| The Willie Way | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Willie Nelson |
| Cover: | Willie-Nelson-The-Willie-Way.jpg |
| Released: | June 1972 |
| Genre: | Country |
| Length: | 27:31 |
| Label: | RCA |
| Producer: | Felton Jarvis |
| Prev Title: | The Words Don't Fit the Picture |
| Prev Year: | 1972 |
| Next Title: | Shotgun Willie |
| Next Year: | 1973 |
The Willie Way is the 15th studio album by country singer Willie Nelson. This was also the last album of new material released by RCA Records before Nelson's departure for Atlantic Records and move to Austin, Texas.
The Willie Way capped off Nelson's underwhelming seven-year tenure at RCA Records. He never attained the same success as a recording artist that he had as a songwriter, and became more frustrated with not being allowed to use his own band on his recording sessions. Producer Chet Atkins adhered to the Nashville Sound with Nelson, smothering his songs with violins and syrupy background vocalists in an attempt to break him as a national star, but the efforts proved fruitless. By the early seventies the apathy seemed to cut both ways, with author Michael Streissguth noting that The Willie Way “arrived in stores packaged in the most unimaginative album sleeve ever to come out of Nashville.”[1] The album includes his first cover of Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” which Nelson would recut for Sings Kristofferson in 1979. An overdubbed version of "You Left Me a Long, Long Time Ago” would be included as a bonus track on the 20th Anniversary edition of Wanted! The Outlaws
At the time of the album's release Rolling Stone’s Chet Flippo wrote that Nelson “sang with a freshness drawn from his own blues-tinged country style.”[1] Jim Worbois of AllMusic states, “’You Left Me a Long, Long Time Ago’ is worth the price of this record alone. Also, Willie's version of ‘Undo the Right’ is easily as good as Johnny Bush's 1968 hit."
Like most of Willie's RCA albums, this was never issued on any tape format. "The Willie Way" finally saw release on compact disc from Wounded Bird Records in September 2011, as part of a "twofer" with 1966's "Country Music Concert". In 2017, reissue label Friday Music remastered and reissued this album, making the album available on vinyl for the first time in 45 years.
All tracks composed by Willie Nelson, except where indicated.