"He thought Nashville was the roughest"

March 25, 2015 10:03 AM

On the Road Again: Mapping All the Cities in Willie Nelson's Songs

Over the course of his career—a five-decade ramblin' run that spans recordings as far back as 1962 and as recent as last year—Willie has written endlessly about his affection for (and occasional vexation with) cities across the land. These are all of those places. Well, a whole hell of a lot of them, anyway.

posted by Lexica (12 comments total)

My mother came to visit when I lived in Austin, and we were having coffee in the Little City on Congress Ave, right by the Capitol building, and I said "mom, I don't want to alarm you, but Willie Nelson is riding a horse outside the window." He was shooting a video, it seemed, and the two of us sat and watched him ride a horse in a genial manner up and down the street for about 20 minutes.

It's not much of a Willie Nelson story, but it's what I've got.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:13 AM on March 25, 2015 [9 favorites]

This is great. When I was younger a friend and I seriously contemplated going on an epic road trip to all the places mentioned in Willie's songs. We got only about halfway through compiling a list that we realized it was an undertaking that we couldn't afford. I still regret not doing it.
posted by barchan at 10:33 AM on March 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

It seems Willie Nelson has never driven a truck from Tucson to Tucumcari nor from Tehachapi to Tonepaw, nor stood a corner in Winslow Arizona, nor seen the bluest skies ever in Seattle, nor buried his heart in San Francisco, nor taken the A-Train, nor chased the bloody British where a rabbit couldn't go, nor come over for tea with the Missus and Me on a lazy Sunday afternoon in nineteen hundred and three.

Maybe he'll get around to it.
 
posted by Herodios at 10:38 AM on March 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

If it was Huey Lewis, there'd be like 50 cities, but just one song.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:04 AM on March 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Yeah, but I'll bet he never shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 11:13 AM on March 25, 2015

If it was Huey Lewis, there'd be like 50 15 cities, but just one song.

If it was Hank Snow, there'd be like 90 cities, but just one song.

2[!mention] Nat 'King' Cole, Martha Reeves, Chuck Berry, or the Beach Boys.
 
posted by Herodios at 11:21 AM on March 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yeah, but I'll bet he never shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.

Naw, that was the other guy . . . Johnny something. Johnny Quest? Johnny Cougar? Johnny Cypherindimensionzero?
posted by Herodios at 11:23 AM on March 25, 2015

I have tickets to see Willie Nelson and Alison Krauss in July and I am giddy about it. I don't really even like going to concerts anymore, but this one can't come soon enough.
posted by mudpuppie at 11:30 AM on March 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Scroll about a third of the way down here for the fun story of how Robert Earl Keen met Willie as well as got a photo for the cover of his album Picnic.
posted by TedW at 12:46 PM on March 25, 2015

Nashville still only mentions Willie (when he's mentioned at all, unlike some other living legends like Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton) with grudging respect, the kind you reserve for someone you know is awesome but who gives you the middle finger every time you see them (and yet you know you deserve it). Same is true of Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings -- without those three guys, none of the current crop of "country" dudes, from Blake Shelton to Frankie Ballard, would be anything other than footnotes.

That's a lot of what's awesome about Willie in a nutshell.
posted by blucevalo at 2:51 PM on March 25, 2015

Related (previously)
posted by tonycpsu at 3:29 PM on March 25, 2015

Willie's been a lot of places, but he hasn't been everywhere. Gotta hand it to Hank Snow (YouTube), and then later, Johnny Cash (YouTube) -- but mostly Hank Snow.
posted by saintjoe at 4:08 PM on March 25, 2015