First Rose of Spring Blooms for Willie

Approaching his 87th birthday, Willie Nelson continues to tour and record at a pace that puts most younger acts to shame. Come April 24, (Postponed to July 3), Legacy Recordings will release Willie’s 70th (!!) solo studio album, First Rose of Spring. Seventy solo albums! That’s not even counting collaborative albums with Waylon or Merle or the Highwaymen or his many live albums. That’s just a staggering string of output, and most of it is damn good stuff.

Featuring cover artwork by his son Micah, First Rose of Spring finds Willie performing a new song written by Chris Stapleton (“Our Song”) and interpreting songs written by Billy Joe Shaver, Toby Keith and others. Two new songs were written by Nelson with longtime co-writer and producer Buddy Cannon, and the wonderful, poignant title track was composed by Randy Houser along with Allen Shamblin and Mark Beeson.

In January, Nelson won his 10th Grammy Award (not including his Grammy Legend and Lifetime Achievement awards) for his performance of the title track of last year’s Ride Me Back Home album.