Countryman

VINYL FORMAT. Willie Nelson's long-lost, and first, reggae set is at last complete. The seed of this project took root in late 1995, sprung from the mind of famed producer Don Was. Nelson and his manager Mark Rothbaum flew to Jamaica to meet with Island Records president and founder Chris Blackwell. Don had been speaking with both Blackwell and Nelson about the prospect of creating a reggae-infused country album and both men were intrigued. Blackwell was the ideal collaborator. Not only was he the person who introduced rock audiences to the world of reggae but likewise introduced them to Bob Marley. As a versatile, well-connected music aficionado, he could realize this marriage of country and reggae the way few others could. In fact, the two genres are compatible in many ways, and not as distant stylistically as one might initially imagine. Perhaps it's not a coincidence that reggae is sometimes referred to as Jamaica's "country music," being that both forms have drawn similar lyrical content from everyday matters and share a foundation in spiritual and gospel music.

Countryman is Willie's impassioned tribute to the upstroke sound of Jamaica, an irie voyage to the land of dub and dreadlocks. Willie takes a handful of his own classics and filters them through a reggae prism, peppering them with his nylon acoustic guitar, pedal steel, dobro, harmonica and the familiar comforts of country, while bringing drums and bass to the forefront, yard style. His oft-covered standard "One in a Row" receives a melodic reggae injection, as does "You Left Me a Long Time Ago," a vintage duet he once recorded with Brenda Lee. There's a delightfully skanky run-through of "Darkness on the Face of the Earth," his rugged chestnut from the early '60s. That many of Willie's brilliant tunes could be interpreted so vividly through reggae is a true tribute to the versatility of his material. Willie also tackles a couple of reggae classics from the notorious and acclaimed Jamaican film soundtrack The Harder They Come. While it's just one in a long line of hyphenated hybrid projects the versatile genius has created over the years, this Countryman feels, by the sound of it, genuinely comfortable amid the island breezes of Jamaica.