STUCK IN THE VINYL AGAIN - WILLIE NELSON - BEFORE HIS TIME

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Good Thursday morning faithful readers and welcome back to Stuck In The Vinyl Again. In addition to Thursday, by most accounts, today is vocalist/ guitarist, actor, activist, DJ, and Air Force Veteran, Willie Nelson's 88th Birthday. Happy Birthday Willie ! He released his 9th compilation album, Before His Time, in 1977 on the RCA label. It peaked at #78 on the Billboard 200 and #3 on the Country Albums chart. The disc collects lesser known songs from Willie's output in the 60s and 70s, that were handpicked by Waylon Jennings and his drummer/producer  Richie Albright, in hopes to bring these older songs to newer fans. The track,  "You Ought To Hear Me Cry", was previously unreleased. 

I enjoyed the liner notes, written by Don Cusic, and thought you all might to :

"There are poets of heroes and poets of zero, rhymers of tears and smilers of sorrow, fathers of fiction, and brothers to the miles of endless highway taking you on that long ole lonesome go. Willie Nelson is all of these.

"Willie makes a masterpiece of lonesome, with heartache an object d'art. He is a true "people's poet" who writes about simple Devils and complicated Christians, easy women, hard lessons, hearts and dreams shot full of holes and being stoned on memories and promises. If you look him straight in the eye he winks.

"Kinda like Thoreau would have been if he could've played the guitar. Remember it was Thoreau who realized we live lives of a quiet desperation and those who step to the beat of a different drummer are lousy dancers.

"For years, folks have said Willie was ahead of his time. Well that's a bunch of crap. It was the time that was behind Willie. But now that's all in the past and looking back at these songs recorded during his struggling days of virtual anonymity, you can hear Willie before his time, before all the recent attention and awards he has deservedly received.

"Willie's longtime friend and trusty sidekick Waylon Jennings,  along with Richie Albright, Waylon's drummer for the past 12 years or so, took this album into the studio to remix it.

"It is not a brand new Willie but it's a brand new time. So if you'd like to know what you were missing a few years back, give a listen to Willie before his time."

- Don Cusic  

 A1 One In A Row
Written-By – Willie Nelson
2:32

A2 I'd Trade All Of My Tomorrows (For Just One Yesterday)
Written-By – Jenny Lou Carson
2:22

A3 She's Not For You
Written-By – Willie Nelson
2:29

A4 You Ought To Hear Me Cry
Written-By – Willie Nelson
2:39

A5 To Make A Long Story Short (She's Gone)
Written-By – F. Foster, W. Nelson
2:14

B1 I'm A Memory
Written-By – Willie Nelson
2:28

B2 Stay Away From Lonely Places
Written-By – Don Bowman, Willie Nelson
2:57

B3 It Should Be Easier Now
Written-By – Willie Nelson
2:43

B4 Little Things
Written-By – Nelson, 
3:17

B5 How Long Have You Been There
Written-By – Dee Moeller
2:38

Design [Album Design], Illustration – Herb Burnette
Lacquer Cut By [Run-out etch:_ ⁄|⁄ǀ⁄|⁄K] – Randy Kling
Liner Notes – Don Cusic
Mastered By [Mastering Engineer] – Randy Kling
Photography By – Melinda Wickman
Remix [Remixed By] – Richie Albright, Waylon Jennings
Typography [Lettering] – Bill Noss