To Willie

What could be a better cred-building exercise for a young indie-folk songwriter than to cover the works of Willie Nelson? Yet Matthew Houck, aka Phosphorescent, isn't interested merely in demonstrating the depths of his scholarship and reverence for the forerunners of his craft with his all-covers tribute to the Red Headed Stranger, To Willie. He wants, as Hot Chip might put it, to half nelson full nelson Willie Nelson, to wrestle intimately with the man's songs and what they're capable of communicating. In doing so, Houck proves himself an adept interpreter of Willie's piercing Christian grace, while indirectly revealing by the limitations of his scope-- the true remarkable human breadth of Nelson's artistry.