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Do you know what brand it is? I'll tell you, it's a Martin nylon string model.
Interesting you should show this: for years I've been puzzled why Willie Nelson would choose to perform with a nylon string guitar. Surely it can not be heard above the typical C&W group backing.
Interesting you should show this: for years I've been puzzled why Willie Nelson would choose to perform with a nylon string guitar. Surely it can not be heard above the typical C&W group backing.
Anybody have any idea why?
Maybe he does so because he likes it that way. I think there will be a complete intellectual or scientific answer to that question.
He plays a nylon string guitar because he feels like it. Not that I actually like Willie that much, but I respect his accomplishments and he's a vetted songwriter. I just think Carl Perkins or Townes Van Zandt were more my thing. Also my opinion, but I'd trade you six Willies for one Emmylou Harris, any day.
When I first posted the photo of his guitar I noted the compensated saddle, it's got a transducer in it. The saddle is also moved back quite a bit from the front of the bridge, the bridge may have been originally put in the wrong place. This is common on certain serial number runs of Martins. I could tell you which ones specifically, but there was a period of time when they were not minding the store and let out a bunch of improperly compensated guitars.
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Nylon string guitars are also used lot in country music and there have been many great nylon string players in that world. The players who use nylon stirng guitars are trying to escape Dreadnaught Tyranny.
Do you know what brand it is? I'll tell you, it's a Martin nylon string model.
Interesting you should show this: for years I've been puzzled why Willie Nelson would choose to perform with a nylon string guitar. Surely it can not be heard above the typical C&W group backing.
Anybody have any idea why?
Are you kidding? Those heavy deep basses put Metallica to shame....and those black flamenco treble strings slice through the bass drums harmonica banjo back up band like a razor sharp Ginsu. Check out his vicious rasgueado at 2:19... I thought I saw some wood chips fly out!
Willie's phrasing and guitar playing are great, but for me the icing on the cake is his accent. So many singers put on a fake accent. Willie's is perfectly authentic. It places him in Abbott, Texas as accurately as a set of GPS coordinates.
Willie Nelson wrote a book, published last year, entitled, "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die: Musings from the Road." It is an entertaining book and reads just like you would think Willie would sound were he speaking to you. In it, Willie riffs on everything: Friends, Texas, music, the "Outlaws," and other assorted and varied topics. You almost expect him to emerge from the page singing, "Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys...."
Willie is definitely an American treasure!
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Emmylou is great, but Willie es la hostia. The way he phrases his singing would make him a great cantaor and he is a fine guitarist too.
You're surprising me as a Irishman that you prefer Willie over the Emmylou, who is way better. But I have to say if there is one thing I do like a lot about Willie, it is his guitar phrasing. I think Emmylou is an over looked master.
...that you prefer Willie over Emmylou, who is way better. But I have to say if there is one thing I do like a lot about Willie, it is his guitar phrasing. I think Emmylou is an over looked master.
Nothing strange about liking both Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris equally, or preferring one over the other while liking both. I personally love to listen to Emmylou Harris. She has a voice, particularly on her earlier albums, that is crystal clear and rings like a bell. Absolutely beautiful singing. I agree that she has not received the public accolades she deserves, but she has done pretty well in spite of it. She got her start in the Washington, DC area at various venues, including the old Cellar Door on M Street NW in Georgetown.
In my opinion, however, Willie deserves his iconic status. He has been around for more than 50 years, and he has sung and written some great songs, produced some great albums, and never fails his audience in live performance. Willie has more character etched into his face than all his contemporaries combined. The lines etched into his face complement the look of his beat-up guitar. Together they make an organic whole.
Nevertheless, my favorite Country & Western singer was Marty Robbins, who, unfortunately, died in 1982. Marty Robbins' singing and music was much more weighted on the "Western" half of the Country & Western genre. He sang Western ballads, many with a Spanish flavor, that told stories of Gringos on the border falling for Mexican maidens, gunfighters, cowboys, trail drives, etc. His well-known song, "El Paso" is the perfect example. Robbins was born and grew up in Glendale, Arizona, just outside Phoenix, where I was born and grew up. Many of his songs are Gringo versions of "Corridos," a form of narrative and ballad singing in Northern Mexico.
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
When I write a song better than 'Crazy' then I'll criticise Willie.
I'm not criticizing Willie, I'm just saying he's not my top guy.
The thing about Willie even if you're luke warm to him as I am, is he is real. He's not a frat boy who decided to get into the country music business and be all hat and no cattle. Most of them are all hat and no cattle these days and they play "country rock" not country.
Hey he's great and hey I would like to meet him. And if I ever did have the honor, I would ask him who he likes best and then I would go listen to that person a lot.
My favorite Country & Western singer was Marty Robbins, who, unfortunately, died in 1980. Marty Robbins' singing and music was much more weighted on the "Western" half of the Country & Western genre. He sang Western ballads, many with a Spanish touch, that told stories of Gringos on the border falling for Mexican maidens, gunfighters, cowboys, trail drives, etc. His well-known song, "El Paso" is the perfect example. Robbins was born and grew up in Glendale, Arizona, just outside Phoenix, where I was born and grew up. Many of his songs are Gringo versions of "Corridos," a form of narrative and ballad singing in Northern Mexico.
For some odd reason this makes me think of George Jones, and the Merle Haggard song with the lyric " now I think I know how George feels"
If you ever get a chance or are interested there is a book by Dave Hickey called 'Air Guitar' and he wrote a story about Hank Williams Sr. called "Glass bottom Cadillac" it's awesome.
This is an obscure Haggard song, but it reminds me of the thing in country music they call the Bakersfield Sound. Haggard played in truck stop town called Bakersfield CA.
There are so many great singers from this era, but really Willie & Haggard are the two guys left standing. I think Haggards songs are harder to take, maybe more gritty than Willie, he does not have the international appeal, but if you're American he speaks to you.
Haggard played in truck stop town called Bakersfield CA. There are so many great singers from this era, but really Willie & Haggard are the two guys left standing. I think Haggards songs are harder to take, maybe more gritty than Willie, he does not have the international appeal, but if you're American he speaks to you.
Unlike Johnny Cash, George Jones, Willie Nelson, and others who sing of hard times, Merle Haggard really knew of what he sang (and still sings). As a teenager he was confined to juvenile detention facilities on several occasions for petty theft and assorted other transgressions. But he really got busted in 1957 during the attempted robbery of a Bakersfield roadhouse. He was convicted and sent to San Quentin, where he did hard time until released in 1960.
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Thanks, Hamia. I obviously was working from a faulty memory, but have made the correction in my original post on Marty Robbins.
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Those two guitars are funny, nylon electrics. I think Chet Atkins was teasing him, but that guitar was not Trigger. Maybe they had to play those cutaways are promotional deals in that concert. They may have been payed to both play those guitars. Atkins usually played a different guitar as well.
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I think Emmylou is an over looked master. 
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