Post Description

Country. 

Voor de mensen met de betere oren en/of een duurdere installatie, de HiRes versie. Zijn 76e solo-album. 

Willie Nelson sings covers as if on a back porch bathed in a sunset. The indefatigable country star sounds at home in warmly lit arrangements of songs by Beck, Tom Waits and Neil Young.

The gold carriage clock and sheaves of valedictory speeches gather dust at Willie Nelson’s record label. At 91, the indefatigable country old-timer shows no inclination to retire. Last Leaf on the Tree is the eighth album that he has released since 2020 — the same rate of output as another hard-working singer with Nashville roots, Taylor Swift.

His new record — the 76th studio album in a recording career dating back to 1962 — is mostly composed of covers, helmed by his musician son Micah Nelson. The title track is a Tom Waits song in which Nelson Sr sings the part of a leaf doggedly refusing to fall from a tree. “The autumn took the rest but it won’t take me,” he sings amid a gentle musical breeze. His voice sounds unforced and genial, still supple enough to stir in the flurry of a passing melody.

With Kris Kristofferson’s recent death, Nelson is indeed the last leaf on the tree. He is the sole survivor of The Highwaymen, the supergroup that he formed with Kristofferson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings in 1985. The foursome were founding fathers of outlaw country, the rebellious Nashville scene that chafed against Music City’s conservatism. Nelson keeps the outlaw flag flying with his marijuana advocacy and Democrat support: he performed at a Kamala Harris rally in October.

Last Leaf on the Tree has unconventional elements but doesn’t throw any real curveballs — there is no Taylor Swift cover, for instance. Instead, Nelson is surrounded by warmly lit arrangements involving country staples such as pedal steel guitar (played by Daniel Lanois) and non-Nashville elements like the richly textured patter of west African percussionist Magatte Sow. An accordion sighs companionably, as though on a back porch bathed in a mellow sunset.

Versions of songs by Beck (“Lost Cause”) and The Flaming Lips (“Do You Realize??”) appear to be odd-couple pairings, but Nelson sounds at home in their countrified airs. The best tracks find him tackling fellow greats, such as a good-natured jug-band take on Neil Young’s “Are You Ready for the Country?” and the incantatory simmer of Nina Simone’s “Come Ye”.

Tracks:
01. Last Leaf
02. If It Wasn't Broken
03. Lost Cause
04. Come Ye
05. Keep Me In Your Heart
06. Robbed Blind
07. House Where Nobody Lives
08. Are You Ready For The Country
09. Do You Realize
10. Wheels
11. Broken Arrow
12. Color Of Sound
13. The Ghost

Staat er compleet op, 10% pars mee gepost. Met zeer veel dank aan de originele poster. Laat af en toe eens weten wat je van het album vindt. Altijd leuk, de mening van anderen. Oh ja, MP3 doe ik niet aan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NySpcFpPcQg