Clean Shirt


Clean Shirt is a duet album by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, released on Epic Records in 1991.

Background

Jennings, who had just moved to Epic from MCA, expressed his frustration at producer Bob Montgomery, who seemed far more excited at the prospect of a collaboration between Jennings and Nelson than a new Jennings solo album:
The two singers' last collaboration, after Waylon and Willie, WWII and Take It to the Limit, it was released at a time which coincided with both artists' commercial decline. All but the final two songs were written partly by Troy Seals. Clean Shirt was the duo's least successful album, peaking at #28 on the country charts and barely making the Billboard 200 at #193; "If I Can Find a Clean Shirt" was the only charting single, reaching #51. According to Jennings, Epic executives were displeased about the prevalence of Mexican horns on the songs.

Reception

Brian Mansfiel of AllMusic writes, "Small flashes of tossed-off brilliance appear in nearly every song, but sometimes it's hard to tell what's part of the pair's casual charm and what's just laziness: when the clever "Old Age and Treachery" falls apart at the end, it's infuriating. Like much of either singer's output, Clean Shirt sounds a bit wrinkled at first, but most of the album holds up to repeated listening."

Track listing

  1. "If I Can Find a Clean Shirt" – 3:25
  2. "I Could Write a Book About You" – 2:45
  3. "Old Age and Treachery" – 3:35
  4. "Two Old Sidewinders" – 2:48
  5. "Tryin' to Outrun the Wind" – 3:27
  6. "Good Ol' Nights" – 2:20
  7. "Guitars That Won't Stay in Tune" – 1:55
  8. "The Makin's of a Song" – 2:50
  9. "Put Me on a Train Back to Texas" – 2:50
  10. "Rocks from Rolling Stones" – 3:40

    Personnel