persona and put some guts back into country music. Rather than gussy up his desolate tales with countrypolitan clichés, Nelson set his resonant, reedy voice in the foreground over simple acoustic guitar and minimal rhythm-section arrangements. Listen to Nelson's quavering tenor hug the melancholy melody of "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" and you know you're in the presence of a master; not since the early records of Ernest Tubb had a country voice sounded so naked.

It is no wonder Miles Davis considered Nelson one of the great American singers; while he was schooled in country, his supple phrasing and honest emotion recall the limpid stylings of the great jazz improvisers. Like Billie Holiday, Nelson toys delicately with time, hanging back behind the beat to tease out every rhythmic nuance lurking in a melody, as he does so gracefully here on Eddy Arnold's "I Couldn't Believe It Was True." And when Willie isn't singing, his crack band swings mightily on "Down Yonder," a rollicking instrumental number that sounds like the music of a prairie barroom circa 1920.

Made for just $20,000, Red Headed Stranger sold more than 2 million copies. It established Willie Nelson as an iconic figure; he would never be a stranger again in the world of American vernacular music. (RS 844/845)

ADAM BRESNICK