Willie Discusses Songbird (2007)
 

Excerpt from American Songwriter Interview, by David Friedman. I didn't see it the first time around.

http://www.americansongwriter.com/20...of-a-songbird/

“Songbird,” the disc’s first single, is one of its most beautiful moments.

WN: Thank you. I really love the arrangement on it. Fleetwood Mac had a great record on that. I didn’t know how my version of it would sound, but Ryan’s band, The Cardinals, are really good. These guys could play anything. We were doing [Harlan Howard's] “Yours Love,” and I don’t think the steel player had heard it before, so I said, “Well, just play, ‘Waltz Across Texas’…it’ll work fine [laughs].” So when you hear that song, if you hear “Waltz Across Texas,” that’s how I got there.

Thanks for the post, Michelle.

Wish he would have talked a little more about CM or why he chose it.. etc..

I am a huge Willie Nelson fan. When I saw this was a song on that album I wondered if it was the CM song or if it was some other song. Once I heard it was the CM song, I had lots of trepidation about whether or not Willie could pull it off. I bought the CD and I think Willie did a decent job.

Obviously, nothing, by anyone, will ever compare to Christine's rendition of "Songbird". It is a classic.

I really love Willie Nelson's "Songbird." Christine herself (to be accurate, Fleetwood Mac themselves) recorded the ultimate "pretty" version. Willie had to do something different with it, and he did. He turned it into a song sung by a MAN.

Some of the other versions by women try to match (or exceed) the "prettiness" of Christine's version and they just come off sounding sappy.