Willie Nelson
Born in Abbott, Texas in 1933, Willie Nelson worked as a Nashville songwriter through the 1960s before decamping to Austin and becoming a founding figure of outlaw country, stripping his music down to a rougher, rhythmically loose sound built around his behind-the-beat vocal phrasing and gut-string guitar, Trigger. Albums like "Red Headed Stranger" (1975) and the crossover smash "Stardust" (1978) made him one of the most enduring and genre-crossing figures in American popular music.
Nelson grew up exposed to Bob Wills's Western swing on the radio, and it's cited on Wikipedia as one of his core early influences. Decades later Nelson made the connection explicit, recording an entire album of Wills-associated material with Ray Price.
listen forHear Wills's easy Texas-dancehall swing on "New San Antonio Rose," then Nelson's own version of the title track on his 1980 duet album with Ray Price, "San Antonio Rose" — same loose, horn-and-fiddle swing feel.
Wikipedia lists Hank Williams among Nelson's formative musical influences growing up in 1940s Texas. Williams's plainspoken, aching balladry is audible in Nelson's own lonesome, unadorned songwriting.
listen forPlay Williams's "Hey Good Lookin'" next to Nelson's "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground" — both strip a heartache down to just a few plain, direct lines and a weary vocal.
Lefty Frizzell is cited on Wikipedia among Nelson's core musical influences, and Frizzell's loose, behind-the-beat way of stretching a vocal line over the melody became a hallmark of Nelson's own singular phrasing.
listen forListen to how Frizzell drags and bends his phrasing around the beat on "If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time," then hear that same rubato, jazz-like vocal freedom in Nelson's own version of "Crazy," a song he wrote but sings well behind the band's tempo.