Excerpts: Liner Notes From Willie Nelson's THE COMPLETE ATLANTIC SESSIONS

In the early ‘70s, those of us who were closet country fans began to see a style of country take hold with rock audiences.  Suddenly we were reading about “The Austin Scene” in Rolling Stone.  Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and many of the new crop of Texans shaping the country genre with personal revealing songs were profiled in Jan Reid’s book The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock.  The Outlaw movement had been born.

It was on KMET, an AOR station in Los Angeles, that I first heard Willie Nelson. The whole idea of country music concept albums was new territory, and with his groundbreaking LPs SHOTGUN WILLIE and PHASES AND STAGES, the Austin scene as we know it had begun. The cover art for these albums featured a longhaired Willie making country cool. At the time Willie was seen as a maverick country artist, thumbing his nose at the Nashville establishment.

In reality, Willie was really just pursuing his music. If you've ever met Willie, you know him as soft-spoken, genuine, and introspective. His love for the roots of country has always been the common thread that weaves through his music. He is loyal, especially to the music he loves.

Willie and I have spoken about how important SHOTGUN WILLIE and PHASES AND STAGES are to his career - as is Atlantic and Jerry Wexler. This collection contains both albums expanded with unreleased material and live recordings from the era. This is where Willie Nelson launched his second phase of his career - one that brought him a round-around-the-edges identity, blazing his own trail out of Nashville and into the consciousness of freak flag America.

- Excerpted from James Austin's liner notes for WILLIE NELSON - THE COMPLETE ATLANTIC SESSIONS.