Legacy Recordings Set to Release Willie Nelson’s Latest Studio Album,  Oh What A Beautiful World, on Friday, April 25

Music Entertainment, will release Willie Nelson’s new studio album Oh What A Beautiful World in all configurations on Friday, April 25. Released just in time for his 92^nd birthday, the album will be available digitally, on CD and in two single LP vinyl formats (black vinyl widely and white vinyl exclusively through Willie’s D2C store) and may be pre-ordered HERE

Oh What A Beautiful World (his 154th album, according to Texas Monthly’s interactive All Willie Nelson Albums Ranked list and 77^th solo studio album) premieres Willie’s new interpretations of 12 classic songs written or cowritten by Rodney Crowell, the latest in Nelson’s storied history of focusing entire albums on a single songwriter’s work. The two Texas singer-songwriters’ careers have often intersected, beginning with Crowell first hearing Nelson’s earliest songs on the radio and seeing 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. 

The first single is also the album’s title track “Oh What A Beautiful World” – featuring special guest Rodney Crowell himself in a duet with Nelson – and is available now.

Originally appearing as the closing track on Crowell’s 2014 opus Tarpaper Sky, “Oh What A Beautiful World” evokes the poignancy of passing time while Rodney and Willie’s new interpretation of the song shares a fresh sense of the deep human need to appreciate the beauty in each moment life has to offer.
Twelve of Crowell’s compositions from the last 50 years were handpicked for the album. Nelson’s new performances include 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), 90s tracks like “What Kind Of Love,“ (co-written by Will Jennings based on a Roy Orbison melody) and “Stuff That Works” (co-written with Guy Clark), early 2000’s cuts written for hit albums by Keith Urban and Tim McGraw, four cuts from Crowell’s beloved 2010s albums and a cut released as recently as 2021.  

Produced by longtime musical collaborator Buddy Cannon, Oh What A Beautiful World showcases Willie Nelson (lead vocals, Trigger) accompanied by an esteemed studio band featuring 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) with background vocals by Wyatt Beard, Buddy Cannon, and Melonie Cannon.

The album announcement coincides with Willie’s yearly Luck Reunion event; the 10^th edition takes place tomorrow during SXSW on his Luck Ranch and features Charley Crockett, Steve Earle, Taj Mahal, Shane Smith and the Saints, Lukas Nelson, Jesse Welles, Lily Meola, Julien Backer and Torres and so many more. Willie Nelson & Family will also be on the road again this year for the Outlaw Music Festival 10th Anniversary Tour with an all-star lineup featuring Willie, Bob Dylan and more. Plus Nelson just announced his annual 4^th of July Picnic concert event which returns to Austin this year and features Dylan, The Avett Brothers, The Mavericks, Asleep At The Wheel and Tami Neilson. 

Willie Nelson – Oh What A Beautiful World
1. What Kind Of Love (written by Rodney Crowell, Will Jennings & Roy Orbison)
2. Banks Of The Old Bandera (written by Rodney Crowell)
3. The Fly Boy & The Kid (written by Rodney Crowell)
4. Forty Miles From Nowhere (written by Rodney Crowell)
5. I Wouldn’t Be Me Without You (written by Rodney Crowell)
6. Making Memories Of Us (written by Rodney Crowell)
7. Oh What A Beautiful World with Rodney Crowell (written by Rodney Crowell)
8. Ope Season On My Heart (written by Rodney Crowell & James Slater)
9. Shame On The Moon (written by Rodney Crowell)
10. She’s Back In Town (written by Rodney Crowell)
11. Still Learning To Fly (written by Rodney Crowell)
12. Stuff That Works (written by Rodney Crowell & Guy Clark)

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