CD review
Willie Nelson
‘Countryman’

Willie Nelson can never be pinned down to one genre — he's more of a genre unto himself — and while much of his success has come through his country music, Nelson has flirted with jazz and blues and even recorded an album of pop standards, “Stardust,” at the height of his Outlaw Country days in the ’70s.

So the fact that the Texan, an outspoken advocate of Acapulco Gold, has recorded his first reggae record should not come as a surprise, because reggae and ganja go together like...well, Willie Nelson and ganja.

Nelson's reggae is still tinged with country, sprinkling steel guitar and dobro over his dub beats, but his voice is heavily reverbed and the electric guitars skank throughout, as if to let the listener known, a bit heavy-handedly, that this is a reggae record.

The Texan sometimes stumbles over the clipped reggae delivery he's supposed to impart, but Nelson does do a fine job with Jimmy Cliff's classic “The Harder They Fall,” Johnny Cash's “I'm A Worried Man” (Cash owned a home in Jamaica) and his own “One in a Row,” and the album emits a pleasant vibe throughout. Reggae fans may not like it, and country fans may not like it, but Nelson fans will appreciate the novelty. B

- Chris Hansen Orf