Willie Nelson: the Grammy-winning maverick ...

Music critics note that all contemporary American singer-songwriters imitate Willie Nelson in their work at least a little bit. Some of them borrow "tricks" of guitar playing, and some of them, just like Willie, have lyrics that go beyond the rhythm.

Nelson's real fame came quite late, when the musician was already over 40. And, as it happens very rarely, Willie earned the recognition of the listeners by opposing himself to the mainstream.

The beginning of the journey...

Willie started writing his own songs in 1957. His first listeners were regulars of a cheap smoky bar. In the late 50's Nelson goes to conquer the "Vatican" of country music - Nashville. It is here that it is decided who is destined to become a star, and who does not fit into the established forms of the direction.

Nelson was clearly out of step with the fashion trends of the time. Popular country music artists have turned this folk style of music into a realm of glamour, performing in fake cowboy hats and sequinned jackets. Their songs are accompanied by orchestras and their concerts are held in elite venues.

Willie, on the other hand, prefers to stick to the roots of country music, which emerged as a somewhat naive but sincere expression of ordinary human feelings through music by homegrown talents. Nelson sings the way he likes, not realising that the basis of success in Nashville is not the essence of the composition, but the pathos of the performance.

He is accepted only as an author whose songs can be polished and turned into commercially successful "candy". Willie's songs are used by others to climb the musical Olympus. His own albums bring him neither fame nor money.

And so the '60s pass, at the end of which Nelson buys a ranch where he spends most of his time combining songwriting with raising pigs, whiskey and marijuana.

A story about pot and moving

In 1972, his homestead burned down. There is a story about how Willie rushed into the blazing house and ran out with a guitar case. This could have become a beautiful legend of the music world if the case had actually contained an instrument. In fact, it was stuffed with top-notch marijuana.

After the fire, Nelson moves to Texas, where he finally opposes the Nashville maestros, organising his own country festivals, which he calls "picnics". These concerts bring together performers who do not fit into the canons of Nashville. It was at the "picnics" that outlaw country ("outlaw country") was born as a protest against Nashville's shiny jackets, which brought Nelson international fame.

Album release

In 1975, the Columbia label released Willie's studio album Red Headed Stranger. It was success, fame and money. Slightly wrinkled, bearded, with Indian braids, dressed in worn jeans minstrel leaves far behind polished country singers from Nashville. Nelson is listened to even by those who didn't perceive the genre at all. Critics are singing his praises. And the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences presents Willie with a Grammy statuette as the best country singer for the song "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain".

"Stardust" on cowboy boots.

The success of "Wanderer" was consolidated on the compilation Wanted! The Outlaws. After that, Nelson could afford to dictate terms to the Columbia bosses. In 1977 he decided that he would record a record in the best traditions of pop music.

After meeting producer Booker T. Jones, Nelson asks him to "bring Moonlight in Vermont to life". The result pleased the musician so much that Willie chooses ten songs that were hits of his childhood years, and together with Jones makes their covers. This collaboration resulted in the April 1978 album "Stardust".

Columbia Records doubted that the record would be a success. Nelson was seen as a performer who had captivated audiences solely by his "outlaw" nature. The label executives feared that Willie's songs would be just one of many among the pop stars of the time.

But the studio bosses did not take into account that the USA is not only megacities, whose inhabitants are the main consumers of "pop". The "one-storey" provincial America "missed" its musical hero. Singing sincerely, simply, without pathos, in general for people. And he appeared in the person of Nelson, who came with a set of familiar, native and close to the common American country classics.

That's why the success of "Stardust" was predetermined. The record went platinum already in December 1978. Nelson becomes the performer with the highest royalties. And in 1979 he again receives a Grammy for the composition from the Stardust album "Georgia On My Mind" and again as the best country singer.

Musician's achievements

In total, Nelson has won 12 gramophones. And he was nominated for this award 51 times. And this is not just a recognition of Willie by the American music community as a talented author and singer, a bright star. It is a tribute to the man who did not let country music, as an important part of the folk culture of the United States, to slip into the Nashville shithouse. It is a recognition of Nelson as a keeper of the genre's traditions, an iconic figure of the Country Revival era.