Even Cowboys Get the Blues

Willie Nelson is singing the blues, but not over any of his brushes with authorities in the ‘90s. Yes, the celebrated outlaw country singer-songwriter lost his ranch and several million dollars to the Internal Revenue Service because of a humongous back-taxes bill, and he was busted in Texas in 1995 for pot possession. But he ultimately settled up with the IRS, and the pot case was thrown out.

No, the Red Headed Stranger is literally singing the blues on his latest album, “Milk Cow Blues,” due in stores Sept. 19. As he has frequently in the past, he teams with a variety of collaborators. This time they include B.B. King, Dr. John, Keb’ Mo’, Jimmie Vaughan, Susan Tedeschi and blues hotshots Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

It’s the first all-blues outing of a wide-reaching career in which Nelson has released concept albums (“Phases and Stages,” “Red Headed Stranger”), collections of pop standards (“Stardust”), tribute albums (“To Lefty [Frizzell] From Willie”), gospel albums (“The Troublemaker,” “Family Bible”) and numerous duet projects.

Next he’ll be going back to Jamaica to resume work with Ziggy Marley and the Wailers and producer Don Was on a reggae album he began in the mid-’90s, before Island Records founder Chris Blackwell was ousted in 1997 by his corporate bosses at PolyGram.

He’s also gearing up for the 15th Farm Aid concert on Sept. 17 in Bristow, Va., as well as the Sept. 12 release of “Farm Aid: Volume One Live,” a double CD of highlights from past concerts, with all album proceeds benefiting family farmers in the U.S. “If you eat,” Nelson says, “you should be concerned about the family farmer.”

Preparing for a show Monday at Anaheim’s Sun Theatre, the tireless 67-year-old performer discussed his new album as well as the state of country music.

Question: What made you decide to do a blues album?

Answer: I love the blues. I love playing them and I love singing them. I sing some blues almost every night [on stage], and I’ve been doing “Milk Cow Blues” practically all my life. We have all these great blues musicians in Austin and we have a studio there, so once when I had a few days off, we just went in and did [it]. When the reggae album didn’t come out on Island, that left a slot open and they agreed to put the blues album out instead.

Q: Jimmie Rodgers established the link between country music and the blues back in the 1920s, yet you don’t hear much blues in today’s country. Why do you think that is?

A: I think they decided to go off in a different direction, to go more rock ‘n’ roll. And they wound up with a melted-down version of something else. It’s not country, it’s not rock ‘n’ roll.

Q: Is this blues album your way of reminding the country establishment about that link?

A: I’m not trying to teach anybody anything--it’s just that I know there’s a hunger out there for a good blues song. We play blues every night on the show and when we do, they hit the dance floor. In the big concert halls they jump to their feet. . . . They love the blues.

Q: Today’s country also doesn’t go much for the deep pain of love and life--the stuff country used to be about, and that the blues has always been about. Is that just a phase?

A: It’s all phases and stages and circles and cycles. Eventually it’ll come back around. It always has. The good stuff always comes back to the top.

Q: What does it do for you as a musician to keep doing all these very different kinds of projects?

A: It lets me play in every direction that I think I’m capable of going. . . . It’s not any fun to get locked into any one thing. But even if I didn’t have any records out, in the course of a two-hour show I would still play songs like “Whiskey River” and “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” and maybe “Night Life” and then do a gospel song. I’d still put together the same kind of show I’m doing now because I know the audience wants that. They really like all kinds of music if it’s presented to them.

Q: Does that mean you have a potential audience in mind when deciding what direction to go on your next album?

A: I do most everything spontaneously. I’ve found that you can’t make plans when it comes to making records and releasing them, because you never know when you make one when it’s going to get released or if it’s going to get released. So you can’t worry about it. . . . I just love to go in there with different groups and record. I still enjoy that a lot.

Q: Do you hear anything coming out of Nashville that you enjoy?

A: I’m not paying that much attention to what’s coming out of there. I can’t even think of anybody who’s there right now, except for the old guys who are still doing anything to speak of: Waylon [Jennings], Kris [Kristofferson] and John [Cash], and Billy Joe Shaver’s still putting out records.

Q: Is there anything you’d change about the Nashville music establishment if you could?

A: I don’t think it’s as much Nashville as who’s running the radio stations. I think it’s radio stations that are supposedly playing things for the listeners. If listeners demanded enough different kinds of music, they’d get it. . . . But when this kind of [commercial country] music stops making money, I think a lot of them will find the traditional market is a good place to go back to. It doesn’t atter whether it’s blues, jazz or whatever. There’ll always be a place for Hank Williams or Miles Davis or Bob Wills.

Q: Speaking of Hank Williams, in 1985 you included a posthumous duet with him on your “Half Nelson” album of duets, which gave rise to a joke that you’d been forced to do it because you’d finally run out of living partners you hadn’t sung with. Is there anybody living with whom you haven’t sung that you’d like to?

A: (He laughs.) I did one with Patsy Cline, too. (Another laugh). There are a lot of people that I would. Rob Thomas and I might do something together. I did some other things I hope will come out someday. I did a song with Aerosmith, and I did a song with U2, “Slow Dancing,” that Bono had written. Those are still laying around back there somewhere.

Q: And the reggae album--will it be just you and Ziggy and the Wailers or will there be other guests?

A: I’m not opposed to having more people--the more the merrier, I think. If there are people who Don or Ziggy think would love to do it, I’m all for it.

* Willie Nelson plays Monday at the Sun Theatre, 2200 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. 8 p.m. $55-$65. (714) 712-2700.