I need to come clean at the start that I am a Willie Nelson fan. I enjoy the fact that while he is definitely a country artist he explores its limits, particularly the boundaries between blues and jazz. I know he puts out more albums than he should to maintain any sort of quality control however most albums have at least one or two good tracks and occasionally he strikes pay dirt on a single album.I really like this one from 2 years ago and recently upgraded from CD to vinyl. Like a lot of his recent albums it has quite a few collaborations on it with Billy Joe Shaver, Merle Haggard, Jamie Johnson and even Snoop Dogg! However his main partner in crime on this one is his son Lukas who also wrote three of the songs.
It seems that working with his son brought back some of Willie's muse and challenged him to a consistency he has not had for a while. Starting off with A Horse They Call Music a song he has done before but this time he is joined by Merle Haggard. Then the song where he is joined by new country rebel Jamey Johnson, old compadre Kris Kristofferson and Snoop Dogg - Roll me Up and Smoke When I Die - just seems apt.
Later in the album he does a graceful cover of Tom Waits Come on up to The House, and what should be two country classics written by Lukas, The Sound of Your Memory and No Place to Fly (which has the got the "Well I think the road aint getting shorter and I think the weed is getting stronger" which sounds pretty confessional. However, and I never thought I would say this, the highlight of a Willie Nelson album would be a Pearl Jam song - Just Breathe - he nails it.
It is a great country album and a good place to start listening to latter day Willie. Just avoid the last track and incongruous cover of Coldplay's The Scientist.
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