Willie Nelson & Friends: Outlaws & Angels

How much fun can Willie have on stage? How hard can he rock? Only as much and as hard as the party warrants, and this audio souvenir of his third USA Network TV special is some kind of party. Despite some jarring editing--guest announcements intrude and Kid Rock's corny cameo lurches into Al Green's moaning pentecost--the star-spangled pageantry rarely overwhelms the loose, joyful collaborations.

The killer house band, with Jim Keltner on drums and Nils Lofgren on guitar, shifts from swing to reggae to boogie rock, and leaves the Nelson Family Band, fine as they are, in the dust. Ol' Willie may go froggy on an otherwise gorgeous duet with a Carole King, he may be a no-show on Toots Hibbert's frenetic "Pressure Drop," and he probably should have thought twice about letting Los Lonely Boys suck the funk from War's "Cisco Kid," but he still slings some signature Trigger riffs alongside the Holmes Brothers and matches Lucinda Williams' slow-burn emotion, phrase for soulful phrase. --Roy Kasten