Article content

NEW YORK (AP) — Young musicians seeking longevity would do well to follow the wise words of Willie Nelson: Do what feels right, and if you’re lucky enough to have a statue built in your honor in your town, remember it’s just something you have to “go down and clean the (expletive) pigeon out of” every once in a while.

Article content

On Friday, the 91-year-old Nelson released “Last Leaf on the Tree,” his second studio album this year — also his 76th solo studio album and 153rd album overall, according to Texas Monthly’s herculean ranking of his prolific discography. So how much does he still have in him? Nelson laughs over the phone: “I don’t know. I hope there will be a few more. Maybe it will reach 200? “Why not!”

Article content

“Last Leaf on the Tree” is an album of firsts and familiarities; it’s Nelson’s first album entirely produced by his son Micah, which includes a few originals and covers of Nelson classics from the likes of Neil Young, Nina Simone and Tom Waits as well as some less-than-obvious inclusions, like reimaginings of the Flaming Lips. Do you realize?? and Beck’s “Lost Cause.”

Article content

Article content

“He’s a true artist,” Nelson says of his son. “He chose all the songs.”

When asked how he told his producer Buddy Cannon that Micah was taking over, Nelson jokes, “We just surprised him.”

Micah Nelson’s artistic and alternative rock sensibilities are present on the record, not only in his selection of covers, but also in his delivery. For a cover of Young’s “Are You Ready for the Country,” for example, he used sticks and leaves for percussion instead of traditional instruments. “I didn’t notice anything different,” Nelson laughs.

His wife, Annie Nelson, who joins Willie for the interview, adds: “He says it all the time. It’s great to play with your child. And it’s even better if they’re good.

After seven decades of writing songs, Nelson says the only way to identify a good one is simply: “You know it when you hear it.” When you hear something and you say, “Damn, I wish I wrote that,” it’s a good song.

Article content

“There is no better songwriter alive than Kris Kristofferson,” Nelson once said of his Highwaymen bandmate at a tribute ceremony in 2009. Kristofferson, 88, died on last month at his home in Maui, Hawaii.

“He was a great songwriter. He left a lot of fantastic songs for us to sing for as long as we are here,” he reflects. “Kris was a great friend of mine. And, you know, we had a lot of fun together and made a lot of music together, videos, films. I hated losing him. It was a sad time.

In some ways, Nelson is the last of the Outlaw Country era, although he has always experimented with different genres and styles. The title “Last Leaf on the Tree,” taken from a cover of Waits’ “Last Leaf,” resonates, in a way, when he thinks of his contemporaries. “If you just take the musical part and go back to, you know, Waylon (Jennings) and Kris and John (ny Cash) and, you know, all of us working together, the Highwaymen. And then I’m the only one left. And it’s just not funny.

Article content

The album also touches on love and death – subjects he knows well.

“Well, I’m 91 and over, so, you know, that doesn’t worry me. I don’t feel bad. I don’t hurt anywhere. I have no reason to worry about dying. But I don’t know anyone who has lived forever,” he says. “I take care of myself pretty well. And I feel like I’m in pretty good shape physically. Mentally? That’s another story,” he says with a laugh.

As for what he hopes to leave as a legacy, he has an answer for that, too: “I had a great time. And I did what I came here to do: make music.

It will continue to do just that, and much more. He says he’s already completed another album and in a few weeks Willie and Annie Nelson will release “Willie and Annie Nelson’s Cannabis Cookbook,” a simple expansion of the couple’s long-held belief that marijuana and food possess both have medicinal properties. Annie says the book came about out of necessity when Willie had pneumonia and couldn’t smoke, so she started making edibles to ease his night terrors.

“He was a great taste tester,” she says.

Without missing a beat, he says: “I still am!” »

Article content