As a youth who was full of big ideas, hard rock provided the perfect tribal beat to inspire me to take on the world. Now that I'm approaching 40, though, I find my nerves are more frayed, and therefore when I put a CD in, I need something that can smooth out the rough edges, rather than make me sit up straight in bed.

Therefore the recent purchase of Willie Nelson's Stardust album has been $4.99 (used) well-spent. This is the 1978 album where Willie went off the beaten country path and recorded an album of Tin Pan Alley jazz standards. It might've seemed like an oddball thing to do on paper at the time, but after it went quadruple platinum, which was rare for a country singer, his idea was justified.

Stardust contains the well-known song "Georgia" that of course gets played at any public event in the state of Georgia all the time (either the Willie version or the Ray Charles version). Also here is "All of Me," which was a pretty big hit, along with highlights "Blue Skies" and "Moonlight in Vermont," which Willie says is his all-time favorite song. This remastered version also contains the bonus tracks "Scarlett Ribbons" and "I Can See Clearly Now." Usually I'm anti-bonus tracks, but "I Can See Clearly Now" seems like such a natural, climactic finalé I can't imagine the CD without it.

I would compare the simplicity and subtlety of this record to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. In the liner notes of that CD it's said that there is a Japanese form of graphic art where each line has to be carefully thought-out and executed so as not to tear the paper that holds it. Stardust sounds like it was also executed with that kind of calculated elegance in mind.

Eleven years later Nelson did another album around the same concept called Moonlight Becomes You that I also have. By 1994 the thought of Willie doing such a record was considered so commercially unviable that he had to go to a independent record company in Houston and cut it there. That one's also great, and I plan to give it a repeat listening soon. Stardust is the one that got the ball rolling, though.

So if you're also around 40 and need something besides a shot of Jack Daniels to bring you down to earth, check out a shot of Stardust.

* I also picked up Willie's Phases and Stages CD for about the same price, but I haven't listened to it yet. Now all I need is Yesterday's Wine and I'll have all the classic Willie Nelson.