Willie Nelson - Teatro

Teatro finds Willie Nelson in a darkened old movie house with Daniel Lanois at the controls, and the result is one of the most atmospheric records of his long career.

Released in 1998, it was cut inside a former cinema in Oxnard, California, a room Lanois filled with rumbling drums, shimmering guitars and plenty of echo. Many of the songs reach back to the 1960s, when Nelson was a Nashville songwriter still waiting for the world to catch up with his own records, and hearing them reborn decades later gives the album a quietly reflective pull.

Emmylou Harris floats harmonies through most of the record, her voice wrapping around Willie's like smoke. I Never Cared for You arrives on a hypnotic, almost Latin shuffle, and Darkness on the Face of the Earth turns an early honky-tonk lament into something moody and nocturnal. Lanois's own song The Maker gets a slow, prayerful reading that sits beautifully in Nelson's weathered phrasing. Mickey Raphael's harmonica and Bobbie Nelson's keys keep the family feel close at hand.

Wim Wenders filmed the sessions for a feature-length documentary, which says plenty about how special the room felt.

It's a late-night record in the best sense, spare and spellbinding, and a reminder that Nelson has always been willing to wander off the expected path.