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RED-HEADED STRANGER
(DiCristina Stair Builders)
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Willie Nelson’s 1975 album Red-Headed Stranger wasn’t his first great one, but it was pivotal in his self-transformation from Music Row journeyman into "outlaw country" innovator. On this release, former Geraldine Fibbers frontwoman Bozulich pays iconoclastic tribute to that now seminal album, covering it cut-for-cut. Abetted by versatile guitarist Nels Cline (who’s also her husband), among others, she’s less alterna-country than avant-goth, playing fast and loose with tempos and textures while largely respecting Nelson’s melodies and mythic tale spinning. A few tunes — "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," for one — are played straight, but most are recast as semi-improvised mood pieces, as though a lap steel player had joined the Cale-era Velvets. Bozulich’s gutsy vocals aren’t as polished as, say, Neko Case’s, but she shares Case’s ability to make tradition-minded material sound contemporary and sexy. The highlight is the title track, on which violinist Jenny Scheinman torques the tune into vaguely Arabic shapes as Bozulich delivers the climactic lines — "You can’t hang a man for killing a woman/Who’s trying to steal his horse" — in a parched whisper. Nelson himself guests on three tracks: nowadays, his worn-down vocals are less eloquent than his signature nylon-string leads, but his presence marks a touching bit of torch passing from one outlaw to another.
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