The singer Steve Perry described as the “Frank Sinatra of country music”
Artificial intelligence has a lot of uses, controversial or otherwise. When it comes to music, it possesses the terrifying power to bridge genres and sounds in a way never heard before, and I will admit to debating asking it to conjure up a country imitation of Frank Sinatra in this case, but even that seemed too far in bringing together a complete crash of the sonic spectrum.
Granted, the tales of ‘Out West’ and ‘Ol’ Blue Eyes’ do have some resemblance in the way they both played a seismic role in shaping the sound of America, but that’s just about where the similarities both start and end. They may not have the best sonic compatibility in practice, but you can at least understand the sentiment when Journey frontman Steve Perry recently waxed lyrical on a musical stalwart, branding him the “Sinatra of country music.”
Scoring through the lists of legendary musicians, there’s no one else in the country canon who could ever reach the calibre of Sinatra quite like Willie Nelson, who in all his 92 years has stoked up more than enough acclaim to be revered at that same classic level. But what puts Nelson a cut above the rest is his lack of complacency; even as he’s well on the road of his twilight years, he has never stopped releasing new music or creating fresh visions, truly embodying the real meaning of the phrase, ‘They don’t make ‘em like they used to.’
When it comes to Perry, however, he’s clearly keen to take a slice of Nelson’s longevity pie, most overtly in the pair’s recent collaboration reworking the Journey classic ‘Faithfully’. For obvious reasons, it’s been a massive honour for the frontman to commit his vocals on a cut with the country icon, but the scale of Nelson’s impact has left a far bigger impression on Perry than what you first might imagine.
In a recent interview with Consequence of Sound, discussing the new song, Perry lauded Nelson’s power by explaining: “I would say back in the early 1980s when Journey was touring, we used to go to Texas all the time, and a couple of the shows or a couple of the tours, he came backstage and we got to meet him. And I never forgot what it was like hearing his voice on the radio growing up and meeting him.”
But more than just simply the mirage of the country legend, Perry’s mind went alight at the thought of putting one of his own works into Nelson’s orbit. He continued: “It was very iconic for me. I mean, he has become, and always was going to become, the Sinatra of country music. He’s got the most unique vocal phrasing. Everyone’s talked about how beautiful his voice is, so I always thought that ‘Faithfully’, even though we had a hit with it, I always thought it would be great to hear him do it or someday get a chance to do a duet with him.”
Eventually, now some 42 years down the line, Perry’s dreams have come true with Nelson lending his voice to the song, giving it a whole new country dimension than its initial rock roots. It is a thought, though, that if something as seemingly obscure as a Journey and Willie Nelson crossover can work, then maybe Frank Sinatra doing a country yarn may not be such a bad idea, after all. That said, certain things are better left to the imagination, as bringing that combination to reality could be opening a totally different can of worms.
