Willie Nelson to Guest on Cyndi Lauper Country Album
During the holiday season, Cyndi Lauper unwrapped a preview of her upcoming Detour project she recorded in Nashville. The pop icon’s cover of Dolly Parton’s “Hard Candy Christmas” from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is one of the more modern additions to an album which Lauper says is largely “an homage to when country and R&B were close together.”
Although Parton is not heard on Detour, another country legend who will be is Willie Nelson. The Red Headed Stranger shares vocals on an as-yet-unidentified track and his mere presence in the recording studio was almost too much for the “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” singer.
“I tried to be professional, but you know when you’re overwhelmed — when he came in, I almost cried,” Lauper tells EW.com of their first meeting.
From the frothy synth-pop of the early Eighties to her 2003 collection of jazz standards At Last — not to mention a Tony-winning turn as the composer of the Broadway hit Kinky Boots — Lauper’s musical journey from the streets of Ozone Park in Queens to stages throughout the world has been a swirl of wide-ranging influences. Detour, which will largely draw inspiration from Fifties and Sixties country, continues the singer’s exploration of American music that was last heard on 2010’s Memphis Blues, which featured collaborations with Allen Toussaint, B.B. King and Ann Peebles, among others.
A release date has yet to be announced for Detour, but the LP pairs Lauper with “dream label” Sire Records and its founder Seymour Stein, who serves as executive producer of the project.