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It's Willie Nelson like you have never heard

The alt-country world is in a tizzy over Red Headed Stranger. Not the 1975 concept album by Willie Nelson, considered a masterpiece by most country music purists, but the new rendition of it, a song-for-song cover of a murderous preacher's confessional narrative sung by Carla Bozulich.

Huh?

Who?

Yeah, you heard right.

Carla Bozulich. Folks into obscure indie rock may recall Bozulich as the talented lead singer of the great, punky Geraldine Fibbers, a band out of Los Angeles. (The ever-explorative singer also fronted industrial dance band Ethyl Meatplow).

Red Headed Stranger, as sung by Nelson, was a weird, minimalist album chronicling the story of a preacher who kills his adulterous wife.

Considered "inaccessible" (i.e., without any sort of hit country single), Nelson's album was never expected to be a critical success, let alone a landmark. (Though the record did bring us the gorgeous single Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain.)

When punky Bozulich, who's worked with the likes of Beck, Eddie Vedder, and Lydia Lunch, re-envisions the passion play, the twang's still intact thanks to Nels Cline's tender lap-steel guitar, but the sounds become otherworldly. (Cline, an avant-garde guitarist, freaked out some jazz purists by covering John Coltrane and Rashied Ali's Interstellar Space).

The narrative gets a bit, shall we say, more obtuse. That's because of Bozulich's penchant for improvisation. Nelson's title track was a Spartan ballad that clocked in at a tight four minutes; Bozulich stretches it to an 11-minute hodgepodge of Celtic fiddle and autoharp drone backed by percussion that sounds eerily jazzy and upbeat.

The wonky new Red Headed Stranger has critics divided. For what it's worth, Nelson approves of the reinterpretation: The ponytailed troubadour duets with the new cowpunk on two numbers, Can I Sleep In Your Arms? and Hands On The Wheel. His and Bozulich's voices blend like whiskey and cigarettes. (Nelson also picks his signature Spanish guitar on opener Time Of The Preacher, and plays on other tracks.)

I love Bozulich's album. Both Nelson and Bozulich are maverick artists. Sure, Bozulich's Red Headed Stranger sounds mightily different from its predecessor but, in spirit, the two swagger in the very same stride.

COOL LOCAL STORE: Rock 'n' rollers dropping dime in Pinellas County need to be hip to downtown St. Petersburg boutique The Monkey's Paw, which bills itself as a "modern curiosity shop."

The store at 641 Central Ave., owned by sweeties Chris Orlando and Dana Cruz DeLeon, is packed with items that belong in every rockabilly, goth and punk household: KISS 12-inch action figures, vintage lunch boxes, candle holders with the visages of Tori Amos.

Need a Joey Ramone Headknocker doll? A necklace charm with a pic of David Bowie or Dean Martin?

The Monkey's Paw hours are 11:30 a.m to 6:30 p.m. daily. Closed on Sunday.

LOCAL MUSICIANS, VENGEANCE IS YOURS! A heads up to all the local musicians who have bones to pick with reviews they received from the local print media: As the adage goes, critics often are merely performers who can't get gigs themselves.

Hey, who can say how this happened: Pity? Payola? Mercury in retrograde? Nevertheless, the next "In the Raw" singer-songwriter installment at the State Theater features performances by all three local print-music scribes.

What does this mean? It means you can exact revenge in the form of guffaws, jeers and pie throwing at the Weekly Planet's Scott Harrell, as well as Curtis Ross of the Tampa Tribune and yours truly, who perform together as The Peabodies.

The other, bona fide, local musicians performing that night include Bob Anthony, Experimental Pilot's Rob Vessenmeyer, Mark Empire of Crizzy and the Punx, Shawn Beauville and Marcus McCord.

Get "In The Raw" with us at 8:30 p.m. Jan. 7 at the State Theater, 687 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. (727) 895-3045. $3.

QUOTE: "I wouldn't want my kid, at 21, to be dressing like that."

Gina Vivinetto is the pop music critic of the St. Petersburg Times. Contact her at gina@sptimes.com