Willie Nelson’s landmark album “Phases and Stages” was recorded in 1973. It was unlike anything being done in Nashville – a concept album, about a relationship coming apart. Metaphorically speaking, Willie Nelson was separating from Nashville too, a place where he’d long written songs for others. But where the Nashville machine kept him from doing what he loved to do, his return to Texas was a symbolic break with the conservative conventions of the country music industry.
It is now part of Texas lore that Willie kickstarted an outlaw movement, that would include Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Billy Joe Shaver and countless others who brought country back to its rebellious roots.