Willie Nelson Announces New Album, ‘Last Leaf On The Tree’

ANOTHER one from the red headed stranger.

Today, Willie Nelson announced his 76th solo studio album (and 153rd album overall) Last Leaf On The Tree, and marks the first time he’s worked with his youngest son Micah in the producer’s chair, who he performs with frequently onstage.

And after an incredible year that celebrated the legacy of Willie’s life and legacy with Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90 event at the Hollywood Bowl, as well as Willie winning two Grammy’s including Best Country Album and his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he shows no signs of slowing down in 2024, clearly.

Micah says he took a “sculptor’s approach” to producing his father’s album and was involved in every aspect, including played on more than two dozen instruments on the record, from guitars and pianos to “sticks and branches, logs and dead leaves”:

“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.”

Additionally, Micah illustrated the album cover and helped with animation for the music video for “Last Leaf,” the lead single which is out everywhere today, alongside his wife, Alexandra Dascalu Nelson.

Willie originally recorded “Last Leaf” and included it on his 2011 Bad As Me album, with Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards lending his vocals on that track. The longtime friends have worked together in the past, and clearly Willie admires his work because there’s also a cover of “Robbed Blind” on the tracklist.

And in terms of the overall message of the record, Nelson tackles the finality of life in recent years and passing of time, finding himself turning 91 years old this year, and Micah says that’s the “through-line” of the project:

“There are little side-quests, but that became the through-line — facing death with grace.”

While a world without Willie Nelson is not something I want to think about, he’s never been one to shy away from what’s on his heart and mind and clearly this is no exception.

There’s tons of variety on the tracklist too, with both covers and originals, and while Willie mostly uses his famous Pedernales Studios near his home outside of Austin, Texas, he traveled to Venice, California, and joined Micah at the Hen House to record Last Leaf On The Tree.

Of course, Willie plays his trusty acoustic guitar Trigger throughout, and guest musicians include Raphael, Lanois on pedal steel, and former Doors drummer John Densmore and Senegalese musician Magatte Sow on percussion.

The album is due out everywhere on November 1st, and he will continue touring on the 2024 Outlaw Music Festival Tour through September, which will conclude with the annual Farm Aid benefit concert in Saratoga Springs, New York.

You can listen to “Last Leaf” below, and I think I speak for all of us when I say long live Willie Nelson.

“Last Leaf”

Last Leaf on the Tree tracklist:

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)