Teatro

With the ambient/ experimental producer Daniel Lanois at the studio controls, it’s no surprise that Teatro is one of Willie Nelson’s most textured records. Just as Lanois added a sonic vibrancy to Bob Dylan for Oh Mercy! and Time Out of Mind, he revitalizes Nelson’s sound with clever shadings and surprising restraint. Nelson isn’t one to be hurried and his behind-the-beat delivery is never shuffled forward no matter how hectic the mariachi band behind him. Instead, with Emmylou Harris providing the perfect vocal foil, Nelson lays out these songs of emotional turmoil with a deceptive ease and calmness that belies their often dire circumstances. Lanois’ productions are so well-thought out that “I Never Cared For You,” “My Own Peculiar Way” and “These Lonely Nights” remain eerie, austere landscapes despite the complex weavings that compose their instrumental floor. Even with Lanois’ hand most evident (on the Lanois original “The Maker”), the enhanced electronic sound does nothing to betray Nelson’s vision. Most interesting is to hear how songs that Nelson has carried with him for years (“Darkness On the Face of the Earth,” “I’ve Just Destroyed the World I’m Living In”), and heard on the Crazy: The Demo Sessions collection of early demos, have been transformed decades later.