For a seventies, country singer Willie Nelson (1933) displays admirable productivity. Songbird is more than just the next album in a long series. If only because it was produced by Ryan Adams, the enfant terrible of alternative country, with his band The Cardinals providing the accompaniment. It has become an interesting collaboration between two generations. From time to time Adams's energetic
… approach, which is not thrifty with overdrive and effects equipment, gets in the way of the intimacy of the music, as in the reverberant version of the Fleetwood Mac classic Songbird, where the fragile voice of Willie Nelson almost goes down in music. But the majority of the album offers inspired, here and there quite feedback (Stella Blue) country rock, Nelson seems to be having a great time with his youthful friend, who may remind him of the 'outlaw' he once was. (MS)more
