Phases and Stages is a 1974 album by Willie Nelson. It is a concept album illustrating the dissolution of a marriage, reportedly Nelson's own[citation needed]. The first side of the album tells the woman's side of the story; the second side tells the man's. Producer Jerry Wexler described the album (together with Shotgun Willie) as "generally viewed as having set Willie on a new path ... it was the coalescing of his audience, where the rednecks and the hippies came together. And to this day, that's Willie's audience. ..."