Though it not’s readily apparent from the airy production, nor from the impressive marquee of guests—which includes the likes of Paul Simon, Sinéad O'Connor, Bob Dylan and dozens more—Willie Nelson's 1993 album Across the Borderline is one of his most ambitious efforts. At the very least, it reminded audiences why Nelson had long been such a creative and commercial force. Stardust had been a pop success, and Always on My Mind had found the singer breaking into the adult-contemporary world. But there’s something about the range of Borderline that feels especially impressive, in part because Nelson makes it all sound so natural. There’s plenty to offer here, both in the material Nelson turns into his own—from his comfortably stoic take on Simon’s “Graceland” to his impressionistic version of Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Give Up”—to the wide of expanse of sounds. Across the Borderline finds Nelson tackling old Chicago blues (Willie Dixon’s “I Love the Life I Live”), as well as new Tejano ballads (“Across the Borderline”), and is augmented by tasteful guitar licks, not to mention judicious touches of congas and pedal steel. It sounds very much like a Willie Nelson album—while also redefining, once again, just how a Willie Nelson album can feel. It’s funny to think of an artist so solitary and “outlaw” becoming such a cultural uniter, but that’s Nelson. And while the polish and technique demonstrated on Across the Borderline might highlight the stylistic cross-pollination Nelson had always championed—listen to the Tex-Mex guitar accents in “Graceland”, for example—he still comes off as plain-spoken and direct. He was too old to be relevant, and too legendary to care, but he still kept trying new things. Not that any of this mattered to his label at the time, which soon refused to renew his contract. Nelson’s manager was furious: You’ve made them millions, Willie! That’s right, Nelson said—but that had been in the past. Nelson was still stuck in the present.