The sun just went behind a cloud.
Although its maybe been surpassed in my mind by his brilliant 1971 concept-debut Yesterday's Wine, Willie Nelson's 2003 collection of assorted early/mid-'60s demo recordings, Crazy: The Demo Sessions, has a lock on my heart and stands as the starting point for my unstoppable love and appreciation for Shotgun Willie. I remember randomly catching an NPR review of the, at the time, recently-released demo set and being completely floored by the first thirty seconds of "Opportunity To Cry", which sounded to me like he'd recorded it live in a cabin in the middle of nowhere at some ungodly hour, at the absolute lowest point of his entire life. There's a lot of that feeling on this record, so if you're into the spare, the depressing, and the beautifully-written, you'll probably love this. There's also some great full-band, up-tempo stuff ("Things to Remember", "I Gotta Get Drunk"), lots of previously unissued versions of major classics, and some top-secret unlisted bonus songs at the end. I don't know if I can stress enough how badly you can't go wrong with this record. Seriously, we're talking, like, Harvey Milk essential.

Willie Nelson - "Opportunity To Cry"
Willie Nelson - "Darkness On The Face Of The Earth"
Willie Nelson - "I Gotta Get Drunk"
Willie Nelson - "Something To Think About"

Today's song of the day is The Expressions' "These Moments". Yesterday's other song of the day was Servotron's "Theme For An Ultimate and Inevitable Victory", in honor of Kurt Werts getting elected (AGAIN) as Village Trustee. Video of the day is one of the Professor Brothers episodes ("Late Date"), because it's fucking funny. An extreme thank you to Jessica Hopper for posting some of these on her blog.