Willie Nelson - Let's Face The Music and Dance - Music & Performance - CD

This year Willie Nelson turns 80 years old, a milestone which has not slowed down the American icon in the slightest. Following the success of 2012s HEROES, which debuted at #18 on the album charts (his highest chart debut in over 20 years), Willie returns with another brand new album featuring a selection of songs that are near and dear to him and his band the Family. Like the man himself, this stunning collection is not easily defined as a set genre or style. They include American standards and country classics, Irving Berlin and Carl Perkins, Django Reinhart as well as Willie-penned originals.

Once again repeating a pattern that's quite familiar from over the past two decades, Willie Nelson follows up his star-studded 2012 Legacy duet with Let's Face the Music and Dance, an intimate record of standards recorded with his longtime backing band, the Family. Apart from Willie's son Micah, there are no guests here -- just his sister Bobbie on piano, drummer Paul English, Mickey Raphael on harmonica, Kevin Smith on bass, Jim "Moose" Brown on organ, and Billy English batting cleanup on guitar and drum -- and the album sounds as if it were cut in the living room late one night, the bandmembers easing into songs they've always loved but never played. This may include Willie's original "Is the Better Part Over," a neglected tune from the late '80s, but the emphasis is on standards from the Great American Songbook, punctuated by a bit of Western swing and rockabilly (the latter arriving via a cover of Carl Perkins' "Matchbox"). While there's no denying Willie's voice sounds a little ragged -- scars of his 79 years are readily apparent -- it doesn't distract from the lazy, loping pleasures offered here, as the focus is not on the singing but the playing, how the Family is so familiar with their individual idiosyncrasies they sound like one seamless unit, easing from solo to solo, sometimes just enjoying their ragged, relaxed groove. So, there are no surprises on Let's Face the Music and Dance but there don't need to be: it is, as always, a pleasure to hear Willie & the Family play the music they love best. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Performer	Willie Nelson
Music genre	Country
Music subgenre	Country
Media format	CD
Language	English
Is collectible	Y
Has parental advisory label	N
Number of discs	1
Track listing	Let S Face the Music and Dance, Is the Better Part Over, You LL Never Know, Vous Et Moi, Walking My Baby Back Home, Matchbox, Twilight Time, I Can't Give You Anything But Love, I LL Keep on Loving You, I Wish I Didn't Love You So, South of the Border, Nuage, Marie (The Dawn Is Breaking), Shame on You
Record label	Sony Legacy
Composer	Irving Berlin, Carl Perkins, Django Reinhart, Willie Nelson
Songwriter	Willie Nelson
Track name	Let's Face the Music and Dance, Matchbox, Is the Better Part Over, Vous Et Moi, Twilight Time, I Wish I Didn't Love You So
Duration	48 min
Music media format	CD
Is edited	N
Is enhanced	N