April 29
Today is the birthday of Willie Nelson. He is 93 today.
Willie Hugh Nelson was born in Abbott, Texas on April 29, 1933. Abbott is a small farming community in Hill County, about sixty miles south of Fort Worth. His parents left when he was young. His grandparents raised him. He was picking cotton at six and playing guitar in a band at nine. He played every roadhouse and dance hall in the area before heading to Nashville to sell songs in the late 1950s. Nashville bought them but didn’t quite know what to do with Willie himself.
The Outlaw Who Never Left Texas
Patsy Cline took his “Crazy” to No. 1 in 1961. Faron Young hit with “Hello Walls.” Billy Walker charted “Funny How Time Slips Away.” Nashville loved his pen and ignored his voice. So Nelson moved back to Texas in 1972 and played the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin to a crowd of hippies and rednecks who didn’t care about Nashville’s rules. The Outlaw Country movement grew from that moment. Red Headed Stranger in 1975 was the album that proved it. He has not stopped moving since — touring every year, farming in Luck, Texas, and recording albums in his late eighties. Abbott gave the world its most durable songwriter. Learn more at the Texas State Historical Association.