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Jul 2, 2020First Rose of Spring is sweet and elegiac, a record that sways gently in the breeze, only picking up its pace when it's time to swing through a cover of Jimmy Dean's "Just Bummin' Around." Original songs are few and far between here.
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Jul 2, 2020Willie Nelson willfully imbues First Rose Of Spring with his own brand of bitter honesty, giving the album the sort of emotional resonance that the majority of his contemporary peers forgo in exchange for switchboard instrumentation and hollow lyricism.
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MojoJul 2, 2020This may not be the '70s cosmic cowboy of Nelson in his prime, but wise old grandpa Willie is as sage and poignant now as he has ever been. [Aug 2020, p.85]
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Jul 2, 2020Nelson’s [voice] still boasts a lightness of touch. He might be a soulful elder statesman, but there’s a perkiness to his version of cult outlaw songwriter Billy Joe Shaver’s 1981 track ‘We Are The Cowboys’, which celebrates the multiculturalism of the American cowboy.
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Jul 8, 2020Nelson shapes these 11 songs into a warm conversation enhanced by his skill as a singer.
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Jul 10, 2020The highlights are when Nelson sings the songs of his old friends.
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Jul 2, 2020First Rose of Spring is the work of an artist who will never grow old.
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UncutJul 2, 2020Suffused with optimism and defiance. [Aug 2020, p.34]