Throughout his life, Willie Nelson has been a fan of fellow Texas native Cindy Walker, whose songs have been recorded by Bob Wills, Ernest Tubb, Wade Ray and Bing Crosby. Now, he has he committed 13 of her songs to tape for “You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker,” which will be released this week via Lost Highway.
“I loved her music,” Nelson says of Walker’s catalog of playful saloon songs and heartfelt ballads. “Even before we met I felt like I knew her from listening to Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys do her songs. Every night of the week as a teenager I was playing things like ‘Miss Molly’ and ‘I Was Just Walking out the Door’ somewhere.”
Nelson recorded the set in Nashville with producer Fred Foster (Dolly Parton, Roy Orbison) and a band assembled and led by veteran fiddler Johnny Gimble, who spent much of his career playing with Wills. “I knew that with him in charge of the session, the tempos would be right and the arrangements would be good,” Nelson says of Gimble.
Also joining the sessions were noted steel guitarist Buddy Emmons, as well as the vocal group the Jordanaires, who back Nelson on “Dusty Skies.”
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