The announcement of Willie Nelson’s 76th studio album, Last Leaf on the Tree, comes with good news and better news. The good news is that the lead single is Nelson’s cover of Tom Waits’ “Last Leaf,” a track that Waits cut with Keith Richards for 2011’s Bad as Me. The better news is that Nelson sings it à la Nelson and doesn’t attempt a gravel-throated Waits impression. Instead, Nelson’s rendition features impressionistic guitar ear candy, a little accordion, and drums that sigh along with Nelson as he sings Waits’ words: “I’m the last leaf on the tree.”
The rest of the track list includes a mix of songs that Nelson, age 91, wrote and co-wrote alongside some surprising covers. For the record, due out Nov. 1, the Red Headed Stranger recorded renditions of Beck’s “Lost Cause,” Nina Simone’s “Come Ye,” Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me in Your Heart,” and the Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize??” among others. Nelson’s son, Micah, produced the album and played many of its instruments, from guitar and piano to “sticks and branches, logs and dead leaves.”
The connecting thread that binds all of the songs on this album is shuffling off this mortal coil. “There are little side-quests, but that became the through-line — facing death with grace,” Micah said in a statement.
In addition to Micah’s expert command of foliage, harmonica player Mickey Raphael, pedal steel guitarist (and noted producer) Daniel Lanois, percussionist Magatte Sow, and former Doors drummer John Densmore recorded with Nelson for the album. The musicians recorded at Venice, California’s Hen House.
One of the songs Nelson recorded, “If It Wasn’t Broken,” has ties to the area, as songwriter Sydney Lyndella Ward, who originally recorded it as Sunny War, explained in a statement. “Willie singing ‘If It Wasn’t Broken’ is the sweetest and greatest thing that’s ever happened to me as writer and musician,” she said. “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.”
The album announcement comes a month after Nelson had to sit out multiple dates of the Outlaw Music Festival due to complications with ill health. The nonagenarian rallied his health, though, and returned to the stage for his annual Fourth of July Picnic. The Outlaw tour has dates scheduled through September.
Last Leaf on the Tree track list:
1. “Last Leaf” (by Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan)
2. “If It Wasn’t Broken” (by Sydney Lyndella Ward)
3. “Lost Cause” (by Beck David Hansen)
4. “Come Ye” (by Nina Simone)
5. “Keep Me in Your Heart” (by Warren Zevon & Jorge Calderon)
6. “Robbed Blind” (by Keith Richards)
7. “House Where Nobody Lives” (by Tom Waits)
8. “Are You Ready for the Country?” (by Neil Young)
9. “Do You Realize??” (by Wayne Coyne/Steven Drozd/Michael Ivins/David Fridmann)
10. “Wheels” (by Micah Nelson)
11. “Broken Arrow” (by Neil Young)
12. “Color Of Sound” (by Willie Nelson & Micah Nelson)
13. “The Ghost” (by Willie Nelson)
Eric Rojas*
