They don’t call it “outlaw country” for nothing, and Willie Nelson is certainly no stranger to butting heads with the establishment. The Red-Headed Stranger has always done things his own way, and although we love him for it now, that wasn’t always the case. On this day in 1976, Willie Nelson sat atop Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart with The Troublemaker, his aptly-named 20th studio album.
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Wille Nelson Actually Recorded ‘The Troublemaker’ Three Years Earlier
In April 1972, Willie Nelson recorded “Mountain Dew,” his final single with RCA Records. The label tried to persuade him to renew his contract ahead of schedule, seemingly implying that they would not release any further recordings if he refused—which he did anyway.
During a trip to Nashville, Nelson met Jerry Wexler, vice president of Atlantic Records, at a party in songwriter Harlan Howard’s house. Wexler took an interest in Nelson after hearing him perform songs for his album Phases and Stages. So when Atlantic Records later opened a country music division, Nelson was the first artist they signed. Wexler supplied the “On the Road Again” crooner with a studio in New York City, where they first recorded a collection of gospel songs in a honky-tonk style that would become The Troublemaker.
However, less-than-stellar sales of Nelson’s previous two albums with Atlantic prompted the label to shelve The Troublemaker, believing it wasn’t commercially viable. When Atlantic eventually shuttered its experimental country division altogether, the Abbott, Texas-born artist inked another deal with Columbia Records. This contract gave him what he’d always wanted: total creative control. And given the immense popularity of his 1975 concept album Red-Headed Stranger, “Nelson could record Hamlet and still command healthy sales,” Rolling Stone wrote in January 1977.
Released in September 1976, The Troublemaker peaked atop Billboard’s Hot Country Albums chart. Additionally, the single “Uncloudy Day” reached No. 4 on the Hot Country Singles chart.
Did You Know His Sister Played Piano?
Adding to the significance of The Troublemaker, it marked the start of a partnership between Willie Nelson and his older sister, Bobbie. The pianist was living in Austin when she got a call from her little brother requesting that he join her in New York.
“I had never been on an airplane or even been any farther than Nashville, but I went to New York, and we recorded The Troublemaker, the first time I recorded with him,” Bobbie Nelson later recalled. “Then we did the Shotgun Willie album while we were there, and it all went so well, and we had such a good time that Willie said, ‘I sure have missed playing with you; let’s just don’t stop.’”
And they didn’t. Bobbie joined the Family and toured with her younger brother until her death in 2022 at age 91.
Featured image by Tom Sweeney/Star Tribune via Getty Images
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