Willie Nelson - A Classic & Unreleased Collection [3CD Box Set] (1995)

A series of Willie Nelson concept albums originally rejected by his record company forms the basis for a fascinating anthology. Willie Nelson: A Classic & Unreleased Collection includes Sugar Moon, an unreleased album of Western swing classics recorded with Merle Haggard's band, the Strangers; a would-be sequel, Willie Sings Hank Williams; the likewise unreleased Willie Nelson Live at the Texas Opry House; and unissued outtakes from various sessions, early songwriting demos, plus his very first single. First offered for sale in 1994 on the home-shopping channel QVC, an expanded, annotated version has finally been made available to retail outlets. The set brings to light a treasure trove of Nelson's unreleased work for Atlantic Records, to which Nelson was signed in 1972 by legendary R&B producer Jerry Wexler to launch a new country division. Atlantic only released two Nelson albums, but outtakes from those sessions include such highlights as a boisterous, R&B arrangement of Tillman's "I Gotta Have Something I Ain't Got" powered by Al Green's Memphis Horns and a spirited sprint led by David Bromberg through the swing instrumental, "Under the Double Eagle." The Atlantic legacy also yields the Texas Opry House performance, which would have been a landmark had the label not folded, scuttling release plans. Nelson had just entered his peak years, and he was touring with an all-star band that included fiddler Johnny Gimble, steel guitarist Jimmy Day, and harmonica whiz Mickey Raphael. Nelson is at his best on stage, and the highlight of this show was an impromptu segue from Nelson's "Bloody Mary Morning" into Bob Wills's "Take Me Back to Tulsa" and back again. --Geoffrey Himes