Willie Nelson To Release Rodney Crowell Dedication Album In April

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Willie Nelson will release his new album Oh What A Beautiful World on April 25 via Legacy Recordings, a catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment.

Oh What A Beautiful World features Nelson’s takes on 12 songs written or co-written by Rodney Crowell. This album continues Nelson’s tradition of dedicating entire projects to the work of a single songwriter. The careers of these two Texas singer-songwriters have frequently overlapped, starting when Crowell first heard Nelson’s early songs on the radio and saw him perform in Houston in the mid-1960s. Nelson’s first recording of a Crowell song came in 1983, and their latest collaboration appeared 40 years later on The Border.

The project’s title track, “Oh What A Beautiful World,” available now, features a duet between Nelson and Crowell. Originally released as the final track on Crowell’s 2014 album Tarpaper Sky, “Oh What A Beautiful World” captures the bittersweet nature of time passing. In their new rendition, Nelson and Crowell bring a renewed sense of the profound human desire to cherish the beauty in every moment life presents.

The album includes early Crowell songs like “Banks of the Old Bandera,” originally recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker and the Bob Seger hit “Shame On The Moon,” as well as ’90s tracks such as “What Kind of Love” and “Stuff That Works.” The project also features early 2000s songs written for Keith Urban and Tim McGraw, as well as four tracks from Crowell’s beloved 2010s albums and a song released as recently as 2021.

Produced by longtime collaborator Buddy Cannon, Oh What A Beautiful World highlights Nelson alongside a distinguished studio band, including 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). Background vocals are provided by Wyatt Beard, Cannon and Melonie Cannon.

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

Madison Hahnen
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