The man who issued the finest singer-songwriter album of 2007 [Pride review: here] deserves a break, but Phosphorescent [Myspace] did not take one. Matthew Houck did release a tracklist of covers this winter, but with such remarkable sensitivity that To Willie is less a filler record than a Herculean emotional effort. It is a wonder the man can stand.

To Willie is, of course, a touching reference to Nelson’s own To Lefty From Willie (right down to the cover art), a posthumous tribute to Lefty Frizzell. We’ll ignore the nagging fact that Nelson is still alive. Considering the history and personnel behind the record, it is no surprise that Houck embraces his country propensities to the detriment of his folk leanings. This is indeed a country record, but we saw his predilection toward the sound in brief spurts on Pride, and here he proves he has the genre’s number. The refreshing carry over from that record is Houck’s voice, which is nothing short of a monster in the industry today: sweet and hypnotizing, but with an emotional depth Buckley would be jealous of.

The cover choices Houck made are some of the most telling of his artistic contributions. This is a man with an intimate knowledge of Nelson’s catalogue, and it shows in his choice of non-standard album track tunes. These songs are treated with the reverence Willie himself employed on To Lefty, and herein lies the only problem with the record, and it is a nitpicky one. When Willie Nelson is your personal Jesus (everybody needs one), you might tend to overdo it in being reverential and forget to have fun. At times the tunes come out sounding like church hymnals, chants to a deified hero, a fact that is only reinforced by the three bluegrass gospel mountain songs included in the set. But, like I said, this is a small complaint and a nonexistent one if the listener has the patience to give Houck his fanboy minute.

This was not the sophomore success fans looked forward to two years ago, but it is an excellent bridge between new original material, and a worthy footnote in the career of a man who will take the folk torch and run with it for years to come.

“Reasons to Quit” [mp3]

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