Willie Nelson

First Rose of Spring

The grizzled drawl of a singing voice, the yearning of a pedal steel, the boxy sound of an acoustic guitar: it must be Willie Nelson!

First Rose Of Spring sees Shotgun Willie almost entirely in reflective mode, culminating in a lush version of the standard Yesterday When I Was Young.

In fact, a number of songs reference first love; but for a saccharine streak, the record would be a fine companion to later Dylan albums such as Time Out Of Mind.

But Nelson’s not completely lost his edge.

On We Are The Cowboys, he takes aim at one of his favourite all-American targets: cowboys.

He most successfully pulls at the heartstrings on the beautifully elegiac Stealing Home, but elsewhere his sentimentality becomes a little cloying.

6/10