You’ve got a friend in ME! Amy Irving seems determined to let us know what a good friend she is, and can be, and has been. To be fair to her, the evidence seems compelling. She clearly values friendship as a fundamental part of her being. She conceived her new record Always Will Be as a tribute to one specific relationship, but draws on so many other aspects of her friendhood. Her relationship with Willie Nelson started as an on-set affair during the making of Honeysuckle Rose, but has remained close in the 40 years since then. She left Nelson, romantically, for Steven Spielberg, but even though that marriage fizzled out, she remains on excellent terms with the film director also. Of course she also has many friends from many walks of life that did not start as romantic relationships, and she is deeply committed to those also.
Always Will Be, Irving’s second record (she released her debut, Born in a Trunk, in 2023), features ten songs that people associated with Nelson. Here, she curates them to tell stories about friendships rather than hold them together by a specific musical thread. With a vast back catalogue to abstract from, the friends could no doubt spend many evenings agreeing, disagreeing, and ultimately coming to a consensus on the narrative they wanted told. The resulting product is celebratory and revelatory, and a reminder of what is important in life. The Goolis Orchestra (aka New York musician Jules David Bartkowski, and friends) provides the musical accompaniments and arrangements. Along the way, other acquaintances drop in to provide support, including Nelson himself.
A key aspect of being a good mate is to be able to empathize and, perhaps, mirror your buddy. In life this can establish trust (if done organically and naturally), and in music indicates that you are honoring the original artist. Irving does not have a specific vocal style established for herself, so she is able to adapt to Goolis’ arrangements, but also can sound like other people. On a track like “It’s a Dream Come True,” a song written by Nelson specifically for Irving during the filming of Honeysuckle Rose there are phrases that sound like Nelson himself, in a higher register, but when paired with Steve Earle on “I Wish I Didn’t Love You” she sounds more gruff and hardscrabble, but also more sympathetic, in line with her collaborator, and produces something poignant and resonant.
Sometimes friends decide to do new things, outside their comfort zone, and Irving does indulge this tendency here. As with those experiments they can be fun-ish, but you might not try them again. I’m not sure that the rock ‘n’ roll on “If You Want Me To Love You I Will” is everyone’s forte here.
Not all friendships survive the test of time, and this is also marked. This can be painful, as is the loss of someone from a friendship where both parties wish it to continue. The standout track from the album is “Always Will Be,” taken from Nelson’s 2004 album of the same name. Irving turns it into a celebration for her late friend Judy Nelson. The emotion is not maudlin, and is more like the kind of funeral wake where the passed person has indicated that they want the time to be spent in the way that they enjoyed, in a dive bar with friends, music and some libations. Star band leader Louis Cato provides something special for Irving to work with on “Everywhere I Go.”
Overall there is love in every track on Always Will Be, and something to treasure overall.
Always Will Be Track Listing:
It’s a Dream Come True (feat. Lizzie No)
Yesterday’s Wine (feat. Goolis)
I Guess I’ve Come to Live Here In Your Eyes (feat. Chris Pierce)
I’d Have To Be Crazy
If You Want Me to Love You I Will
I Wish I Didn’t Love You So (feat. Steve Earle)
Getting Over You (feat. Goolis)
Everywhere I Go (feat. Louis Cato)
Always Will Be (feat. Amy Helm)
Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground (feat. Willie Nelson)
