Amy Nelson on "Rainbow Connection"
One by Willie
John Spong
4.6 • 898 Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2021
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Willie’s daughter Amy Nelson was just five years old when she first heard Kermit the Frog sing “Rainbow Connection” in The Muppet Movie, and she spent the next twenty years trying to talk her dad into recording it. In 2001, he finally did, with Amy—an accomplished musician in her own right—co-producing. She describes the way that session grew into a magical, extended-family affair mixing songs Willie once sang to his kids with a few of his more grown-up favorites, resulting in Rainbow Connection, a 2002 Grammy nominee for country album of the year.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Texas Monthly. |
| 0:11.2 | Hey there, I'm John Spong with Texas Monthly magazine, and this is One by Willie, |
| 0:16.5 | a podcast in which I talk each week to one notable Willie Nelson fan about one Willie's song |
| 0:21.6 | that they really love. And on this episode, we talked to one of Willie's daughters, Amy Nelson, |
| 0:26.8 | about his 2001 recording of Rainbow Connection. That song was, of course, originally recorded by |
| 0:32.6 | the great Kermit the Frog, and it was written by 70s hitmaker Paul Williams for the 1979 film The Muppet |
| 0:39.3 | Movie. Amy was a little girl when she first saw that movie and fell for the song, and she spent |
| 0:43.9 | the next 20 years trying to talk her dad into recording it. She's going to talk to us about finally |
| 0:48.5 | getting her dad to cut Rainbow Connection, how that project grew into a full-on children's album, |
| 0:54.1 | how Willie, being Willie and all, tacked on some decidedly grown-up songs and how that project grew into a full-on children's album, |
| 0:55.6 | how Willie, being Willie and all, |
| 0:58.2 | tacked on some decidedly grown-up songs at the end of his only ever children's album, |
| 1:01.4 | and about the very grown-up songs |
| 1:03.3 | that Amy Nelson writes and records with her own band, |
| 1:06.2 | Folk Youke. |
| 1:07.7 | And please note that as the band name Folk Youke suggests, |
| 1:13.5 | the songs Amy writes and sings are funny, |
| 1:14.8 | but they're also kind of dirty. |
| 1:17.4 | Listener discretion is advised. |
| 1:18.7 | So let's do it. |
| 1:20.8 | Hey, it's our. |
| 1:40.3 | Why are there so many songs about rainbows and what's on the other side? So like a lot of songs, always on my mind comes to mine, |
... |
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