Willie Nelson – To All The Girls… (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44.1 kHz | Time – 1:05:55 minutes | 652 MB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | Digital Booklet | © Legacy Recordings
To All the Girls… is Willie Nelson’s newest album, consisting of a series of duets recorded with many famous female names in country music. The guest singers featured on the album include Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Carrie Underwood, Sheryl Crow, Mavis Staples, Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris, and Willie Nelson’s daughter, Paula Nelson. Hailed as “a wonderful album” by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, this record will certainly please both old and new fans of Willie Nelson.
Arriving a few short months after the standards collection Let’s Face the Music and Dance, which itself came less than a year after his Legacy debut Heroes, To All the Girls splits the difference between these two albums for Legacy. As a duets album comprised entirely of female partners, To All the Girls is, like Heroes, driven by superstar guest power but the intimate, relaxed feel is reminiscent of Let’s Face the Music and Dance. Such a quiet, comfortable setting is welcoming to a wide variety of partners, ranging from living legends Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Mavis Staples, and Emmylou Harris to more recent superstars Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood. Between these two extremes lie such excellent, underappreciated, new alt-country singers like Brandi Carlile and the Secret Sisters, family — both sister Paula Nelson and Melonie Cannon, the daughter of Buddy Cannon — and stars who are working their way toward legend status (Norah Jones, Alison Krauss, Sheryl Crow, Wynnona Judd, Shelby Lynne). Similarly, the songs split the difference between new versions of Nelson classics (“Bloody Mary Morning,” “Always on My Mind,” “Please Don’t’ Tell Me How the Story Ends”), covers of beloved songs (“Til the End of the World,” “Have You Ever Seen the Rain”), and brand-new tunes (Dolly brings in “From Here to the Moon and Back,” which she wrote for Joyful Noise, a gospel musical co-starring Queen Latifah). Nearly all of this proceeds at an amiably lazy gait, which makes the handful of cuts that stray from this path quite notable: “Bloody Mary Morning” retains its trademark gallop with Wynnona; Brandi Carlile hits the honky tonk fairly hard on “Making Believe”; Shelby Lynne gives a hazy south-of-the-border feel to “The End of the World,” and Krauss’ “No Mas Amor” is dreamy. Although there is not a bad cut here — this is all assured, easy, impeccably tasteful work from Willie and his partners — the 70-minute length of To All the Girls does make the album feel a little samey, but that can be a good thing, as it makes for nice, romantic mood music or a drowsy Sunday afternoon at home. ~~AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Tracklist:
1. From Here to the Moon and Back 04:02
2. She Was No Good for Me 03:47
3. It Won’t Be Very Long 02:37
4. Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends 04:18
5. Far Away Places 04:57
6. Bloody Mary Morning 03:06
7. Always on My Mind 03:56
8. Somewhere Between 03:13
9. No Mas Amor 04:12
10. Back to Earth 03:31
11. Grandma’s Hands 03:10
12. Walkin’ 03:39
13. Till the End of the World 02:02
14. Will You Remember Mine 04:35
15. Dry Lightning 04:22
16. Making Believe 03:17
17. Have You Ever Seen the Rain 04:39
18. After the Fire Is Gone 02:44
Personnel:
Willie Nelson- acoustic guitar, lead vocals
Wayne Benson- mandolin
Jim “Moose” Brown- Hammond B-3 organ, percussion, piano, Wurlitzer
Buddy Cannon- acoustic guitar, background vocals
Melonie Cannon- duet vocals on “Back To Earth”
Brandi Carlile- duet vocals on “Making Believe”
Rosanne Cash- duet vocals on “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends”
Chad Cromwell- drums
Dennis Crouch- upright bass
Sheryl Crow- duet vocals on “Far Away Places”
Fred Eltringham- drums
Keith Gattis- electric guitar, gut string guitar
Steve Gibson- electric guitar
Kevin “Swine” Grantt- upright bass
Emmylou Harris- duet vocals on “Dry Lightning”
Steve Herrmann- trumpet
John Hobbs- Hammond B-3 organ, piano, string arrangements
Mike Johnson- steel guitar
Norah Jones- piano and duet vocals on “Walkin’”
Wynonna Judd- duet vocals on “Bloody Mary Morning”
Alison Krauss- duet vocals on “No Mas Amor”
Miranda Lambert- duet vocals on “She Was No Good for Me”
Loretta Lynn- duet vocals on “Somewhere Between”
Shelby Lynne- duet vocals on “‘Til the End of the World”
Lily Meola- duet vocals on “Will You Remember Mine”
The Nashville String Machine- strings
Lukas Nelson- background vocals
Paula Nelson- duet vocals on “Have You Ever Seen the Rain”
Dolly Parton- duet vocals on “From Here to the Moon and Back”
Mickey Raphael- bass harmonica, echo harp, harmonica
Lyndel Rhodes- harmonica
Laura Rogers- vocals on “It Won’t Be Very Long”
Lydia Rogers- vocals on “It Won’t Be Very Long”
Tina Rose- duet vocals on “After the Fire Is Gone”
John Wesley Ryles- background vocals
Mavis Staples- duet vocals on “Grandma’s Hands”
Bobby Terry- acoustic guitar, electric guitar, gut string guitar
Dan Tyminski- acoustic guitar, mandolin, background vocals
Carrie Underwood- duet vocals on “Always on My Mind”
Tommy White- steel guitar
Kris Wilkinson- string contractor
Lonnie Wilson- drums
Bobby Wood- synthesizer
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