“Red-Headed Stranger” is surely the riskiest record that Wille Nelson ever recorded.

At the time, Country music was all about spit and polish, with carefully crafted arrangements to decorate the material. Since the early sixties, a country song wasn’t considered ‘complete’ until it was given the ‘countrypolitan’ treatment, with lush strings, pedal steel and perhaps a backing chorus of singers.

Nelson’s previous record labels, from Liberty to RCA and even to Atlantic Records, all utilized this approach. “Phases and Stages”, Nelson’s last album before recording “Red-Headed Stranger” was also a theme album, based on two sides (literally, as the album had the woman’s side and a man’s side) of a divorce. As a label, Atlantic had a reputation for being sympathetic toward its artists, but they simply didn’t really understand Country music, and they closed their country division after its release.

From there, Nelson signed with Columbia Records, one of the most stylistically intrusive labels in existence, so it would have been like jumping from the frying pan into the fire, except that Nelson negotiated to have full creative control.

The executives at Columbia were horrified when Nelson submitted “Red-Headed Stranger.” The arrangements were so basic and simplistic that they couldn’t even imagine releasing an album in that form, and they pushed hard for Nelson to allow them to “re-arrange” the material, but Nelson stood his ground and refused to change a note. Columbia had no choice but to honor Nelson’s contract, so they released it ‘as is’, utterly convinced that they were releasing a sub-par failure. Instead, it soared to #1 on the Country charts and even made Billboard’s Top 40! Apparently, country music was due for a change and Willie Nelson single-handedly discovered the new direction, which came to be known as “Outlaw” music.

Featured tracks:

Time of the Preacher

I Couldn't Believe It Was True

Time of the Preacher Theme

Blue Rock Montana / Red Headed Stranger (medley)

Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain

Red Headed Stranger

Time of the Preacher Theme

Just As I Am

Denver

O'er the Waves

Down Yonder (played by Bobbie Nelson)

Can I Sleep in Your Arms

"Remember Me (When the Candle Lights Are Gleaming)

Hands on the Wheel

Bandera

May 1975 - Billboard Charted #28