Willie Nelson has been a living legend for longer than I've been alive, and I'll try not to let his continued prolificacy make me feel bad about myself. In addition to a recent collaboration with Orville Peck, Nelson released The Border — his 75th album of new solo material and 151st album overall, by some counts — this spring, and has now announced his next LP.
Predominantly a covers album, Last Leaf on the Tree arrives November 1 via Sony Music. It was produced by Nelson's son Micah, and features two new original songs, one of which was a father-son co-write. According to Micah, he took a "sculptor's approach," which entails "just throwing the clay down and stepping back, then maybe adding a little more, and then maybe shaving down here, and kind of building the tracks that way," he explained, playing more than two dozen instruments on the recording himself.
As aforementioned, it also presents the icon's takes on tracks by his progeny's Particle Kid project, as well as Neil Young, Beck, the Flaming Lips, Keith Richards, Nina Simone, Warren Zevon, Sunny War and Tom Waits. The first taste of the record arrives today with Nelson's rendition of Waits's "Last Leaf," from the 2011 album Bad as Me, which you can hear below.
In terms of the collection's themes, the younger Nelson added that his father's reckoning with his mortality is at the centre. "There are little side-quests, but that became the through-line — facing death with grace."
Last Leaf on the Tree:
1. Last Leaf (Tom Waits cover)
2. If It Wasn't Broken (Sunny War cover)
3. Lost Cause (Beck cover)
4. Come Ye (Nina Simone cover)
5. Keep Me in Your Heart (Warren Zevon cover)
6. Robbed Blind (Keith Richards cover)
7. House Where Nobody Lives (Tom Waits cover)
8. Are You Ready for the Country? (Neil Young cover)
9. Do You Realize?? (Flaming Lips cover)
10. Wheels (Particle Kid cover)
11. Broken Arrow (Neil Young cover)
12. Color of Sound
13. The Ghost