have diminished. The most egregious example is the frankly ridiculous “Roll Me Up” (“and smoke me when I die”), a not-so-sly nod to Nelson’s endorsement of cannabis that features Johnson, Kris Kristofferson and Snoop Dogg, who sings instead of raps.

But most of the album finds Nelson collaborating with his son Lukas, who not only duets with Willie but also contributes a few tunes. Lukas has a voice somewhere between his dad’s and Hank Williams‘, with the latter’s nasal twang and the former’s jazzy phrasing, and father and son sound like they’ve been singing together all their lives, (likely true in Lukas’ case). The pairing is most potent on the Lukas originals “No Place to Fly,” “The Sound of Your Memory” and “Every Time He Drinks He Thinks of Her,” modern country tunes that eschew contemporary gloss for honest feeling. But the Nelsons also shine on a cover of the current Tom Waits standard “Come On Up to The House” (which also features Sheryl Crow) and Bob Wills‘ “Home in San Antone” and “My Window Faces the South” – clearly Willie isn’t the only Nelson with the feel for Western swing.

Willie goes it alone on a couple of tracks – the plainspoken ballad “That’s All There is to This Song” and an understated cover of Coldplay‘s “The Scientist” prove that Nelson doesn’t need help to hit his marks perfectly. Besides, by focusing on familial ties and friendship, rather than gimmicks, Nelson keeps the round-robin approach on an even keel. Heroes has its missteps, but overall is one of Nelson’s strongest albums in recent years.

http://www.legacyrecordings.com