Liberty Records signed Nelson in 1961, and despite his unorthodox, spare, behind-the-beat singing style, he scored a Top 10 country hit with “Touch Me.
” After Liberty folded their country division, Nelson moved to the RCA label. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he was a Nashville fixture, but never scored a hit single.
Feeling that Nashville's sterile studios and hired-gun musicians represented his music poorly, Nelson moved to Austin, Texas, in 1972. Austin's freewheeling music...