Willie Nelson – Whiskey River

After watching that Maria Muldaur video last week with Leon and Willie included…I wanted to listen to some of Nelson’s songs this past week. This one I remember as a kid. This song was on the album Shotgun Willie. It was a turning point for Willie Nelson…he left Nashville’s mainstream country for the Country Outlaw scene. 

I remember Outlaw Country back when I was a kid. Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Charlie Daniels, Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson are who I remember the most. It was a no-frills version of country music. This was not as polished as what you heard on country radio. It had an authentic and raw sound that people were happy to hear. 

I always thought they brought the Rock image element and feel into country music with these artists. Many of them would have songs that crossed over to the pop charts like Waylon, Willie, and Kristofferson. 

Willie is an American icon, reaching people like Johnny Cash did in country music and beyond. He crosses genres quite well with his music and laid-back image. I also love his guitar Trigger. That guitar is an N-20 Martin. He bought the guitar in 1969 when someone stepped on his Baldwin Guitar. He had the pickups on the Baldwin moved to the Martin. Willie came to love the guitar, he said: “One of the secrets to my sound is almost beyond explanation. My battered old Martin guitar, Trigger, has the greatest tone I’ve ever heard from a guitar. … If I picked up the finest guitar made this year and tried to play my solos exactly the way you heard them on the radio or even at last night’s show, I’d always be a copy of myself and we’d all end up bored. But if I play an instrument that is now a part of me, and do it according to the way that feels right for me … I’ll always be an original”

Shotgun Willie marked a huge departure from Nelson’s previous work. Out came the Willie Nelson that we now know. His look and music changed. 

The song was originally written by Johnny Bush and Paul Stroud in 1972. Willie’s version would always be the definite version of the song. If you listen to Bush’s version compared to Willies…you will quickly see the difference between mainstream country and Outlaw country. This song did well for Nelson…it peaked at #12 on the Billboard Country Charts and #3 on the Canadian RPM Country Tracks charts. Bush was happy about Willie covering it…they were friends and Willie took the song to a huge audience. Outlaw country artists sought more creative control over their music, production, and image… breaking away from the Nashville establishment.

The late Toby Keith with “I’ll Never Smoke Weed With Willie Again” and yes it was a true story. 

Whiskey River

Whiskey River take my mindDon’t let her mem’ry torture meWhiskey River don’t run dryYou’re all I’ve got, take care of me

Whiskey River take my mindDon’t let her mem’ry torture meWhiskey River don’t run dryYou’re all I’ve got, take care of me

I’m drowning in a whiskey riverBathing my mem’ried mind in the wetness of its soulFeeling the amber current flowin’ from my mindAnd warm an empty heart you left so cold

Whiskey River take my mindDon’t let her mem’ry torture meWhiskey River don’t run dryYou’re all I’ve got, take care of me

I’m drowning in a whiskey riverBathing my mem’ried mind in the wetness of its soulFeeling the amber current flowin’ from my mindAnd warm an empty heart you left so cold

Whiskey River take my mindDon’t let her mem’ry torture meWhiskey River don’t run dryYou’re all I’ve got, take care of me

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

47 thoughts on “Willie Nelson – Whiskey River”

  2. Pingback: Willie Nelson – Whiskey River – MobsterTiger

  3. how can you not love Willie? This is a great thing to share. If you don’t have at least one Willie Nelson album in your collection, you are missing out on some great American music. Pancho and Lefty is one of my favorites, written by tortured sould Townes Van Zandt. He’s a story on his own.

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  7. Once Willie and Waylon found the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, country music changed forever. Over the years, I’ve seen Willie live, numerous times, and the tone he gets from the battered guitar is one of a kind. Back in the mid 70s, Willie opened a club in Dallas called “Whiskey River” a nod to his melodious song. On opening night, my buddy, Jarry Boy and I somehow got in the door and seated by the stage. Everyone was expecting Willie and band to show and play, but he didn’t. Instead, we got the rowdy David Alan Coe, another outlaw from Texas.

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      1. Willie’s not doing so good health wise. COPD from smoking pot everyday for 50 years. His shows are limited, but he’s still plugging along. He and my father were good friends. They played the club circuits in 1950s Fort Worth along with Roger Miller, Hank Thompson, Ernest Tubb and a slew of others. I’m working on a story about their friendship through the years starting in 1950 when I was a young’un. David Alan Coe did a great job that night.

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      2. Coe is the one that came up with those “not ready for radio play” songs right? I loved some of those if he is who I’m thinking about.
        That would be interesting on Willie. I imagine he is quite a character.

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  9. Good one I don’t think I’d heard but unmistakable Willie sound. A one of a kind! I didn’t know he always used the same old guitar…that’s impressive & shows I guess ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’! I wonder how many guitar companies have given him new, high-end ones through the years in hopes he’d play it?

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    1. Oh yea I know they would….I’ve never seen one held together with a truck strap lol.
      He probably gets a sound out of that….that no other would get.

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    1. This was the album that brought us Willie as we know him now. You might have heard more than me…Red Headed Stranger is the album I know the most.

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      1. Yeah I have that one and play it often. Old willie was wild in his sorrow. That album was recorded in a small studio in Garland Texas with just a few musicians. Willie, sister Bobbie on piano and Mickey Rafael on harmonica. First country concept album.

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      3. That was years before any studio had all the advanced technology and tricks. If you listen to the songs closely, you think, well, is there a bass and drums, I think they are there. No, its the way he played his guitar adding the in between licks and runs on his E and A strings. His sister, Bobbie, was a classical trained pianist and it shows. Micky Rafeal was dating my now wifes roomate in 1971 so he was always around their place. We were all sitting around one evening doing what folks of the musical persuassion did back then and Micky says Willie Nelson wants to hear me play and I’m going down to Austin tomorrow. Up until that time, he was a guitar picker around town and played the harmonica once in a while. Well, we all know how that audition turned out, and he and Sherri were instant history.

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  15. I’ve really come to love Willie Nelson. The thing that strikes me most about him is his voice. I think the man has a great singing voice. I also feel he’s versatile and pretty much can sing anything. And, jeez, whatever stuff this dude is smoking, it seems to be working well for him. And, yes, that worn out guitar – amazing!

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    1. That guitar still sounds great lol. It could fall off a shelf and no one would ever know lol. He has grown on me a lot through the years. Totally likable guy.

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  16. I went country when I was pretty much out of high school…give me 40 acres and I’ll turn this rig around…but there was an album, Waylon, Wille, Jessie Colter, and Tompall Glaser (put another log o the fire)….no one, no one sings you were on my mind like willie….it’s seems weird that every few decades there’s a new group of outlaws…Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakum and Randy Travis…for me the new current country isn’t even country…

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    1. Your last sentence says it all for me…no it’s not anymore…it’s more pop.
      You are right…there were new outlaws coming in but the problem now is there isn’t any.

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      1. agreed it’s like flavored beer, for a new generation..but, who knows, Urban Cowboy gave us a whole stew of people that sounded like either the Eagles or Linda Ronstadt, without the guts to take chances…there are a host of independant artists who still can do what they do with a guitar and their voice. They call it folk until they have their first big hit….who knows, maybe Taylor Swift and Queen B will have the guts and desire to take chances…as a rock star Ronstadt had the guts to tell her record company to let her record 3 albums worth of classics, and then an album of Mexican folk songs…

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      2. They did take more chances back then. It was time when the public wanted new things and different. Now they could be afraid to. Used to…you would get 3 albums to prove yourself…now it’s 1.

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  17. Willie has had a long career, and thank god those rebels took Country into a different direction, it was all too cozy for a long time- at least the sweet pure stuff that was heard on the radio. On the ‘Touring The Country Fairs’ tour buses one suspects there might have been a lot of gambling, drinking, smoking and carousing going on.

    And yes, Willie’s bus does have smoked glass.🙄

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    1. That song is so funny to me…the first one. I can imagine the high grade stuff he gets.
      Yea that Nashville country worked for Loretta Lynn and a few others but the majority sounded weak and the soul polished out of it.

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