Bobbie Nelson

Music was always a family affair for Bobbie Nelson -- she grew up playing music with her younger brother Willie Nelson, and played piano with his band the Family for over 40 years, adding a strong melodic undercurrent that became one of the trademarks of Willie's music. Bobbie's keyboard work was largely informed by gospel and hard country, as well as piano jazz and traditional pop, and added a buoyant touch that worked well with the versatility of Willie's musical outlook. Bobbie Nelson was an accompanist who rarely stepped into the spotlight, but 2007's Audiobiography was a solo LP where she showed off the full range of her influences, and 2014's Farther Along: The Gospel Collection and December Day: Willie's Stash, Vol. 1 were amiable collaborations with her brother, playing favorites from throughout their lives. 2023's Loving You gave a posthumous release to a collaborative project between Nelson and violinist and songwriter Amanda Shires.

Bobbie Lee Nelson was born in the small town of Abbott, Texas on January 1, 1931. Her parents split up when she was young, and she and her brother spent most of their childhood with their paternal grandparents; when Bobbie was just five years old, her grandmother began teaching her how to play a pump organ in the house, and a year later she graduated to a piano her grandparents bought for $35. When her brother Willie, two years her junior, picked up the guitar, the siblings began playing popular tunes and gospel favorites together, and the Nelsons were soon performing at school functions and at the local Methodist Church (which Willie bought in 2006 to prevent it from being torn down).

When Bobbie was 14, she turned pro, playing piano for a traveling preacher who wandered the Lone Star State in an effort to save souls. At age 16, she fell for a man named Bud Fletcher, and they were married. Recognizing his new bride's talent, Fletcher put together a band, Bud Fletcher & the Texans, which featured both Bobbie and Willie (while Bud was the combo's manager, he wasn't musical and didn't perform with them). Bobbie and Bud had three children, but when he fell ill in 1955, it led to the couple's divorce; the fact Bobbie often played in honky tonks led to Bud's parents being given custody of the children, even though Bobbie was a teetotaler. After Bud's death in 1961 and Bobbie suffered a breakdown, she remarried in order to win back her children, and worked in a television repair shop and the Hammond Organ Company. Though Bobbie regained custody of her children, her second marriage failed, and the family moved to Austin, Texas. After a third marriage fared no better, Bobbie relocated to Nashville, and began playing piano in restaurants and upscale nightspots.

Bobbie's career took a welcome left turn in 1973 when she got a message from her brother Willie -- he was in New York City recording an album of old gospel tunes, and wanted to know if she'd be willing to play piano on the sessions. Taking her first flight on an airplane, she played piano on recordings that would later be released on the 1976 album The Troublemaker, and was also invited to join her brother on the albums Shotgun Willie (1973) and Phases and Stages (1974). Willie enjoyed working with his sister so much that he invited her to join his band, and in 1975 she played on Red Headed Stranger, the concept album that marked Willie's commercial breakthrough. From then on, Bobbie had a busy schedule keeping up with Willie's frequent touring and recording sessions, and while she occasionally played with other artists ranging from country icons like Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard to over the top rockers the Supersuckers and Austin outsider songwriter Daniel Johnston, she spent the bulk of her career working with Willie. In 2007, Bobbie released her first solo effort, a collection of pop standards and country classics entitled Audiobiography, and seven years, later Bobbie and Willie teamed up for the album December Day, inspired by the informal jam sessions the siblings often enjoyed while on the bus en route from one show to another. She continued playing with Willie in the years that followed, and appeared on the 2021 album Willie Nelson Family, a collection of country-gospel favorites. She and Willie also collaborated on two books around that time: Me and Sister Bobbie: True Tales of the Nelson Family Band in 2020 and Sister, Brother, Family: An American Childhood in Music in 2021. Bobbie Nelson passed away on March 10, 2022, at the age of 91. Songwriter and fiddler Amanda Shires, a member of the Highwomen and Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit and an acclaimed solo artist, cited Bobbie as an inspiration in her formative years, and the first female instrumentalist she saw perform on-stage. Shires reached out to Bobbie, and in 2021 they began work on a collaborative album. The project was completed shortly before Bobbie's death, and in June 2023, Shires issued Loving You on ATO Records. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi