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Nowhere is that more evident than on Spirit , Nelson's stunning first album for Island Records. Recorded with an intimate acoustic combo of friends and family at his home base of Pedernales Studios outside Austin TX, Spirit features an entirely new crop of Nelson originals in a setting that proves the maxim "less is more." Like his monumental Red Headed Stranger, it's a song cycle where the deceptively simple setting brings an even greater depth and hypnotic potency to the affair, which features Texas legend Johnny Gimble on fiddle, sister Bobbie Nelson on piano, veteran Family member Jody Payne on rhythm guitar and Nelson's trademark voice, songs, and gut string guitar picking front and center. A soul-searching rumination on love and spirituality, the album draws from Nelson's deep well of American influences like country, gospel, and traditional pop to create something altogether original, just as he has done numerous times before in his mercurial musical journey.

Such musical universality has been a hallmark of Nelson's career. Born in the central Texas town of Abbott on April 30, 1933, Nelson got his first guitar at age six and was weaned on the music of such fellow Texans as Bob Wills and Ernest Tubb as well as the big bands of the day, their tin pan ally pop songs and a young crooner named Frank Sinatra. While still in his teens, Nelson started playing dances and honky-tonks with Bud Fletcher, a local musician and hustler who gave the fledgling guitarist and singer his first essential stage experience opening for Wills and other stars. By the time Nelson graduated from high school, he had his own regular local radio show.

After a brief stint in the Air Force, Nelson returned to Texas where he began working as a radio DJ while singing and playing in nightclubs on the weekends. After chasing jobs around Texas and out West to Portland, Nelson landed in Houston, where he finally made his first commercial recordings for D Records, which was run by Pappy Daily, who had discovered George Jones. But instead of Nelson's own singles hitting the charts, a cover of his "Family Bible" hit the country Top 10. Its success prompted Nelson to move to Nashville where he landed a job with Ray Price's publishing company and a #1 hit in 1961 with Faron Young's version of "Hello Walls." Hits like "Crazy" for Patsy Cline and "Night Life" by Price kept the money flowing, but Nelson's recordings for Liberty, Monument and RCA-good as some of them were-failed to connect commercially during his decade in Music City.

When his Nashville home burned down just before Christmas in 1970, Nelson took it as an omen and moved to the place his live performing career had actually found an audience-his home state of Texas. But this time around, he not only found fans at such stalwart roadhouses as Floore's Country Store outside San Antonio, but also at the recently opened Armadillo World Headquarters rock palace in Austin. Uniting both the ropers and dopers, Nelson signed with Atlantic Records and recorded two albums to critical acclaim and his best sales ever: Shotgun Willie and Phases and Stages.

His 1975 debut on Columbia, Red Headed Stranger, a country concept album starkly recorded for a mere $30,000, defied all expectations by yeilding a pop hit with "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain" and spearheading a traditional country revival. The following year, RCA packaged previously issued Nelson material with songs by Waylon Jennings, Jessi Coulter and Tompall Glaser on one disc as "Wanted: The Outlaws." It became the first million-selling country album and sparked a musical revolution.

By 1978, Nelson changed musical course once again with Stardust, a collection of pop standards that spent more than a decade on the country charts. By that time, he had not only become country music's biggest star, but a genuine musical phenomenon. As well, Nelson embarked on an acting career that came to include "Thief," The Electric Horseman," "Red Headed Stranger," "Honeysuckle Rose," "Barbarosa," and others. His Fourth of July picnics which began in 1973 have become the stuff of legend, while his annual Farm Aid shows have helped call attention to the plight of the American farmer since 1985.

Throughout it all, Nelson continues to pursue his passion for performing, with months of touring year after year. Yet he also manages to fit in time for a good round of golf, as well as card games with his friends or an afternoon playing dominoes in the little Texas town of Luckenbach.

"I was always dumb enough to think I could do anything," Nelson recently told New Country magazine, "and got lucky and done it sometimes." Modest words for someone whose talents and artistry span genres and cultures, but maybe that's Willie Nelson's secret. By remaining a man of the people, and faithful to his muse, Nelson's found the rare freedom to create music that is timeless. One listen to Spirit tells you that he's done it again.