Willie Nelson Goes Reggae on "Countryman"

Sounds like Willie Nelson has gone reggae on his latest CD "Countryman".

Willie does a great cover of the Jimmy Cliff classic reggae tune "The Harder They Come" (MP3).

From Miles of Music:

"After nearly a decade of gestation, Willie Nelson's long-lost, and first, reggae set is at last complete. The seed of this project took root in late 1995, sprung from the mind of famed producer Don Was. Nelson and his manager Mark Rothbaum flew to Jamaica to meet with Island Records president and founder Chris Blackwell. Don had been speaking with both Blackwell and Nelson about the prospect of creating a reggae-infused country album and both men were intrigued. Countryman is Willies impassioned tribute to the upstroke sound of Jamaica, an irie voyage to the land of dub and dreadlocks. Willie takes a handful of his own classics and filters them through a reggae prism, peppering them with his nylon acoustic guitar, pedal steel, Dobro, harmonica and the familiar comforts of country, while bringing drums and bass to the forefront, yard style."

But if you pickup "Countryman" at a Wal-Mart store, the album cover replaces the marijuana leaf with a palm tree?

"They're covering all the bases," Nelson joked in an article in the Washington Post about Wal-Mart/Sprawl-Mart's decision to request an altered "politically correct" album cover.

More on Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan in concert this summer on the baseball stadium tour and 19 true stories about Willie Nelson.

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