 Billboard wrote : " This is Willie Nelson at his narrative best . He writes and sings with the love and the hurt and the down @-@ to @-@ earth things he feels , and he has a few peers . " Texas Monthly praised Nelson and Wexler regarding the change in musical style : " They 've switched his arrangements from Ray Price to Ray Charles — the result : a revitalized music . He 's the same old Willie , but veteran producer Jerry Wexler finally captured on wax the energy Nelson projects in person " . School Library Journal wrote : " Willie Nelson differs ( from ) rock artists framing their music with a country & western facade — in that he appears a honky @-@ tonk stardust cowboy to the core . This album abounds in unabashed sentimentalism , nasal singing , lyrics preoccupied with booze , religion , and love gone bad , and stereotyped Nashville instrumentation ( twangy steel guitars , fiddles , and a clean rhythm section characterized by the minimal use of bass drum and cymbals , both of which gain heavy mileage with rock performers ) . 
