Willie Nelson, 91, Covers Neil Young, Keith Richards, Zevon, Others on ‘Last Leaf’ Album—His 76th!
by Best Classic Bands Staff
Willie Nelson, who turned 91 on April 29, 2024, will release a new studio album, Last Leaf on the Tree, on November 1. The album will be available on CD and on amber swirl double LP vinyl. The album, to be released by Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, is available for pre-order in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
Last Leaf on the Tree is Nelson’s 76th solo studio album in all, and his 153rd album overall, according to Texas Monthly’s interactive All Willie Nelson Albums Ranked list. It marks the first time he’s worked with his son Micah in the producer’s chair, though the two frequently perform together onstage. Micah has also been part of family-oriented albums such as 2017’s Willie and the Boys (along with Micah’s older brother Lukas Nelson) and 2021’s The Willie Nelson Family.
Willie Nelson (Photo by Pamela Springsteen, used with permission)
The album, according to an announcement from Legacy, “comes on the heels of a banner year for Willie that saw him win two Grammys including Best Country Album, the release of three separate studio albums and a book, plus the amazing two-night Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90 event at the Hollywood Bowl that featured more than 40 guest artists celebrating Willie’s 90th birthday that was also broadcast on CBS later in the year. November also saw Willie being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, one of the few honors that he had not yet received in his legendary career.”
The first spotlight track from the album is Nelson’s rendition of the Tom Waits song “Last Leaf.” Waits initially released the song on his 2011 album Bad As Me, with Keith Richards singing along. Nelson covers Richards elsewhere on the album, and he revisits the Waits songbook for “House Where Nobody Lives.” But on “Last Leaf,” according to the press release, “Willie fittingly sings alone, summoning a bittersweet spirit that recalls the title track of Nelson’s 2018 self-titled album Last Man Standing.” Nelson has forthrightly addressed the finality of life in recent years, and Micah tapped into that as producer. “There are little side-quests,” Micah says, “but that became the through-line—facing death with grace.”
Micah, the release continues, says he took a “sculptor’s approach” to producing the album. “It’s an approach that I really love and have used a lot over the years—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.” Micah handled most of the instrumental work himself: Per the album credits, he played more than two dozen instruments, from guitars and pianos to “sticks and branches, logs and dead leaves.” He also illustrated the album cover and helped create animation for the “Last Leaf” video alongside his wife, Alexandra Dascalu Nelson.
Willie Nelson, flanked by sons Micah (L) and Lukas, during their 2020 Farm Aid at Home set
Micah, 34, also 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 acclaimed Los Angeles folk-punk artist Sydney Lyndella Ward, a.k.a. 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.”
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, as does the meditative mantra “Come Ye,” from jazz great Nina Simone’s 1967 album High Priestess Of Soul. Nelson 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. And Richards, who was among the star-studded guests for Nelson’s 90th-birthday bash at the Hollywood Bowl last year, is represented with the fascinating “Robbed Blind” from his 2015 album Crosseyed Heart.
Also featured at the Hollywood Bowl shows was Micah’s own rendition (with legendary producer and musician Daniel Lanois) of “The Ghost,” which Willie wrote in 1962 and recorded in 1967. Willie revives the song near the end of Last Leaf on the Tree. There’s also a new Willie/Micah co-write, “Color of Sound,” and Willie’s rendition of Micah’s song “Wheels” from a 2017 album released under Micah’s musical moniker Particle Kid.
Related: Our review of the Holywood Bowl Blu-ray
Willie most often records his parts at Pedernales Studios near his home outside of Austin, but this time he traveled to Venice, California, and joined Micah at the Hen House, a studio that has been central to Micah’s recording career for a decade. Willie plays his trusty acoustic guitar Trigger throughout. Guest musicians on the album include Raphael, Lanois on pedal steel and former Doors drummer John Densmore and Senegalese musician Magatte Sow on percussion.
Willie Nelson & Family will co-headline the final leg of this year’s Outlaw Music Festival Tour with Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp and others across the Midwest and Northeast in September. The tour concludes Sept. 21 with the annual Farm Aid benefit concert in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with performers including Neil Young, Dave Matthews, Mavis Staples, Nathaniel Rateliff, Charley Crockett, and Lukas Nelson with the Travelin’ McCourys.
Willie Nelson Last Leaf on the Tree Track List
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)
Nelson’s enormous recorded library is available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
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1 Comment so far
Jump into a conversationA great American, God bless Willie Nelson. Who else can claim 76 albums during a lifetime career in the business. What an accomplishment. My favs are seeing him in westerns, with all the other greats. An American legend for sure.