Willie Nelson Announces His 76th(!) Solo Album, Last Leaf on the Tree, and Sets Release Date

Willie Nelson is adding another record to his 150+ album discography.

On Thursday, Aug. 15, the legendary country star announced his latest album, Last Leaf on the Tree, which will be released on Nov. 1.

The upcoming album will become Nelson’s 76th solo studio album and his 153rd album overall.

But it also marks the first time his son, Micah, 34, will be producing for Nelson, 91. Micah has previously performed with his father, and joined him on the family-oriented albums: Willie and the Boys (2017) and The Willie Nelson Family (2021).

Nelson dropped the album's first spotlight track on Thursday, Aug. 15. He performed his rendition of Tom Waits’ “Last Leaf.”

The single was first released in 2011 on Bad as Me, in collaboration with Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards. But in his latest rendition of “Last Leaf,” Nelson sings solo, and he also performs Waits’ “ “House Where Nobody Lives” on Last Leaf on the Tree.

He’ll also be performing folk singer Sydney Lyndella Ward, a.k.a. Sunny War’s “If It Wasn’t Broken.” Ward shared in the press release that Nelson’s cover “is the sweetest and greatest thing that’s ever happened to [her] as writer and musician.” She added, “I used to play that song on the Venice Beach boardwalk and would have never imagined back then that Willie Nelson would ever even hear it.” (The album was also recorded in Venice, Calif., at Micah’s recording studio, the Hen House.)

Meanwhile, guest musicians on the upcoming album include Raphael Lanois on pedal steel, and former Doors drummer John Densmore and Magatte Sow on percussion.

On the 13-track album, Nelson wrote two songs, “The Ghost” and “Color of Sound,” the latter he wrote with Micah. A third song, “Wheels,” was also written by Micah.

Micah shared in the press release that he and his father approached the 91-year-old’s “finality of life in recent years” in the new album. “There are little side-quests,” Micah said, “but that became the through-line — facing death with grace.”

The album will be available digitally, on CD and LP vinyl — including an exclusive version with a limited-edition lithograph — all are available for pre-order here. 

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Last Leaf on the Tree will be released on Nov. 1