Willie+nelson

Willie Nelson has been a prolific singer and recording artist since the 1970s, but the songwriter who penned hits for Ray Price, Patsy Cline, Billy Walker, and Johnny Cash, among others, hasn't issued an album of predominantly original material since 1996. Band of Brothers ends the drought. Its 14 selections include nine new songs by Nelson (with producer Buddy Cannon) and a handful of fine covers. Opener "Bring It On" is a honky tonk waltz that offers wisdom by someone who has lived through plenty as he looks eternity squarely in the eye. He is in excellent voice as Mickey Raphael's harmonica moans to underscore his lyric. Nelson delivers his first guitar solo on Trigger (his nylon-stringed instrument). His playing, with its unique phrasing, has always been underrated and here it evokes the blues. His love songs have always been highlights in his catalog. "I Thought I Left You" is in 4/4, with a slow processional pace adorned with slippery steel and piano. The lost romance portrayed in the waltz "Send Me a Picture" is another clear standout; a sighing pedal steel and Raphael's mid-register wail echo every sung line.

The Border is legendary country artist Willie Nelson’s 75th solo studio record of new material. Produced by Willie’s longtime collaborator, Buddy Cannon, The Border features four newly penned tracks by the pair combined with a half dozen tunes from some of their favourite songwriters including two cowritten by Rodney Crowell plus Shawn Camp, Mike Reid and Bobby Tomberlin. Backed by some of Nashville’s finest musicians, the album is another instant classic to follow up their last album of new material, A Beautiful Time which won Best Country Album at the 2023 Grammys.

Released on Willie Nelson’s 89th birthday, A Beautiful Time testifies to the country icon’s enduring talent and astounding longevity. Perhaps it’s no surprise that mortality is on the mind throughout, but Willie doesn’t get too maudlin about it—the album opens with the sweet, slow-rolling “I’ll Love You Till The Day I Die” and touches on country funk for the celebratory “I Don’t Go To Funerals.” He makes some beautiful cover choices, too, offering a twilit take on Leonard Cohen’s “Tower Of Song” and kicking up the dust on The Beatles’ “With A Little Help From My Friends.” The full weight of Nelson’s life experiences permeate A Beautiful Time, but no more so than on the intimate curtain-closer “Leave You With A Smile,” as he sings, “If I run out of time, I’ll wait for you in the sweet by-and-by.”

Honoring the enduring inspiration of Frank Sinatra, That’s Life is Willie Nelson’s second album of classics made famous by The Chairman Of The Board. Willie’s first ode to Frank, 2018's My Way, earned Willie the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Solo Album, and That's Life finds Nelson (who has penned a few standards himself) inhabiting 11 more of the most treasured songs in the Great American Songbook including the title track, "Luck Be A Lady,” "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "I've Got You Under My Skin," "You Make Me Feel So Young," and "I Won't Dance" (a duet featuring Diana Krall).

The 151st Willie album: Bluegrass. The brand new studio album finds Willie re-visiting a dozen of the biggest hits and his finest songwriting from across his career in bluegrass style with some of the finest Nashville musicians. This is Willie’s first bluegrass album and features favourites like “A Good Hearted Woman,” “On The Road Again,” “Still is Still Moving” and “Bloody Mary Morning”.

Ever since 1978's Stardust, standards albums have been part of Willie Nelson's arsenal, but 2018's My Way presents a twist on this shopworn tradition: it's designed as a tribute to Frank Sinatra. Album-long tributes to Sinatra aren't uncommon – Bob Dylan devoted much of the 2010s to recording a series of tributes to him – but My Way stands apart from the pack by capturing both the rakish charm of the Chairman of the Board and Nelson's sly elegance. Nelson balances standards from the Great American Songbook ("A Foggy Day," "Blue Moon," "Night and Day," "Young at Heart") with songs written with Sinatra in mind ("Fly Me to the Moon," "Summer Wind," "It Was a Very Good Year," "My Way"), which brings My Way closer to the essence of Frank Sinatra than Dylan's stylized saloon records.

I Don't Know A Thing About Love: The Songs of Harlan Howard is the 73rd solo studio album by Willie Nelson, released on March 3, 2023. Produced by Buddy Cannon, the album is a tribute to the songwriter Harlan Howard. The album is a collection of ten songs performed by Nelson and originally written by Harlan Howard. Howard gave Nelson his first job as a songwriter for the publishing company Pamper Music. The album was produced by Buddy Cannon, and it will feature cover art drawn by Nelson's son, Micah.

Willie Nelson started calling his backing band the Family way back in 1973, right around the time he split from RCA, grew out his hair, and headed back to Texas. The Family also are featured on Willie Nelson Family, but this 2021 album is designed to feature his kin, including his sister Bobbie, his sons Lukas and Micah –the linchpins of Promise of the Real, sometimes backing band of Neil Young – and daughters Paula and Amy. Everybody has played on one of Willie's records at one point or another – Bobbie has been by his side for years – but the mingling of voices is notable, especially when one of his children takes the lead.