Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson grew up in Abbott, Texas, was writing songs by his teens, and arrived in Nashville in 1960 with a catalog of songs that other artists turned into hits — “Crazy” (Patsy Cline), “Hello Walls” (Faron Young), “Funny How Time Slips Away” (Billy Walker). His own recording career stalled because Nashville producers wanted to sand down his distinctive, behind-the- beat guitar phrasing and his laid-back delivery.

He moved back to Texas in 1972 and became the central figure of the Austin outlaw country scene: festivals at Armadillo World Headquarters, long hair, marijuana and a more democratic approach to both country and rock audiences than Nashville’s country-club culture permitted. His albums Shotgun Willie (1973) and Phases and Stages (1974) on Atlantic Records were the creative breakthrough; Red Headed Stranger (1975) on Columbia — a spare, novelistic concept album about a preacher fugitive — was a commercial breakthrough.

The subsequent decades brought Waylon & Willie (1978, with Waylon Jennings), “On the Road Again” (1980), the Stardust album of pop standards (1978), more albums than can be counted, a tax debt of $32 million resolved by releasing a double album (The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories?, 1992), and sustained relevance into his ninth decade. He is the most complete argument for country music as a lifetime practice.