Taken from a box of tapes that miraculously survived recycling, this is a prime selection of Nelson’s staff-writer recordings for Pamper Publishing between 1960 and ’66?his first ‘proper’ job in Nashville. Intended as demos for other artists to cover (“Crazy” is included), they’re raw, sparse, and elevated by Nelson’s unique conversational stylings, clearly presaging his early-’70s outlaw persona and revealing his lush ’60s Nashville releases as a betrayal of his art and spirit.
Advertisement