Willie Nelson will release his 153rd album, The last leaf on the treeon November 1. The LP from Legacy Recordings features a mix of the country icon’s interpretations of songs by Tom Waits, Keith Richards, Beck, the Flaming Lips, Neil Young and Nina Simone, among others, as well as a handful of tracks written by the singer and his son Micah Nelson, who also produced the album.
The first single from the collection is a cover of Tom Waits’ “Last Leaf,” a melancholic meditation from Waits’ 2011 Bad like me Album about the autumn of life that reflects the 91-year-old country icon’s legendary indefatigable spirit and boundless energy even across the six decades of her recording career. “I’m the last leaf on the tree / Autumn has taken the rest / But they won’t take me / I’m the last leaf on the tree,” Nelson sings in a hushed voice over the strum of his trademark nylon-string guitar in the song that deals with the vicissitudes of aging.
The collection, Nelson’s 76th solo studio album, marks the first time Micah – who performs and produces under the name Particle Kid – has produced one of his father’s albums, although they have appeared together on family LPs such as 2017’s. Willie and the boys and 2021 The Willie Nelson family.
“It’s an approach that I really love and have used a lot over the years – just throwing the clay on the record and stepping back, then maybe adding a little bit more and then maybe plane down here and kind of building the tracks that way,” said Micah, 34, who used a “sculpting method” while working on the album, for which he played more than a dozen instruments, including guitar, piano and “sticks and branches, tree trunks and dead leaves,” according to a press release.
Micah also illustrated the album cover and created the animation for the “Last Leaf” video. He also illustrated the album cover and created the animation for the “Last Leaf” video with his wife Alexandra Dascalu Nelson. In addition to the digital, CD and LP versions, an exclusive limited edition version with a lithograph created by Micah is also sold on Nelson’s webstore.
The choice of “Last Leaf” was fitting, according to Micah Nelson, as his father has previously not shied away from addressing the unstoppable passage of time and confronting his own mortality through a series of health scares, including on the title track of his 2018 album Last man standingin which he lamented having to “put a stop to my buddies.” Micah said, “There are little side quests, but that became the common thread – facing death with dignity.”
That sentiment makes sense when you consider song choices like Warren Zevon’s bittersweet ode to eternal love, “Keep Me In Your Heart,” as well as another haunting Waits song, “House Where Nobody Lives,” and the Lips’ joyous meditation on the preciousness of life, “Do You Realize??” Another track that fits the theme of fading light was chosen by Nelson’s longtime harmonica player Mickey Raphael: jazz giant Nina Simone’s 1967 song “Come Ye.”
In addition to the Nelsons and Raphael, the album also features guest musicians Daniel Lanois on pedal steel guitar, former Doors drummer John Densmore and Senegalese percussionist Magatte Sow.
Listen to “Last Leaf on the Tree” by Nelson and check out the album track list below.
The last leaf on the tree Tracklist:
1. “Last Leaf” (written by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan)
2. “If It Wasn’t Broken” (written by Sydney Lyndella Ward)
3. “Lost Cause” (written by Beck David Hansen)
4. “Come Ye” (written by Nina Simone)
5. “Keep Me In Your Heart” (written by Warren Zevon & Jorge Calderon)
6. “Robbed Blind” (written by Keith Richards)
7. “House where nobody lives” (written by Tom Waits)
8. “Are You Ready For The Country?” (written by Neil Young)
9. “Do you understand??” (written by Wayne Coyne/Steven Drozd/Michael Ivins/David Fridmann)
10. “Wheels” (written by Micah Nelson)
11. “Broken Arrow” (written by Neil Young)
12. “Color Of Sound” (written by Willie Nelson & Micah Nelson)
13. “The Ghost” (written by Willie Nelson)
