Red Headed Stranger is the eighteenth studio album by American outlaw country singer Willie Nelson, released in 1975.

The concept for the album was inspired by the "Tale of the Red Headed Stranger", a song that Nelson used to play as a disc jockey on his program in Fort Worth, Texas.

The content consists of songs with brief poetic lyrics and arrangements of older material such as Fred Rose's "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain", Wolfe Gilbert's "Down Yonder", and Juventino Rosas' "O'er the Waves".

Nelson first achieved fame as a songwriter in Nashville after writing hits such as "Hello Walls", "Night Life", "Funny How Time Slips Away", "Pretty Paper", and "Crazy".

[5] During his return to Austin, Texas, after a ski trip in Colorado, Nelson was inspired by his then-wife Connie Koepke to write a western concept album.

Koepke suggested the inclusion of Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith's "Tale of the Red Headed Stranger",[6] which Nelson sang during his radio shows on KCNC in Fort Worth, Texas, and previously, to his children at bedtime.

[9] With his original writings, Nelson included in the story, Fred Rose's "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain", Wolfe Gilbert's "Down Yonder", Juventino Rosas' "Sobre las Olas (O'er the Waves)", Hank Cochran's "Can I Sleep in Your Arms?

Engineer Phil York, who was hired freelance by the recently opened Autumn Sound Studios in Garland, Texas, heard about his need.

[14] The title track of the album was written by Edith Lindeman Calisch and Carl Stutz, and made popular by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith.

I could also hear the preacher doing a beautiful old ballad by Fred Rose, 'Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain', that had been sung by everyone from Hank Williams to Gene Autry to Conway Twitty.

[16] Author Michael Streissguth considered it Nelson's "first true concept album", composed of new songs and old, arranged in a sequence that formed a story.

[19] This section is followed by Nelson's cover of the 1947 Fred Rose song "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain", where the fugitive laments the loss of his wife.

[19] Initially, Columbia Records was not satisfied with the finished product; the sparsely instrumented acoustic arrangements caused the label's directors to doubt releasing the album as presented, feeling it was under-produced and no more than a demo.

"[22] Nelson's manager Neil Reshen and Waylon Jennings then traveled to New York City to play the album for Columbia president Bruce Lundvall.

[13] Reflecting on the album's success, Columbia executive Rick Blackburn later commented "Red Headed Stranger was a hit for all the wrong reasons.

[28] Rolling Stone writer Paul Nelson considered "Red Headed Stranger "extraordinarily ambitious, cool, tightly controlled".

"[29] Meanwhile, critic Robert Christgau wrote, "Some of the individual pieces are quite nice, but the gestalt is the concept album at its most counterproductive—the lyrics render the nostalgic instrumental parts unnecessarily ironic and lose additional charm in narrative context.

"[30] Music critic Chet Flippo wrote an article in Texas Monthly that was titled "Mathew, Mark, Luke and Willie: Willie Nelson's latest album is more than a good country music; it's almost Gospel": "The difference between Nelson's Red Headed Stranger and any current C&W album, and especially what passes for a soundtrack for Nashville, is astounding.

[32] In Mother Jones Joe Nick Patoski wrote: "Texans have known for 15 years what Red Headed Stranger finally revealed to the world – that Nelson is simply too brilliant a songwriter, interpreter, and singer – just too damn universal – to be defined as merely a country artist".

[34] John Edminston, from The Paris News, declared: "Red Headed Stranger, if nothing else, will bring Willie to the forefront as one of the nation's top country-western recording artists.

[35] Red Headed Stranger's critical success cemented Nelson's outlaw image, and made him one of the most recognized artists in country music.

[36] The cover of Fred Rose's 1945 song "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain", that had been released as a single previous to the album, became his first number one hit as a singer.

[26] In 2009, Red Headed Stranger was added to the National Recording Registry as it was considered that it was "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or informs or reflects life in the United States".

[44] Stephen Thomas Erlewine in AllMusic described Red Headed Stranger as "really elusive, as the themes get a little muddled and the tunes themselves are a bit bare.

Following the story of a preacher man that kills his cheating wife and her lover, ol' Willie spins the tale with a laid back nonchalance that just seems to ooze out of him, his aching chords and somber melodies encapsulating the futility and pain of his character's situation [...] The Red Headed Stranger is timeless.

Willie Nelson's captivating story telling, and the minimalist majesty of his music fills a well worn grove in the hearts of those that enjoy the folk roots of the United States.

"[47] Writing for Pitchfork, Rebecca Bengal deemed it "a big and beautiful dream made real by simple and spare music", noting Nelson's "uncanny ability to bend the listener’s perception of time".

[48] The Encyclopedia of Popular Music defined it as a "country classic" [49] The first track, "Time of the Preacher", was used in Bob Dylan's 1978 film Renaldo and Clara and episodes of the 1985 television drama Edge of Darkness.