A few weeks back, I entered a contest over at GuitarFlame.com .  I usually don’t win at drawings, raffles, etc., so I was pleasantly surprised to learn I was a winner.  Willie Nelson is 75 and 1/2 years old (I think) and this box set was released this year to commemorate his many decades of performing and songwriting.  What immediately struck me was:

1.  The wide range of styles. He even had a Django Reinhardt tune on there!

2.  Guest artists.  You can’t beat Ray Charles!

3.  The changes in Willie’s guitar tone over the years.

4.  The average tempo.  Most of Willies’ tunes are Andante.  Makes you listen to the words.

5. The opening track (earliest recording) and the closing track (latest recording) are of the same song.  Kind of a song cycle.

6.  The changes in Willie’s appearance over the years.  He kinda looked like Roy Orbison w/o glasses early on.

I’m still playing with the remote and sampling, but I can tell that this is a really good collection and I’ll be sharing some thoughts about the production quality with my audio students.  Many thanks to Ovidiu and the folks at Sony for this fine box set!