While many rock artists explored the compositional possibilities of the concept album in the 1960s and 1970s, Nashville's country music community largely ignored the format. But a few artists working on the fringes of country music – and who, notably, aligned themselves with the countercultural images and attitudes of the time – did begin to experiment with the format in the first years of the 1970s. Chief among them was country songwriter and recording artist Willie Nelson who, by the dawn of the 1970s, was on the verge of breaking away from Music Row to seek more lucrative opportunities in Texas. This article explores the role that Nelson's experimentation with the concept album played in his efforts to adopt a countercultural image, develop a younger audience and challenge the hegemony of the country music industry. Moreover, close examination of Nelson's compositional approach to three albums – Yesterday's Wine (1971), Phases and Stages (1974) and Red Headed Stranger (1975) – reveals that Nelson consciously blended the singles-based approach to songwriting that predominated in 1960s and 1970s Nashville and the extended narrative and musical forms of contemporaneous rock music to create musical products that suited the needs of country radio and rock fans alike.
Type Articles Information Popular Music , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , October 2011 , pp. 389 - 408 Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)
Atlantic Records Discography . 1973 . The Jazz Discography Project. http://www.jazzdisco.org/atlantic/1973-dis/c/ ( accessed 10 May 2008 )Google Scholar
Bush , J. 2007 . Whiskey River (Take My Mind): The True Story of Texas Honky-Tonk ( Austin , University of Texas Press )Google Scholar
Butts , R. 1988 . ‘ More than a collection of songs: the concept album in country music ’, Mid-American Folklore , 16/2 , pp. 90 – 99 Google Scholar
Ching , B. 2001 . Wrong's What I Do Best: Hard Country Music and Contemporary Culture ( New York , Oxford University Press )CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coppage , N. 1975 . ‘ Willie Nelson presents an adult, love-and-death western in song ’, Stereo Review , December, p. 83 Google Scholar
Denisoff , R.S. 1972 . ‘The evolution of the American protest song’, In The Sounds of Social Change: Studies in Popular Culture , ed. Denisoff , R.S. and Peterson , R.A. ( Chicago , Rand McNally ), pp. 15 – 25 Google Scholar
Denisoff , R.S. 1983 . Waylon: A Biography ( Knoxville , University of Tennessee Press )Google Scholar
Ellison , C. 1995 . Country Music Culture: From Hard Times to Heaven ( Jackson , University Press of Mississippi )Google Scholar
Escott , C. 1998 . ‘The talking machine: how records shaped country music’, In The Encyclopedia of Country Music , ed. Kingsbury , P. ( New York , Oxford University Press ), pp. 465 –9Google Scholar
Finson , J. 1979 . ‘ Music and medium: Two versions of Manilow's “Could it be magic” ’, The Musical Quarterly 45 / 2 , pp. 265 –80CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flippo , C. 1972 . ‘ Country music perennials: four of the most distinctive voices ’, Rolling Stone , 23 November, pp. 68 – 70 Google Scholar
Flippo , C. 1974 . ‘ Honky tonk bravado – Phases and Stages, Willie Nelson, Atlantic SD 7291 ’, in Rolling Stone , 14 March, p. 61 Google Scholar
Ganzert , C. 1997 . ‘ Hot clocks, jingles, and top tunes: the Bartell Group stations and the development of top 40 radio ’, Popular Music and Society , 21/4 , pp. 51 – 62 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holm-Hudson , K. 2008 . Genesis and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway ( Aldershot , Ashgate )Google Scholar