Willie Nelson has announced the November 1st release of Last Leaf on the Tree which, according to Texas Monthly, will serve as his 153rd (!) album, and 76th solo release.
The new record sees Willie working with his son Micah Nelson in the producer’s chair for the first time who. In an approach not dissimilar to Rick Ruben for Johnny Cash’s American Recordings, Micah helped identify tracks by younger generations of songwriters that suited his father’s voice and personality. Among them are Do You Realize??, one of psychedelic indie band Flaming Lips’ best-known songs; Lost Cause, a standout from Beck’s landmark 2002 album Sea Change; and If It Wasn’t Broken by Los Angeles folk-punk artist Sydney Lyndella Ward, aka Sunny War. “Willie singing If It Wasn’t Broken is the sweetest and greatest thing that’s ever happened to me as writer and musician,” Ward says. “I used to play that song on the Venice Beach boardwalk and would have never imagined back then that Willie Nelson would ever even hear it. I feel grateful and inspired.” First preview of the album is a reading of Tom Waits Last Leaf which is streaming below.
Willie’s longtime harmonica player Mickey Raphael recommended the late Warren Zevon’s Keep Me In Your Heart, which fits squarely into the album’s central theme of mortality— as does the meditative mantra Come Ye, from jazz great Nina Simone’s 1967 album High Priestess Of Soul. Willie also sings two songs written by longtime friend Neil Young: Are You Ready For The Country from 1972’s Harvest, and the impressionistic six-minute classic Broken Arrow from Buffalo Springfield’s 1967 album Buffalo Springfield Again. Keith Richards is represented with the fascinating Robbed Blind from his 2015 album Crosseyed Heart.
The album also includes a couple of original songs as Willie revisits The Ghost which he wrote in 1962. There’s also a new Willie / Micah co-write, Color Of Sound.
Willie Nelson | Last Leaf On The Tree
1 | Last Leaf (written by Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan)
2 | If It Wasn’t Broken (written by Sydney Lyndella Ward)
3 | Lost Cause (written by Beck David Hansen)
4 | Come Ye (written by Nina Simone)
5 | Keep Me In Your Heart (written by Warren Zevon & Jorge Calderon)
6 | Robbed Blind (written by Keith Richards)
7 | House Where Nobody Lives (written by Tom Waits)
8 | Are You Ready For The Country? (written by Neil Young)
9 | Do You Realize?? (written by Wayne Coyne / Steven Drozd / Michael Ivins / David Fridmann)
10 | Wheels (written by Micah Nelson)
11 | Broken Arrow (written by Neil Young)
12 | Color Of Sound (written by Willie Nelson & Micah Nelson)
13 | The Ghost (written by Willie Nelson)