Willie Nelson is so "prolific" that sometimes even he forgets he has another record coming out. At a recent show here with Bob Dylan, Nelson performed a long list of hits, but not a single song from his new long-awaited reggae album.

"I keep forgetting," Nelson said a few days later by telephone from the road, which he's called home for most of the last 30 years. "The set is so short."

Nelson is indeed releasing a new reggae album, "Countryman," out Tuesday, and, at least sporadically, he's been working some of the songs into his shows.

Produced by Don Was, who's worked with the Rolling Stones and Bonnie Raitt among others, the album includes reggae versions of Nelson songs such as "Darkness On the Face of the Earth" and "One in a Row." There also are covers of Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come" and "Sitting in Limbo," and a song called "I'm a Worried Man" by Johnny and June Carter Cash that Nelson recorded as a duet with Toots Hibbert of Toots and the Maytals.

"When he (Cash) found out I was doing a reggae album, he said, 'Hey, I've got a reggae song that I wrote when I lived there,'" Nelson recalled. "Toots heard it and liked it."

While the music on "Countryman" might raise the eyebrows of country purists, so will the cover. With green marijuana leaves on a red and yellow background, the cover art makes the CD look like an oversized pack of rolling papers.

The marijuana imagery reflects Jamaican culture, where the herb is a leading cash crop and part of religious rites, but it also reflects Nelson's fondness for pot smoking. Universal Music Group Nashville is substituting palm trees for the marijuana leaves on CDs sold at the retail chain Wal-Mart, a huge outlet for country music that's also sensitive about lyrics and packaging. "They're covering all the bases," Nelson joked.

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Posted by Lawren at July 11, 2005 08:02 AM | Trackbacks (0)

You Said

Um, where the hell is everyone today? :(

Says: Lawren at July 11, 2005 01:27 PM

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I love Willie Nelson. I might go see him again this year at the Vogue. Nothing like walking a couple blocks from your home to see an American music legend perform in your 'hood.

Says: Kevvy the Unnamed Source at July 11, 2005 01:31 PM

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