''Teatro'' is the 45th studio album by

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...

, released in September 1998 via

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

. Filmmaker

Wim Wenders Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders (; born 14 August 1945) is a German filmmaker and photographer, who is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among the honors he has received are prizes from the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, Venice International Film ...

produced a documentary feature-length film of the recording sessions and live performances.

Background

The recording sessions for the album were held in the old

movie theater A movie theater (American English) or cinema (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a movie house, cinema hall, picture house, picture theater, the movies, the pictures, or simply theater, is a business ...

named Teatro in

Oxnard, California Oxnard () is a city in Ventura County in the U.S. state of California, United States. On California's Central Coast (California), Central Coast, it is the most populous city in Ventura County and the List of largest California cities by populati ...

and were produced by Daniel Lanois. The album features backing vocals by

Emmylou Harris Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, bandleader, and activist. She is considered one of the leading music artists behind the country rock genre in the 1970s and the Americana (music), Americana genre ...

, as well as backing by regular Nelson harmonicist Mickey Raphael and Nelson's sister, Bobbie Nelson, on piano. The majority of the songs are composed by Nelson, and most are re-recordings of songs he wrote and first recorded in the 1960s: "Darkness on the Face of the Earth" (1961), "My Own Peculiar Way" (1964), "Home Motel" (1962), "I Just Can't Let You Say Goodbye" (1968), "I've Just Destroyed the World (1962) and "Three Days" (1962). Lanois contributes one of his songs, "The Maker" (originally released on his album '' Acadie),'' and plays electric guitar and bass, and also took the photograph for the album cover. Mark Howard recorded and mixed the record. ''Teatro'' is noted for its spare, yet drum-heavy and atmospheric sound, credited to Lanois, who had also produced Harris's

alternative country Alternative country (commonly abbreviated to alt-country; also known as alternative country rock, insurgent country, Americana, or y'allternative) is a loosely defined subgenre of country music and/or country rock that includes acts that diffe ...

album, '' Wrecking Ball''. Teatro was reissued in 2017 by Light in the Attic Records with seven bonus tracks and the DVD of the documentary by Wim Wenders.

Track listing

All songs written by Willie Nelson, except where noted. #"Ou Es-Tu, Mon Amour? (Where Are You, My Love?)" (Emile Stehn, Henri LeMarchand) – 2:43 #" I Never Cared For You" – 2:18 #"Everywhere I Go" – 3:50 #"Darkness on the Face of the Earth" – 2:33 #"My Own Peculiar Way" – 3:37 #"These Lonely Nights" (Chester Odom) – 3:29 #"Home Motel" – 3:15 #"The Maker" (Daniel Lanois) – 5:08 #"I Just Can't Let You Say Goodbye" – 4:38 #"I've Just Destroyed the World (I'm Living In)" (Nelson, Ray Price) – 2:52 #"Somebody Pick Up My Pieces" – 4:39 #" Three Days" – 3:07 #"I've Loved You All Over the World" – 4:18 #"Annie" – 3:51 #(bonus) "It Should Be Easier Now" – 3:15 #(bonus) "One Step Beyond" – 3:38 #(bonus) "Send Me the Pillow That You Dream On" (Hank Locklin) – 3:09 #(bonus) "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" (Scotty Wiseman) – 3:39 #(bonus) "Till I Gain Control Again" (Rodney Crowell) – 6:17 #(bonus) "Lonely Little Mansion" – 4:03 #(bonus) "Things To Remember" – 2:50

Personnel

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

– background vocals on all tracks except 1, 6, 7 & 14 * Daniel Lanois – producer, gibson les paul,

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

*Tony Mangurian –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

* Victor Indrizzo – drums, percussion * Bobbie Nelson – wurlitzer electric piano, organ *Brian Griffiths –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

s, slide guitar,

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

* Mickey Raphael –

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

, bass harmonica * Brad Mehldau –

vibraphone The vibraphone (also called the vibraharp) is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using Percussion mallet, mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

* Malcolm Burn – organ *Jeffrey Green – drums, omnichord, keyboard *

Cyril Neville Cyril Garrett Neville (born October 10, 1948) is an American percussionist and vocalist who first came to prominence as a member of his brother Art Neville's funky New Orleans–based band, The Meters. He joined Art in the Neville Brothers band u ...

– congas

Chart performance

References

{{Authority control 1998 albums Willie Nelson albums Albums produced by Daniel Lanois Island Records albums

Background

Track listing

Personnel

Chart performance

See also

References