Red Headed Stranger

Bucking the rhinestone-studded trends of mid-‘70s Nashville, Nelson’s sparsely arranged conceptual masterpiece—the tale of preacher on the run for murdering his adulterous wife and her lover—was a multi-platinum blockbuster that cemented his status as an outlaw icon. Accompanied by little more than guitar, harmonica, and saloon piano, Nelson’s reedy, remorseful howl gives fiery intensity to the mysterious, murderous stranger “with eyes like thunder.\" Recurrent motifs hold the loose narrative together, while the hypnotic ballads stand alone among Nelson’s most enduring songs (“Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” “Red Headed Stranger,” and “Can I Sleep In Your Arms”).

In 1975, Willie Nelson changed the rules of country music. His lonesome, noir concept album about a wayward preacher was a big and beautiful dream made real by simple and spare music.

Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger perhaps is the strangest blockbuster country produced, a concept album about a preacher on the run after murdering his departed wife and her new lover, told entirely with brief song-poems and utterly minimal backing.

Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger review: The musical equivalent of a shot of bourbon.