Willie Nelson’s rough and ready reputation as a country music outlaw was thrown into stark relief when the Red Headed Stranger reinvented himself as balladeer on 1978’s Stardust. A songwriter as gifted as Nelson doing a record of covers was considered unusual and perhaps Stardust was not intended to be the tour de force that it became but nevertheless this collection of standards produced by Stax Records legend Booker T Jones transformed Willie from country music icon to international pop-star overnight. Perfectly augmented by his band’s restrained presence, Nelson’s emotional reimaginings of classics like Georgia on my Mind and Unchained Melody helped to distinguish him as one of the finest musical interpreters of his generation. These days a standards album evokes the lounge-lizard croon of artists in their twilight years trying to reinvent themselves, but Nelson’s career was white hot when he made Stardust. It was a bold move, and a smart one too, allowing his smoky drawl to make an indelible mark on the American songbook.
Pete Whelan 