The past year or so has seen Willie Nelson handle material ranging from George Gershwin to Ray Price. This time around, Nelson takes on all new material and makes it sound vintage, with seven of the thirteen pieces collaborations with Buddy Cannon. Even better, the title track was composed by Tony Joe White, who joins up with Leon Russell in vocals for a riveting and bluesy mood.Nelson’s voice is aging well, sounding like Hoyt Wilhelm’s catcher’s mitt as he sounds like he’s back playing at the VFW on the old timey “Butterfly” waltzing toward and the Texas Two Stepping “Still Not Dead.” Singing like a musical version of Clint Eastwood, and accompanied with a steel guitar, Nelson delivers a riveting tale of woe on “I Made a Mistake” and a reflective “He Won’t Ever Be Done.”
Listening to this album, it becomes easy to take this man for granted, but some day God’s going to take him from us; do we appreciate him as much as we should, or like the sunset, just assume it’s always around?