Willie Nelson Essentials

In country music, time is measured in B.W. and A.W.: Before Willie and After Willie. The Red Headed Stranger brought a jazz artist's phrasing, a rocker's rebelliousness, and a soul man's gritty gravitas to country. In the ‘70s, he germinated outlaw country with songs like the funky, loose-limbed “Whiskey River,” and he brought a touch of Texas to the Great American Songbook with his take on “Blue Skies.” He continued to blaze his way down his iconoclastic path into the ‘10s with cuts such as his herb ode “Roll Me Up,” delivered alongside Snoop Dogg.