Willie Nelson – Oh What A Beautiful World (CD)
Product Details
At 91, Willie Nelson remains one of American music's most restless interpreters, and his tradition of songwriter tribute albums, from Stardust to Healing Hands of Time, stands as some of his most revelatory work. Rodney Crowell's catalog, built across decades of hard-won songwriting in Nashville and beyond, turns out to be natural territory for Nelson's weathered phrasing and the conversational warmth he brings to Trigger.
Willie Nelson's 2025 album (his 77th solo studio album and his 154th album overall) focuses on the songs of Rodney Crowell, the latest in Nelson's storied history of devoting entire albums to a single songwriter's work.
Willie Nelson and Rodney Crowell are two Texas singer-songwriters whose careers have often intersected since Crowell first heard Nelson's early songs on the radio and saw his shows in Houston in the mid-1960s. Willie first recorded a Rodney Crowell song in 1983 and last did so 40 years later for 2024's The Border.
Produced by Nelson's longtime collaborator Buddy Cannon and featuring an amazing backing band of Nashville gunslingers accompanying Nelson's vocals and inspired guitar work on Trigger, the album handpicks 12 songs from the last 50 years, including the title track as a duet between Nelson and Crowell.
From early tracks like 1976's "Banks Of The Old Bandera" (recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker) and 1981's "Shame On The Moon" (a hit for Bob Seger) to 90s tracks like "What Kind Of Love," (co-written by Will Jennings based on a Roy Orbison melody), "Stuff That Works" (co-written with Guy Clark), from early 2000's cuts written for hit albums by Keith Urban and Tim McGraw to four cuts from Crowell's beloved 2010s albums and a cut released as recently as 2021.
Tracklist
Disc 1
1. What Kind Of Love (3:42)
2. Banks Of The Old Bandera (3:26)
3. The Fly Boy & The Kid (3:51)
4. Forty Miles From Nowhere (4:28)
5. I Wouldn't Be Me Without You (3:55)
6. Making Memories Of Us (4:11)
7. Oh What A Beautiful World (4:00)
8. Open Season On My Heart (3:52)
9. Shame On The Moon (4:27)
10. She's Back In Town (3:20)
11. Still Learning How To Fly (3:59)
12. Stuff That Works (4:01)
UPC: 198028872829
Label: Sony Legacy
Release Date: 4.25.25
Format: CD