How many Willie Nelson concerts have you attended?

Willie Nelson, was born April 29, 1933 during the Great Depression and raised by his grandparents, Nelson wrote his first song at age seven and joined his first band at ten.

Few could have predicted at the time that he would become an iconic American singer, songwriter, actor, producer, author,  poet and activist and would still be going strong in his late 80s. The man who still makes women swoon, uses a variety of music styles to create his own distinctive blend of country music, a hybrid of jazz, pop, blues, rock and folk. His “unique sound”, which uses a “relaxed, behind-the-beat singing style and gut-string guitar” and his “nasal voice and jazzy, off-center phrasing”, has been responsible for his wide appeal, and has made him a “vital icon in country music”, influencing the “new country, new traditionalist, and alternative country movements of the 1980s and 1990s.”

Nelson is widely recognized as an American icon. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993, and he received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998. In 2011, Nelson was inducted to the National Agricultural Hall of Fame, for his labor in Farm Aid and other fund raisers to benefit farmers. In 2015 Nelson won the Gershwin Prize, the lifetime award of the Library of Congress. In 2018 The Texas Institute of Letters inducted him among its members for his songwriting. He was included by Rolling Stone on its 100 Greatest Singers and 100 Greatest Guitarists lists.

His hits are too numerous to mention. So …

Further information: Willie Nelson albums discography, Willie Nelson singles discography, and List of songs written by Willie Nelson.

What is your favorite Willie Nelson. It’s difficult to choose just one but how about “Always on My Mind,” or “Mama, don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys?”

Image Sources

  • Willie Nelson: Shutterstock