Red Headed Stranger

Red Headed Stranger is a 1975 concept album built around the story of a fugitive preacher who kills his unfaithful wife and the man she left him for, then wanders the American West carrying the weight of what he has done. Willie Nelson recorded it in just five days at Autumn Sound Studios in Garland, Texas, for roughly $20,000, using little more than his own guitar alongside piano, drums, harmonica, and mandolin.

Nelson secured the recording thanks to a Columbia Records contract, negotiated by manager Neil Reshen, that gave him complete creative control. Columbia executives were reportedly so unsettled by the sparse arrangements that they assumed the tapes were an unfinished demo, but Nelson's contract meant no strings or additional production could be added without his approval.

The gamble paid off. The album went multi-platinum, helped launch the outlaw country movement, and gave Nelson a nickname, the Red Headed Stranger, that followed him for the rest of his career. Rolling Stone later ranked it among the 500 greatest albums ever made, and CMT placed it first on its list of the 40 greatest country albums. Its centerpiece single, "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," became Nelson's first number-one country hit.