Willie Nelson is considered an American Icon, whether it's for his distinctive sound, his social and political activism or his counter culture, back country outlaw persona. Even at the ripe old age of 77 he continues touring and collaborating with artists from Bob Dylan to Dave Matthews.

The Texas born and raised Nelson cultivated his taste for music at an early age, writing his first song at only 7 and joining a family performing group at the age of 9. Like any good, Christian Texan, Nelson received his first taste of success by selling a song he had written entitled Family Bible. Though he only sold the song for $100, it became the artist Claude Gray's most popular single and is covered widely as one of the great gospel classics.

Nelson made a big push for his music career by moving to Nashville in 1960, though instead of a recording contract he landed a publishing contract. Nelson ended up writing major hits from songs like Night life (supposedly the most covered country song of all time), Pretty paper, Hello walls and most famously Patsy Cline's Crazy.

In 1961, Nelson landed his first label contract with Liberty Records, releasing several moderately successful singles such as Willingly and Touch Me, but his career just didn't take of in Nashville.

Finally, after switching to Atlantic Records and releasing several albums with mixed reviews, he achieved some major attention with the album Red Headed Stranger, particularly due to the included cover of the popular song Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.

By 1978, Nelson released two more platinum albums, Waylong and Willie which included his hit Mamas Don't let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys, one of his most popular albums to date Stardust and he went on to release Half Nelson which featured iconic collaborations such as his work with Ray Charles.

Nelson followed with even more successful singles in the 80's like Midnight Rider, the memorable On the road again, and even To all the girls I've loved before. He continued into the 90's with huge projects in combination with other artists ranging from the Beach Boys, Sinead O' Conner, Bonnie Raitt and his group the Highwaymen which consisted of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson.

Even now, after his extensive career with dozens of honors and awards from Grammys to CMAs, and well into his 70's, Nelson continues touring and sharing his distinctive music and iconic image with America.

Enjoy the Willie Nelson karaokes we have here on the site or check out the instrumental mp3s of Willie Nelson in the Red Karaoke Store, like the gold quality version of Always on my mind.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 20:40 and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.