He’s 92, and this is his 77th solo album… Celebrate another wonderful new one from The Red-Headed Stranger! Willie has been mighty prolific lately, with help from producer Buddy Cannon, a few family members, and a whole world of Willie fans. He’s released a few albums over the years that were entirely the works of other songwriters: Lefty Frisell, Kris Kristofferson, and Harlan Howard. He’s done so again now, with fellow Texan Rodney Crowell. This one has 12 Crowell tunes, most of which are from his more recent years (and Rodney joins him on one of them), and Willie still has that knack for making the songs sound like his own. As Stephen Thomas Erlewine writes for Pitchfork, “He retains his innate sense of taste and showmanship; despite his diminished range he still sounds like himself. That indelible personality keeps Oh What a Beautiful World engaging even when it flirts with sleepiness: Nelson can still make any song sound so personal, so idiosyncratic, it’s as if he’d written it.”
Tuesday: Willie Nelson – Oh What a Beautiful World
