4/5
Beautiful Day
It may be bleak as you look out your window, draw your curtains and say, "hello walls", but it's still a world worth fighting for. Word to Morgan Freeman quoting Ernest Hemingway in David Fincher's 'Se7en'. As a matter of fact, like the fresh feeling of the Holy Spirit and the birds singing on a Sunday morning, 'Oh What A Beautiful World' it is, as Willie Nelson harmonizes on his new album, not even six months after his 'Last Leaf On The Tree'. Mark it down now as 77 albums for 91 years on this planet. The math isn't just solid, it adds up to a generational great whose output isn't even matched by those who drop mixtapes or dig through vinyl crates. In the richest veins of forms, this is Willie's best since 'The Border' 0f 2024, his third album in the last almost 365 days.
Circle your New Music Friday calendars on the same day that actor/jazz maestro Jeff Goldblum shows us he's 'Still Blooming' with classic rascal tongue in cheek. Willie is far from wilting in these years where half of us rounding the bases of middle-age can't even get it u...well, I digress. 'Beautiful World' is a Legacy Recording from Nelson and super producer Buddy Cannon, who works with Willie as well as he does Kenny Chesney. These songs performed with power are all penned by songwriter Rodney Crowell. And this country star also features on the lead single and album title-track, reaffirming his talent and how wonderful the world Sam Cooke told us about, is. One week after Julien Baker formed a rhinestone dynamic country duo with TORRES, like her supergroup Boygenius, and asked us to 'Send A Prayer My Way', the legend comes back with another album for the great American country songbook. And the genre has never sounded so fresh and in a perfect place.
Recorded at Nashville's Blackbird and East Iris, the black and white album artwork of 'Oh What A Beautiful World' features a lone rider looking out over the plains like a lord of them. Showing us the America that remains beautiful. Like 'The Border' (his best in decades), these are all Crowell classics. From the 'What Kind Of Love' opener (co-written by Will Jennings and the late, great Roy Orbison), to the 'Open Season On My Heart' best in show and the farewell of 'Stuff That Works' on this delightful dozen that is anything but dirty. Willie first recorded one of Rodney's songs over 40 years ago, back in 1983 with ''Til I Gain Control Again' off of the Waylon Jennings album 'Take It To The Limit'. Although he had previously played and recorded it live for the album 'Willie and the Family Live' in 1978. And he hasn't looked back since. Cashing in on this all like the 'Banks Of The Old Bandera' reservoir.
Beautiful broods evoke a mesmerizing mood on 'Oh What A'. 'The Flyboy & The Kid' rolls like Butch Cassidy and Sundance. All the way to 'Forty Miles From Nowhere', singing, "It rained today, the clouds rolled up at dawn/All hell burst wide open and just like that was gone/Your little lap dog chased a fox tailed squirrel 'cross the main road through the wood/Some ninja on a dirt bike nearly ran him down for good." 'I Wouldn't Be Me Without You' is the dearest devotion, like the Dino-esque 'Making Memories Of Us'. Whilst the sweet sounds of 'Shame On The Moon' stay with us until we're staring at one like the wolf. "And when she's gone, I keep my head/I sleep alone, in that ol' big empty bed/I go to lengths, to savŠµ my strength", Willie adds and advises as he tells us, 'She's Back In Town'. But even after all these decades in the game and albums to his name, Willie Nelson is 'Still Learning How To Fly'. Yet as the country icon and American legend laments,"Life's been good, I guess/My ragged old heart's been blessed/With so much more than meets the eye/I've got a past I won't soon forget/You ain't seen nothing yet", he still spreads his wings like an American eagle. Oh hey, young world. Isn't that beautiful? TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'What Kind Of Love', 'Oh What A Beautiful World (Feat. Rodney Crowell)', 'Open Season On My Heart'.
Spin This: Willie Nelson - 'The Border'.
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