Sierra Ferrell’s tippin’ her cowboy hat to Willie Nelson.
In honor of the red headed stranger’s 90th birthday tomorrow, Spotify teamed up with Sierra during her performance at Luck Reunion (Willie’s festival at his ranch in Texas) for a cover of his classic hit with Ray Charles “Seven Spanish Angels,” and she sounds absolutely perfect.
Actually, during last month’s festival, Sierra stopped by Pedernales Studio, Willie’s iconic home studio, to lay down her vocals and record the song, which is pretty damn cool and makes listening to it even more fun.
Written by Troy Seals and Eddie Setser, “Seven Spanish Angels” was first released in November 1984 as a single from Charles’ 1984 album Friendship, and Willie also included it on his 1985 compilation album Half Nelson.
It was the most successful of Ray’s eight hits on the country chart, as the single spent one week #1 one and a total of twelve weeks on the country chart.
Troy explained in The Billboard Book Of Number One Country Hits that they had set out to emulate Marty Robbins’ “El Paso” when they wrote the song:
“We started writing, hoping we could emulate Marty Robbins and ‘El Paso.’ We didn’t think we had a song like that, but that whole flavor of the Southwest and cowboys.
Of course, the chorus is kind of an old wives’ tale, and old story that’s been handed down.”
Legendary producer Billy Sherrill had initially wanted Ronnie Milsap to sing it solo, but after he declined, Willie accepted the offer as a duet with Charles.
And the rest, as they say, is beautiful country music history (or something like that)…
You can listen to a teaser of Sierra’s cover below, and of course, can hear the full thing over on Spotify. She nailed it:
“Seven Spanish Angels”
