Willie Nelson has officially announced Last leaf on the treethe legendary artist’s latest studio collection. Nelson’s next set, out November 1, is the country star’s 76th solo studio album and his 153rd release overall. It follows a jam-packed year of performances, recordings and awards. Last leaf on the tree continues Willie’s tradition of honoring other iconic songwriters, this time with the assistance of his son Micah, who helped the artist select a number of well-known favorites that fit his inimitable style; the album also sees Micah sit in the producer’s chair for the first time on a Willie album, taking a lifelong relationship of live and studio collaboration to new levels. Today, Nelson releases the preview single “Last Leaf,” available now on all streaming platforms.

“Last Leaf” draws on the songbook of legendary singer-songwriter Tom Waits, whose fan favorite “Come On Up to the House” Nelson recorded with his son Lukas and Sheryl Crow for the 2012 album “Last Leaf.” Heroines. Willie’s latest cover is from Waits’ 2011 album Bad like mecuts deeper when the artist bears his soul alone on the mic, singing against a gently stirring backdrop of distant harmonica, shuffling percussion, and scattered, atmospheric bass and guitar. His tone is bittersweet and retrospective; proud, peaceful, and candid about a difficult subject. At 91, Willie has seen it all and has the experience needed to think seriously and thoughtfully about the finiteness of life. “There are little side quests,” Micah says of the intentions and organizing principle behind the album. “But that became the common thread – facing death with dignity.”

Micah, best known as Particle Kid for his own highly acclaimed recordings, describes his role in the project as guided by a “sculptor’s approach.” “That’s an approach that I really love and that I’ve used a lot over the years – just throwing the clay on the ground and stepping back, then maybe adding a little bit more and then maybe chipping away down here and kind of building the tracks that way.” Micah is also credited for performing more than two dozen instruments, from conventional ones, like the guitar he normally uses on stage, to “sticks and branches, logs and dead leaves.” The younger Nelson also contributed the album’s illustrated cover and, along with his wife, Alexandra Dascalu Nelson, animated the music video for the “Last Leaf” video.

Elsewhere on the album, Micah and his father have jointly selected a wide range of songs to cover, including more contemporary indie tunes such as “Do You Realize??” by the Flaming Lips – from the critically acclaimed Yoshimi fights against the pink robotswhich recently celebrated its 20th anniversary – and Sunny War’s “If It Wasn’t Broken.” “Having Willie sing ‘If It Wasn’t Broken’ is the sweetest, greatest thing that has ever happened to me as a writer and musician,” Sydney Lyndella Ward says of the release. “I used to play the song on the Venice Beach boardwalk and never imagined back then that Willie Nelson would ever hear it. I’m grateful and inspired.” Nelson’s longtime harmonica collaborator Mickey Raphael recommended Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me In Your Heart,” which fits the central theme and appears alongside other classics such as Buffalo Springfield’s “Broken Arrow” and Nina Simone’s “Come Ye.” Willie and Micah co-wrote the new entry “Color of Sound,” and Willie closes the collection with a re-recording of the beloved original “The Ghost,” first written in 1962.

Before the arrival of Last leaf on the treewhich follows shortly after his release in May The borderNelson will hit the road again for the third and final leg of the 2024 Outlaw Music Festival Tour. On September 6, the country hero will touch down in Somerset, Wisconsin, to begin an eight-stop sprint through the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic region; Nelson and his Family Band will co-headline alongside Bob Dylan, accompanied by John Mellencamp and Southern Avenue. Read more about the ongoing tour here, and find tickets and more information on Nelson’s live plans, including this year’s Farm Aid, at willienelson.com/pages/tour.

Last leaf on the tree is available for pre-order now. The full album track listing can be found below.

Willie Nelson – The Last Leaf on the Tree
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. The House Where Nobody Lives (written by Tom Waits)
8. Are you ready for 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)