DWD's Reviews

  Published in 2021 by Harper Horizon. Read by co-author Turk Pipkin Duration: 3 hours, 6 minutes. Unabridged. During the Covid-19 lockdowns Willie Nelson decided to write a book. This is not an unusual thing for Willie - he has written a handful of memoirs focusing on various parts of his almost 80 years as a professional musician (he was paid to play in a local band at the age of 10) and this book almost certainly overlaps with other books.  The format of Willie Nelson's Letters to America is that Willie is writing thank you letters to various people, places and things that influenced his life and his career. He has a letter to his hometown, his grandparents, his sister, various members of his band over the years, his ex-wives, his wife, his kids, the fellow members of the supergroup The Highwaymen, among others. Nelson's guitar, Trigger There is also a letter to his guitar, Trigger. Nelson bought Trigger, sight unseen, in 1969 because he needed a new guitar after someone a...

Kinky Friedman "on the road again" with Willie Nelson Kinky Friedman and Willie Nelson Read by Kinky Friedman. Duration: about 3 hours. Abridged. Kinky, feeling like he has to get out of New York City for a change of pace, jumps at the chance to ride with Willie Nelson for part of his tour. However, Willie is not acting like himself and soon one of Willie's roadies is shot. Kinky looks into it and crazy characters from Willie's life spill into Kinky's seriously odd world of friends. The mystery in Roadkill is not too hard, but it is worth the listen just to hear Friedman's odd twists of phrase. Lots of fun. An audiobook note: I was disappointed to discover that Willie Nelson did not read his own parts in the book. He has read audiobooks before and this seemed like a natural fit. I give this one 4 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Roadkill by Kinky Friedman. Reviewed on May 7, 2006.

Good, but predictable Audio version originally published in 1986 by Random House Audio Multicast performance with sound effects Duration: 55 minutes. I like Louis L'Amour. His descriptions and conversations are top notch. However, his plots are predictable so I really am grading this on a curve. Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings I am also rating the audio version of  Riding for the Brand  which is interesting because it is told by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash. It was quite enjoyable to hear the four of these men work together - they were all quite good, especially Kristofferson and Nelson. This audio edition has features that most don't, including special effects and a music soundtrack that was sometimes reminiscent of Clint Eastwood's Spaghetti Westerns and sometimes reminiscent of Silverado . The inclusion of the special effects did speed the plot along (you don't have to describe th...