Standards By Willie

Willie Nelson explores the great American songbook in this gorgeous evening of standards - from 'Buttermilk Sky' to 'What a Wonderful World' to 'When I Dream' - filmed live before an elegant black-tie theater audience. Departing from scruffier moods, Willie and a sophisticated supper-club band essay the work of the great classic-pop composers Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Harold Arlen and others. In the process, Willie pays tribute to the movies in which he first encountered some of these songs and uses many of them as vehicles for his trademark, jazz-inflected acoustic guitar playing. With characteristic laid-back phrasing and sincerity, Willie finds a piece of himself in each of these great numbers - reminding us of the underlying unity of all forms of American song and treating us to a rich evening of some of our best music.