Editor Reviews:

Amazon.com:
Ol' Willie has made records like this before, but the highpoints of It Always Will Be rank with some of his most realized, subtle, and sublime work. You'd have turn to the timeless "Always on My Mind" for a Nelson ballad as moving as the title track. When he surrenders the songwriting chores to Lucinda Williams, Tom Waits, and even Toby Keith (whose working-class ballad "Tired" devastates), he sings with his unmistakable, harrowing vibrato and arranges with his gift for down-to-earth, acoustic-based country majesty. The cameos from Norah Jones and Williams feel relaxed and unaffected, and the band--hired guns from Nashville plus Nelson's longtime harmonica player Mickey Raphael--swings hard, adding a bit of richness to his tried-and-true Texas sound. Few artists in their twilight have lived up to, if not extended, their legacy like Willie Nelson has. --Roy Kasten

Rating : - THOUGHTFUL, MELLOW, FUN AT TIMES, SAD AT TIMES (Willie Nelson releases another enjoyable album)
Willie Nelson's It Always Will Be (2004) is mostly a mellow effort, and finds Willie reflecting on relationships, old and new, and having a little fun, too. Using Nashville session musicians instead of his "Family", the album has a somewhat different sound than is usual for Nelson, but Willie's trademark nylon-string guitar is prominent, and long-time harmonica sidekick Mickey Raphael provides familiar assistance, too.

Be That As It May (w/ Paula Nelson) is the album's first duet, and even though it's theme is stark and hopeless, it's very listenable. Dreams Come True (w/ Norah Jones) is excellent, and one of my favorites here. It's quiet and tender, the sort of song that that makes you feel that all the world has slowed down to a more comfortable pace, even if just for a moment. Overtime (w/ Lucinda Williams) is another winner, a song about a lost love.

I guess out of the blue
You won't cross my mind
And I'll get over you
...overtime

Willie loosens up and has some fun with the drunken I Didn't Come Here (And I Ain't Leavin') and the hilarious Big Booty. He reprises Texas, a Spanish guitar flavored tribute to his home state that he has recorded before, including a version on Highwayman 2. Tired, a blue-collar lament written by Toby Keith, but convincingly done here by Willie alone, both cuts deep and hits home.

Only missed six days and nights of twenty years of working
Money went to taxes and these bills I've paid on time
Raise I got six months ago don't meet the cost of living
Selling my body for these nickels and these dimes

Willie also does a respectable version of Gregg Allman's Midnight Rider (w/ Toby Keith) by making the song his own, rather than trying to outsing Allman (an impossible task).

As another reviewer mentioned here, the album cover perfectly represents the album itself... Willie and his guitar, both of them worn and wise, being naturally warmed by a ray of sunlight while a steady hand keeps it's place on the instrument, ready to play.