Phases and Stages is the seventeenth studio album by Willie Nelson, which followed the moderate success of his first Atlantic Records release, Shotgun Willie. Nelson met producer Jerry Wexler at a party where Nelson sang songs from an unreleased album he had recorded in 1972. The single "Phases and Stages" was originally recorded the same year. Nelson re-recorded the album at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in two days and Wexler produced it.

The album narrates the story of a divorce. Side one tells the woman's story and side two the man's. Released on March 1974, the album peaked at number 34 on Billboard's Top Country Albums and the single "Bloody Mary Morning" reached number 17 on Billboard's Country singles. Despite the chart positions attained by the album, and its singles, Atlantic Records closed their Country music division in September 1974.

In 1972, Nelson signed a recording contract with the Country Music division of Atlantic Records and Jerry Wexler, who gave him greater creative control than he'd had during his tenure with RCA. Nelson met Wexler at a party in Harlan Howard's house, where he sang the songs he wrote for an album. Howard later remembered, “He got on the stool late at night when the party had thinned out, and he sang like a total album with a gut string and a stool. He just went from one song to another and then Jerry Wexler from New York...flipped out.  Nelson was excited at the prospect of using his own band, something RCA had not allowed him to do previously. By this time the core of Nelson’s band – Paul English on drums, Bee Spears on bass, Mickey Raphael on harmonica, and Bobbie Nelson on piano – was in place and cultivating a new sound that would be soon widely known as Outlaw country, a progressive take on traditional country music with a rock and roll attitude. Nelson recorded his first album for Atlantic Records, Shotgun Willie, in 1972.  Shotgun Willie, produced by Arif Mardin and Wexler, marked a change of style in Nelson's music. Nelson stated that recording the album had "...cleared his throat. Read more