Willie Nelson to Perform ‘Stardust’ LP in Its Entirety for First Time
Willie Nelson tours more than 200 nights a year, largely drawing from his 20 Number One country hits, but fans now have a different kind of show to look forward to – Nelson will perform his 1978 country smash LP Stardust in its entirety for the first time on August 9th and 10th at L.A.’s Hollywood Bowl with a full orchestra, led by David Campbell.
After several classic concept albums in the Seventies, Nelson and his band hit the studio with producer Booker T. Jones, where Nelson revealed his full skills as an interpretive singer, covering ten American Songbook classics including Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust” and “Georgia on My Mind,” Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies” and the Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me.” The album produced four hit singles and won a Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance (for “Georgia on My Mind”).
100 Greatest Singers: Willie Nelson
“They were all songs I heard all the time on the radio,” Willie told Joe Nick Patoski in Willie Nelson: An Epic Life. “We had sheet music, and Bobbie [Nelson] played them on the piano and I’d figured them out on guitar. Those were hard songs to play. They weren’t your normal country and western tunes. They had a lot of good chords in them, and it took some time to learn them.”
Nelson will also perform his greatest hits. Lyle Lovett and His Large Band will open the gigs, and tickets are on sale now.