While the music on “Countryman” might raise the eyebrows of country purists, so will the cover. With green marijuana leaves on a red and yellow background, the cover art makes the CD look like an oversized pack of rolling papers.
The marijuana imagery reflects Jamaican culture, where the herb is a leading cash crop and part of religious rites, but it also reflects Nelson’s fondness for pot smoking.
Universal Music Group Nashville is substituting palm trees for the marijuana leaves on CDs sold at the retail chain Wal-Mart, a huge outlet for country music that’s also sensitive about lyrics and packaging.
“They’re covering all the bases,” Nelson joked.
Here’s a review from E! Online:
It’s one of those ideas that looks great on paper…rolling paper, that is. Willie Nelson, the classic American country singer lights up a bushel of reggae hits and gives his own tunes an island spin in tribute to his favorite recreational activity: blazing a giant doobie. What should be the ultimate stoner’s delight (or at least a laugh-a-minute musical oddity) disappointingly goes up in smoke the minute the music starts. With a drowsy mix of slide guitars and echoing Caribbean beats, Nelson sleepwalks through Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come” and his own “Darkness on the Face of the Earth” sounding like Jimmy Buffet with a bad hangover. It’s no wonder his former label kept this stuff locked away in the vaults for nine years. Whoever decided to put this out must have been, well, you know.