Brooklyn's Phosphorescent Takes on Willie Nelson

Indie acts have long been fascinated with releasing odes to their favorite artists. Some notable entries of the last few years have been Cat Power's picking over the Otis Redding catalog; and who could forget Sun Kil Moon's 2005's 'Tiny Cities,' a sparse love letter to Modest Mouse. For Brooklyn's Matthew Houck, who leads the country-folk act Phosphorescent, he's been mulling Willie Nelson for years now. "I've been having [his songs] with me for as long as I can remember," Houck tells Spinner. "So I never went through the catalog and picked songs. They kind of picked themselves."

'To Willie,' released this week, sees Houck tackling eleven tunes that demonstrate a wide variety of Willie-isms -- from the sobering hangover song 'Reasons to Quit,' to the sleepy, gut-punching ballad 'The Last Thing I Needed (First Thing This Morning)' -- Houck tackles the Willie that 'On the Road Again' fans wouldn't necessarily notice.

"Some of the first musical memories I've had are from listening to Willie Nelson songs," he explains. "It's weird; on our second release I did a cover of 'My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys' -- and that was one of the earliest memories I had, of being a little kid in my dad's car. I wasn't able to understand a sad song such as that, but even then, I guess it hit me pretty hard."

Although Houck has yet to meet the red-headed stranger himself, that didn't stop him from sending along the finished product. "We sent him a copy but I don't know if he's going to hear it or what," Houck says. "But I sure hope he does."

Phosphorescent will be on tour much of this spring, with certain cities getting the 'To Willie' album in full. Meanwhile, he's currently in the studio working on the follow-up to 2007's 'Pride.'

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