Willie Nelson
Issue #30
Songbird (Lost Highway)
By Crystal Nicholson
Published: December 1st, 2006 | 1:13pm
Songbird is a collaboration between two offensively prolific country singers — one old enough to remember the Alamo and one who still wears Batman T-shirts. Starring Willie Nelson and produced by Ryan Adams, the cover-happy Songbird is an uneven work with some beauties, yet riddled with stutters. Adams overproduces songs into shells of their former selves while Nelson modern country-rocks without enthusiasm.
In a lazy Leonard Cohen cover “Hallelujah,” Nelson hallelujahs with the fervor of a tollbooth worker. In a new arrangement of “Amazing Grace,” the duo aims for eclectic but ends up with awkward. The earthy slowdowns partially rescue Songbird. Beautiful “Blue Hotel” and a Jerry Garcia-Robert Hunter cover “Stella Blue” takes its time to meld the Wilco-esque production with the lyrical heart of the songs, truly creating beauty, but leaving the rest of Songbird behind.
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