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''Red Headed Stranger'' is a 1975 album by American outlaw country singer Willie Nelson. After the wide success of his recordings with Atlantic Records, coupled with the negotiating skills of his manager, Neil Reshen, Nelson signed a contract with Columbia Records, a label that gave him total creative control over his works. The concept for the album was inspired by the "Tale of the Red Headed Stranger", a song that Nelson used to play as a disk jockey on his program in Fort Worth, Texas. After signing with Columbia he decided to record the song, and arranged the details during his return to Austin, Texas, from a trip to Colorado. It was recorded at low cost at Autumn Sound Studios in Garland, Texas. The songs featured sparse arrangements, largely limited to Nelson's guitar, piano and drums. Nelson presented the finished material to Columbia executives, who were dubious about releasing an album that they at first thought was a demo. However, Nelson had creative control, so no further production was added. A concept album, ''Red Headed Stranger'' is about a fugitive on the run from the law after killing his wife and her lover. The content consists of songs with brief poetic lyrics and arrangements of older material such as Fred Rose's "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain", Wolfe Gilbert's "Down Yonder" and Juventino Rosas' "O'er the Waves". Despite Columbia's doubts and the limited instrumentation, ''Red Headed Stranger'' was a blockbuster among country music and mainstream audiences. It was certified multi-platinum, and made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music. The cover of "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain", released as a single previous to the album full release became Nelson's first number one hit. The title of the album would become a lasting nickname for Nelson. It was ranked #183 on ''Rolling Stone''s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and number one on CMT's ''40 Greatest Albums in Country Music''. In 2010 it was inducted to the National Recording Registry. In 1986 Nelson starred as the Red Headed Stranger in a movie of the same name, based on the story of the album. The album has had a strong cultural impact; the song "Time of the Preacher" has been used often in the series ''Edge of Darkness'', and its lyrics were used as well in the first issue of the comic ''Preacher''. ==Background and recording== In 1973 Nelson signed a contract for US$25,000 per year with Atlantic Records, the first country artist signed by the label. His first album with Atlantic was the critically acclaimed ''Shotgun Willie'', which was followed by one of the first concept albums in country music, ''Phases and Stages''. Due to the success of these recordings, Nelson signed with Columbia Records, and was given complete creative control. During his return to Austin after a ski trip in Colorado, Nelson was inspired by his then-wife, Connie Koepke, to write a western concept album. Koepke suggested the inclusion of Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith's "Tale of the Red Headed Stranger", which Nelson sang during his radio shows on KCNC in Fort Worth and previously, to his children at bedtime. Nelson decided to write a complete story that included details of events prior to the ones described in the song. As he spontaneously composed the songs, Koepke wrote down the lyrics. With his original writings, Nelson included on the story, Fred Rose's "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain", Wolfe Gilbert's "Down Yonder", Juventino Rosas' "O'er the Waves", Hank Cochran's "Can I Sleep in Your Arms?", Eddy Arnold's "I Couldn't Believe it Was True", and Billy Callery's "Hands on the Wheel". When he arrived in Austin, Nelson recorded a demo of the songs on a tape recorder accompanied with his guitar at his ranch in Fitzhugh Road. Nelson started to look for a studio in Texas to record his new material, to avoid the modifications that they did to his recordings in his previous sessions. Engineer Phil York, who was hired free-lance by the recently opened Autumn Sound Studios in Garland, Texas, heard about his need. York, an acquaintance of Nelson's harmonicist Mickey Raphael, offered Nelson a day of free recording to boost the popularity of the studio. Nelson and his band went to the trial session during January, and recorded five songs. Later, Rapahel called back York, announcing that Nelson would record the entire album there. After hearing the tapes by Nelson, the band started to improvise to the song "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain". Disliking the result, Nelson decided to strip down the instrumentation. Nelson also instructed York to undo the equalization he performed on the tracks, remarking that it was the method his producers used in Nashville. The recording took five days, with an additional day for the mixing, that summed up to US$4,000 in studio costs.The addtitional costs took the total to US$20,000. Nelson featured arrangements of acoustic guitar, accompanied by piano, played by his sister, Bobbie, as well complementary arrangements of drums, harmonica and mandolin. The sparsely instrumented acoustic arrangements caused Columbia directors to doubt the wisdom of releasing the album as presented, feeling it was under-produced and no more than a demo. However, Nelson had complete creative control, and it was released without any further modifications.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Red Headed Stranger」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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