WILLIE: An Autobiography

A quirky bio by country-singer/songwriter Nelson, who can't seem to decide whether he's writing a New Age spiritual guide, a Nashville narrative, or the story of romping with the good ole boys. It's not that you don't learn about Willie Nelson from reading this Michelin guide to the bars of the Southwest--it's just that you go away with as sour a taste as Willie has waking up most mornings, wondering: ""Is that all there is?"" Nelson is the quintessential hippie, who still takes great pride in his macho pronouncements about ""smoking the weed."" For the rest, one is as likely to learn about the real Willie from reading his daughter Susie's own facile biography, Heartworn Memories (1987). At least in that book we didn't have to put up with Willie trying to convince us that he doesn't sing with a nasal twang (he might as well wear nose plugs). Or have to endure pseudo-New Age pontifications: ""This is the Devil--to be overwhelmed by desire for things of the material world, to be swept under by negative thinking, to be selfish and petty, to use power and wealth to dominate others: this is hell and we make it for ourselves."" Early on, Nelson writes: ""I am as simple as I look, as hard as that may be to understand."" After reading this justification for a brawl of a life, it really isn't hard to understand.