Two Departed Stars Remembered in 2025

Willie Nelson, Bobbie Nelson and Paul English backstage in New Orleans in July 2014

Two great musicians who were always 20-feet from stardom - to borrow the title of an Oscar-winning documentary – would have found this year of particular significance had they both not passed. Drummer Paul English and pianist Bobbie Nelson played in Willie Nelson’s famous band, The Family, for decades. But, like most backing musicians, their profiles were somewhat confined to font-size 10 in music credits at the back of albums.

More’s the pity because English – Willie’s best friend – and Bobbie – Willie’s sister – were both instrumental (so to speak) in his spectacular success. And they were around from the very beginning, or at least playing on the 1975 album which catapulted Willie to super-stardom.

For 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Red Headed Stranger which would come to be regarded as not only one of the greatest albums in country music but also the release which would change forever how artists interacted with record labels. When Willie first submitted it to Columbia, record executives thought the songs were demo tracks they were so acoustic and sparse. When Willie asked what exactly they wanted, they replied: "Anything but this!" Too bad. Willie wasn't changing a thing. For he and his manager Neil Reshen had signed a deal with the label which gave him total creative control over his works.

Red Headed Stranger was, in fact, Willie's 18th album, though his first with Columbia. The title track was a song Willie would sing to his young children. And in 1974, his then wife Connie Koepke suggested he write a western concept album based on the song, which tells the story of a fugitive on the run after killing his wife and her lover. He did so - mixing old songs with original compositions - and in January 1975 spent five days recording at a new and low cost studio, Autumn Sound, in Garland, Texas.

Given the creative freedom he now had, Willie took to Garland just key members of his own band, rather than using studio musicians common during his early days in Nashville. And those key players were Bobbie (piano), English (drums) and Micky Raphael (harmonica). For Willie was intent on stripping down the instrumentation. He wanted arrangements to focus on his acoustic guitar ("Trigger"), with Bobbie on piano. English and Raphael would make complementary contributions on drums and harmonica.

This minimal acoustic approach was no better illustrated than on the album's lead single, Willie's interpretation of the 1947 Fred Rose weepy "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain." It would become his first number one as a singer - he had already composed a string of hits for other artists - and was the third-biggest seller in the 1975 Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. It would go on to make Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

The Autumn studio in Garland was of some significance as it featured the first 24-track studio console in Texas. And, even more important, was that sitting on the studio floor was a concert grand piano, made by Bosendorfer in Austria. It was a 92-key instrument with four extra bass notes. So it is little surprise that the album features Bobbie performing a wonderful piano solo of the 1920's classic "Down Yonder" by Russian-born American composer Louis Wolfe Gilbert. And just to reinforce Willie's independence, the album's final track is also an instrumental - Willie's soulful composition "Bandera" - with Bobbie again prominent, though somewhat more subtly so!

Like its blockbuster single, the album reached number one on the Billboard chart for Top Country Albums and had a 43-week stay in the Top LPs & Tapes chart. It would be certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1976. And it too would make Rolling Stone's list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Perhaps the great honor came in 2002 when the original recording - there was a reissue in 2000 - was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

The critics were as instantly effusive about Red Headed Stranger as the listeners. Chet Flippo probably said it best in Texas Monthly in an article headlined: "Matthew, Mark, Luke and Willie: Willie Nelson's is more than good country music; it's almost Gospel." In Mother Jones, Joe Nick Patoski wrote: Texans have known for 15 years what Red Headed Stranger finally revealed to the world that Nelson is simply too brilliant a songwriter, interpreter and singer - just too damn universal - to be defined merely a country artist." And Billboard acknowledged Bobbie's contribution when it described the album as "lots of instrumental work, with particularly fine piano by Bobbie Nelson, and highly-stylized Willie Nelson vocals."

There was a quirky sequel to the album, initiated in 1977 when Willie met publisher and screenwriter William Wittliff in Austin. Wittliff wanted to write a script based on the story of Red Headed Stranger. It took him a couple of years to complete a draft. Both Universal and, later, HBO studios signed contracts with the pair. But nothing came of either project. So Wittliff and Willie decided to finance the film themselves and the movie Red Headed Stranger was released in 1985, with Willie playing the role of the stranger. The film was popular in Texas, but the critical response elsewhere was mediocre and it had only a limited release across the U.S.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the ground-breaking masterpiece, a special gold vinyl edition of Red Headed Stranger was released this year. And in May, the city of Garland held a two-day musical celebration which included a number of Texas artists featuring in a live performance of the album, accompanied by stories about Willie and the album.

Aside from the album anniversary itself, 2025 was also of particular meaning for Willie, Bobbie and English and, indeed, for another departed musical collaborator - the legendary Merle Haggard. For on November 7, Willie, now 92, released his 78th solo studio album Workin' Man: Willie Sings Merle. All 11 tracks were written by Merle, now regarded as one of country music's greatest composers. Willie and Merle shared four duet albums, from 1983 to 2015. Merle died in 2016, aged 79.

As it happens, the album is not only a tribute to Haggard, but also to both Bobbie and English. For it includes the last released recordings of the pair backing Willie. The exact dates of when each song was recorded is not exactly known, but Paul (87) died in 2020 and Bobbie (91) two years later. So it can be assumed the tracks were originally laid at Willie's Pedernales Studio in Austin sometime between the passing of Haggard and English. Bobbie's last show with her brother was on 9 October, 2021, in New Braunfels, Texas.

And it is their pairing on Workin' Man that makes the Merle tribute so endearing. It is simply wonderful to hear two magic words - "sister play" - from Willie as he throws to piano bridges by Bobbie. Willie is at his minstrel best and Bobbie at her honky-tonk interpretative best when invited to play by her brother on "Swinging Doors," from Merle's 1966 album. And the sibling interaction is repeated on Merle's 1977 hit "Ramblin' Fever,"when Bobbie is again cued by Willie.

She also gets to feature on the classic "Okie from Muskogee," as does English in subtly keeping the beat. Willie paid English the highest compliment in the 1970's when he wrote "Me and Paul," though it was not released until 1984. As the title suggests, it reflects on the highs and lows as the pair shared life on the road in their sometimes-troubled early days.

I guess Nashville was the roughest

But I know I've said the same about them all

We received our education in the cities of the nation

Me and Paul

And both artists were honored by Willie in books featuring not only in his 2015 autobiography It's a Long Story: My Life but in two other publications by Willie. The first, in 2019, was a dual memoir by the siblings titled Me and Sister Bobbie and in 2022 Willie released Me and Paul: Untold Tales of a Fabled Friendship. Willie said it best n the introduction: "Now he's gone, he's still here. He still knows me. He still lives in my heart and in the hearts of everyone whose life he touched."

And in 2025 millions of fans worldwide were again prompted to feel the same way - about both backing artists.

Paul Cutler

Editor Crossroads - Americana Music Appreciation