One Hell of a Ride [Box Set] [Box] [PA]

Performer: Willie Nelson
Artist: Waylon Jennings; Leon Russell; Ray Price; Roger Miller; Merle Haggard; Webb Pierce; Julio Iglesias; Faron Young; Hank Snow; Ray Charles; Johnny Cash; Kris Kristofferson; Lee Ann Womack
Producer: Al Quaglieri (Compilation)
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: There have been other Willie Nelson box sets in the past, but the four-disc ONE HELL OF A RIDE, released just before the country icon's 75th birthday, leaves every other collection in the dust. A truly career-encompassing anthology, it covers more than 50 years of music, from Willie's 1950s indie singles all the way up to the 21st century. While the blockbusters are here ("Always on My Mind," "On the Road Again," etc.), the real public service performed by this box is reaching back to great Nelson albums from the '60s that have long been out of print, and scooping up some of their dusty gems. For instance, "One in a Row" shows that Willie could croon a countrypolitan-style tune with the best of them, while "Texas in My Soul" is an early example of the jazzy Western swing influence that has always been an undercurrent of Nelson's music. ONE HELL OF A RIDE follows the Red Headed Stranger's growth from well-groomed Nashville cat to hirsute country outlaw to grey-bearded elder statesman, cherry-picking the best of every phase along the way. Navigating Willie Nelson's immense body of recordings can be daunting even for committed fans. There is so much music and so much of it good that it's hard to keep straight, especially as each of his many eras has been compiled, collected, and reissued countless time, leading to a discography thick with redundancies -- and then there's the stubborn fact that for Willie, making music is like breathing, something that comes naturally, something that happens every day, so he keeps building upon that discography, releasing an album or two each year, which only adds to the confusion for neophytes and longtime fans alike. All of this is a roundabout way to say that there are plenty of Willie Nelson albums out there, that there's a surplus of compilations, but of all these, nothing offers such a complete, useful overview of his entire career as Columbia/Legacy's four-disc 2008 box One Hell of a Ride. This is not the first Willie box that Legacy has released, of course -- in 1995 they put out the triple-disc Revolutions of Time: The Journey 1975-1993 -- but this is the first box to ever attempt a thorough overview of his career, beginning with his earliest singles for Sarg and D, running through the countrypolitan Nashville productions of his Liberty Records and his wonderfully rambling RCA recordings of the '60s, then settling into the star-making sides for Columbia in the '70s and '80s, yet the set doesn't end there, as it runs through his albums for Island and Mercury in the '90s and 2000s. For sheer scope, this beats all, but what makes One Hell of a Ride so useful is that it covers all the ground accurately, picking a blend of hits, concert staples, and relative obscurities to present a career overview that may be illuminating even for serious fans, as this tells a full, complete story with its 100 tracks Like many great stories, the details may be fudged a bit here -- on the second disc the tracks don't quite follow in chronological order -- but that doesn't matter because all this tweaking is done in service of the bigger picture, which is as it should be when a picture is this large. Listening to the whole of One Hell of a Ride, it's hard not to marvel yet again at the enormity of Willie's career. If he had only authored the standards "Nite Life," "Crazy," "Hello Walls," and "Funny How Time Slips Away," his place in history would be assured, but this set illustrates how Nelson strengthened the jazzy sophistication underpinning these tunes by digging deeper into Western swing, just as he slyly brought rock, folk, and pop flourishes into his music. By the time the Outlaw years roll around in the midst of the second disc here, his music was hard to peg -- certainly it was country, but not in the strictest definition, as it encompassed so much more, from the stark Red Headed Stranger to the lush Stardust, and what is remarkable about One Hell of a Ride is that by listening to it from beginning to end, none of these moves feel forced, all the evolutions feel natural, and the excellent fourth disc -- which neatly cherry-picks from a rollercoaster two decades of recordings -- illustrates that his evolution did not end when he achieved superstardom, but rather he kept finding new truths in music, sometimes through new tunes, sometimes by revisiting the past, as the nifty book-ending of the set with a new version of his first recording "When I've Sung My Last Hillbilly Song" makes clear. Willie will continue to build upon the legacy offered within this box, but that will not change the fact that this is the best place to learn and appreciate that legacy, and to learn to love it. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rolling Stone (p.69) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Nelson's distinctive vocal phrasing and nylon-string guitar leads peep through, providing a nice foil for the lush strings and syrupy backup choir." Uncut (p.106) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Nelson's vast, overwhelming discography has always needed a sharp edit, ONE HELL OF A RIDE certainly does the trick." Down Beat (p.78) - 4.5 stars out of 5 -- "Nelson sings with an earthiness yet also a state of transcendence. He twangs with a Texas drawl but delivers impeccable melodic sublimity." Dirty Linen (p.58) - "[T]he most comprehensive and economically priced collection to ever commemorate the Red Headed Stranger's storied career....A satisfying and often revealing examination of one of America's greatest mavericks." Mojo (Publisher) (p.122) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "It spans a lot of music....Willie's been many things: a great country-pop writer; an outlaw who helped change Nashville; and a performer making alt country before anyone knew what alt country really was." Blender (Magazine) (p.81) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]his sanely ambitious, provisionally definitive 100-track box does country music's reigning survivor justice." Pitchfork (Website) - "[T]he leathery texture of his voice is immediately recognizable on the first disc as it is on the final disc, as idiosyncratic as Cash's grave baritone or Elvis Presley's full-bodied croon..." -- Rating: 8.6 Record Collector (magazine) (p.98) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "The inclusion of plenty of duets, with the likes of Merle Haggard, Wayon Jennings, Leon Russell, Webb Pierce, Ray Charles, Faron Young, Hank Snow and Julio Iglesias make for particularly enjoyable listening."

Willie Nelson began working in a conventional Nashville style and had great success as the songwriter of Faron Young's hit "Hello Walls" and others, but he was initially unable to make it as a performer. In the 1970s, he and Waylon Jennings made history with their outlaw country sound and image, growing their hair long and utilizing a raw, rock-influenced sound that endeared them to millions of country fans and rockers alike. Subsequently, Nelson ventured into Sinatra territory with STARDUST, an album of standards that became a huge success and established him as a singer who transcended genre boundaries. Throughout the '80s, '90s, and into the 21st century, he crossed over into pop and back again continually, even releasing an album of reggae covers, working with artists as diverse as Julio Iglesias and Ryan Adams.

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