Phosphorescent – To Willie

Phosphorescent, a.k.a. Matthew Houck, never shy of the "interesting cover version" here takes things one step further in releasing a complete "tribute album" to one artist: country music legend Willie Nelson. The title seemingly a clever play on the title of Nelson's own 1975 tribute album (To Lefty From Willie - an album of Lefty Frizell covers), Houck has wisely selected some of the lesser-known songs, neatly sidestepping the issue of listener over familiarity which can sometimes prove problematic on such endeavours.And what a beautiful selection of songs it is. For the listener, like me, who has not previously encountered much of Willie Nelson's oeuvre, then the first thing that this album achieves is to make you very much want to explore his music further. The tone is often world-weary, sometimes cynical, sometimes battle-hardened, but always moving and honest. We meet Nelson/Houck in several different moods, though always with unmistakably the same voice. We see him in unrepentant party mode on standout track 'I Gotta Get Drunk', defiantly singing "There's a lot of doctors who tell me / I've gotta start slowing it down / But there's more old drunks than there are old doctors / So I guess I'll get me another round"; then as he tries to talk himself into abstention and sobriety on 'Reasons To Quit' ("The coke and booze don't do me like before"), while at the same time admitting that those reasons "don't outnumber all the reasons why", with heartbreaking honesty and self-awareness. He's lovesick on 'Heartaches of a Fool', 'The Last Thing I Needed (First Thing This Morning)', and the affecting 'Permanently Lonely' - with bitter lyrics from Nelson, yet such a sad, beautiful delivery from Houck that you can practically taste the hurt and pain of the brokenhearted lover.  Hell, there's even the obligatory religious references, in 'Too Sick To Pray', which managed to melt the flinty heart of this confirmed atheist (that's what a Catholic upbringing will do to a girl...), with lines like "Never needed you more / Shoulda called you before / But I've been too sick to pray".The lyrical and musical compositions, though, are definitely only part of what make this album so special. Equal weight must be given to Houck's tuneful, gentle yet incredibly emotional delivery. This is a voice that could make you yearn for things you didn't know you would ever yearn for, and melt the faces of the Easter Island stone statues to gooey mush. It is rare, indeed, that a covers album manages to meld together the songs being covered and the artist that is covering them so effectively - to the extent where it is now unquestionably going to seem strange and probably a little wrong when I track down and finally listen to the original versions.In short then, this is an album that I would only hesitate to recommend to you if you were a) in the middle of a painful break-up (I'd advise you to save it until you are over the worst) b) trying to quit booze or drugs or c) an Easter Island stone statue. To everyone else I would wholeheartedly encourage the embracing of these gorgeous, touching, warm and very very human songs. 86%mp3:> Phosphorescent: 'Reasons To Quit' [via Stereogum]Phosphorescent on Myspace