Send "Phosphorescent " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Prefixmag |
 If a cover song is an open letter from an artist to the originator, an entire album of covers is the equivalent of a bouquet of flowers and a shy smile. Matthew Houck, better known as the voice of Phosphorescent, has given Willie Nelson (and the rest of us) a gorgeous, shimmering gift in To Willie. It continues a chain Nelson started when he offered To Lefty from Willie, his own musical love letter to Lefty Frizzell. Houck bypasses jukebox favorites like “Whiskey River” and “Always on My Mind” and even his eyebrow raising duet with Julio Iglesias, “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before.” Instead, he’s channeled the braided outlaw, the guy who spent time carousing in bars, breaking hearts, and generally being the life of the party. Opener "Reasons to Quit” sets the tone with its hard truth that “the reasons to quite don’t outnumber the reasons” why. Houck’s delivery is sweet and plaintive, as if he's shaking his head, smiling halfway as he reaches for another beer to keep the good times rolling despite the pull to settle down a bit. Which brings us to “I Gotta Get Drunk,” which contains this nugget of truth: "There's a lot of doctors tell me/ That I'd better start slowing it down/ But there's more old drunks than there are old doctors/ So I guess we'd better have another round.”...full text |
| Uncut |
| It’s ironic, not to mention strangely fitting, that this tribute to Willie Nelson is partly made up of other people’s songs. Aside from his reputation as composer and the coolest man in country, Nelson is best known as an interpreter of song, prone to plumbing the works of Hank Cochran, Merle Haggard, Hoagy Carmichael and myriad others. It’s no coincidence that two of his most celebrated albums, 1975’s Red-Headed Stranger and 1978’s Stardust, are mostly covers. Brooklyn-based songwriter Matthew Houck (Phosphorescent to you and me) clearly understands Nelson’s motives, for this artful, understated record is deftly weighted between homage and reinvention. “Can I Sleep In Your Arms”, for instance, is recast as a forlorn winter hymn, a lone tambourine shucking behind the same Tabernacle harmonies that made Willie’s last LP, 2007’s Pride, such a treat....full text |
| Drownedinsound |
| Not many singers have mastered the folky frail, warm warble like Matthew Houck. Under the moniker of Phosphorescent, Houck has released three notable LPs full of delicate yearning and humble heartwarmers. His music has a red-wine warmth to it steeped in the tradition of folk crooners, from Dylan through to Oldham. Very appropriate then that he should turn his attention to tackling one of the great troublatours, Willie Nelson; indeed, dedicate a whole album to covering the great country maestro. Even for a Nelson novice like myself, it’s immediately obvious why Houck is drawn to attempting to reinterpret these songs. Each one is - despite the hard-drinking bravado - essentially fragile, the sentiment veering from the self-deprecating to the self-loathing in a manner entirely suited to Houck’s delivery: often little more than a murmur, always sympathetic. Perhaps more than anything else, the lyrical content and Houck’s vocals work together because of the honesty of both; there’s very little affectation on display. From the off it’s raw, desperate stuff, ‘Reasons To Quit’ literally listing the title’s intent, “I can’t afford the habit all the time” being one of the most affectingly sincere. The instrumentation throughout the record has a lilting quality similar to Dylan’s ‘Pat Garret’ soundtrack: slow, almost lazy guitars drifting over the echoic vocals....full text |
Phosphorescent lyrics
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