Photo: Gary Flink
Willie Nelson has announced the forthcoming release of his new album Oh What A Beautiful World, due on April 25, 2025 via Legacy Records, ahead of his 92nd birthday. The impending LP continues Nelson’s current approach to focusing an entire set of songs on the legacy of specific songwriters. The new LP will pull from fellow Texan Rodney Crowell’s originals to that effect.
Oh What A Beautiful World provides 12 new interpretations of tracks initially written or co-written by Crowell. The impending collection also serves as the latest chapter in Nelson and Crowell’s intersected history, considering Shotgun Willie’s past, taking on Crowell originals, which he first did in 1983. Crowell’s introduction to the outlaw country troubadour commenced in the 1960s, when he first experienced Nelson’s songs on the radio and attended live shows in Houston.
The pair’s latest convergence is bolstered by today’s album preview/title track, initially appearing as the closing number off Crowell’s 2014 LP Tarpaper Sky. The newly cut single provides an outlet for the duo to profess the roots of human connection while considering the passing of time and harkening back to the precious nature of life.
In addition to the title track, Nelson handpicked the remaining album features such as early tracks like 1976’s “Banks Of The Old Bandera” and 1981’s “Shame On The Moon,” which became a Bob Seger hit. ‘90s era “What Kind Of Love” and “Stuff That Works” provide a career roadmap that can be followed into the early aughts, including material written for Keith Urban and Tim McGraw beside four pulls from Crowell’s 2010s albums.
Oh What A Beautiful World finds Nelson on acoustic guitar and joined by his studio band, Bobby Terry (acoustic guitar, steel guitar, electric guitar), James Mitchell (electric guitar), Jim “Moose” Brown (B-3 organ, piano, Wurlitzer), Mickey Raphael (harmonica), Fred Eltringham (drums, percussion) and Glenn Worf (bass, upright bass). Background vocals are provided by Wyatt Beard, Buddy Cannon, and Melonie Cannon.
The forthcoming deliverable represents Nelson’s 77th solo studio album and his 154th album overall. Pre-order now.
Scroll down to stream the title track.
Tracking List:
1. What Kind Of Love
2. Banks Of The Old Bandera
3. The Fly Boy & The Kid
4. Forty Miles From Nowhere
5. I Wouldn’t Be Me Without You
6. Making Memories Of Us
7. Oh What A Beautiful World (with Rodney Crowell)
8. Open Season On My Heart
9. Shame On The Moon
10. She’s Back In Town
11. Still Learning How To Fly
12. Stuff That Works
Content shared from relix.com.