Now My Consolation is in the Stardust of a Song

You know those albums that Rod Stewart and his ilk put out in the late '90's/2000's where he'd sing a bunch of standards?  The ones that were terribly popular and eventually lead to volumes 7, 8 and 9 of the same pap despite the fact that they really weren't any good?  If you ever bought any of them, go throw them out...I'll wait...

Done?  In the trash?  Good.

Now go buy Willie Nelson's Stardust and listen to the man that originated this whole idea and the only one to have ever done it right.  And saying that he did it "right" is a terrible understatement, but I'm hoping the redheaded stranger gives me a pass on that one.

Willie Nelson is a brilliant songwriter.  He wrote tons of great songs that he himself made popular, but he also wrote "Crazy" (Patsy Cline), "You Were Always on my Mind" (Elvis Presley and, later, the Pet Shop Boys) and plenty of others.  When he released Stardust in 1978, the country music world likely thought him mad.  He was one of the biggest names in country at this point (and, keep in mind, this is when country music was amazing and didn't completely suck the way it does currently) and he was a highly respected songwriter...and now he was releasing an entire album of covers.  And not even country covers, but standards from the 30s and 40s.  If ever there was an album that had "bad idea" written all over it, this was it.

Never underestimate the brilliance of Willie though.  The record, produced by no less than Booker T. Jones, was HUGELY successful and still regarded as one of the highlights of an enormous career that still goes on today.

Go listen to it.  It's on Spotify, you can download it through iTunes or Amazon or I'll let you borrow my copy of it.  You can hear how much Willie loves these songs (they were all favorites from his younger days) and that's something that's kind of gone from modern music for the most part.  Not all of it, there are plenty of exceptions, but...it's just different.

Personally, the record has massive significance to me, so, yes, I'm a bit biased, but the world supports my appreciation for it, so I know I'm not off-base with my assessment.  It was released in April of 1978 when I was 5 years old.  I'm not sure when my parents purchased the 8-track (that was definitely the format we had it in!) and I can't be sure as to when I heard it first, but I heard it MANY times over the sound system that we had running through every room in our house.  It immediately causes me to think of my Mom and Dad, my brother, my grandparents...it, along with a couple of other 8-tracks, was the soundtrack to my childhood, which is something that I really love.

The album evokes emotions in me similar to the ones I feel when watching the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  I absolutely love it, but it brings me great sadness...while also making me happy.  That is contradictory, yes, but, somehow, it makes sense for me.  Hearing it causes me to miss people I love.  Those that I have lost to death from my family, relationships that fell apart and even those that are still in my life, but might just be far away.  I still remember being very upset while lying in the dark in my then-girlfriend's bedroom the night after my Grandma Jackson's funeral and listening to the whole album.  I was sad and upset, but it also helped me to just listen to it with someone else that cared about me.  It's an album that still does that to me to this day...it makes me sad and causes me to miss others, but it brings me comfort, too, so I don't think I'll ever stop listening to it.

The song that hits me the hardest is still "Moonlight in Vermont", an amazing song that has the unique quality of no rhyming lyrics.  That may not sound that odd when you read it, but think about nearly any song and it will have lyrics that rhyme.  "Moonlight in Vermont" is almost a free verse poem that someone just opted to set to music and it works beautifully.  I'm not sure why it makes me as emotional as it does, but, well, it does.  The title track and "September Song" are also standouts.

And, finally, it has an AMAZING photo of Willie on the back in the most ridiculous hat/jacket/neckerchief combo that still brings me great joy.  Go listen to it!