Willie Nelson Announces New Album ‘Oh What A Beautiful World’ & Shares Duet With Rodney Crowell

Willie Nelson announced a new album, Oh What A Beautiful World, a collection focusing on songs by Nelson’s fellow Texas singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell. The record arriving on April 25 is previewed with the title track, a duet between Nelson and Crowell.

Oh What A Beautiful World is Willie Nelson’s 77th solo studio album and 154th album overall. The record will arrive just ahead of Willie’s 92nd birthday.

Texas has a rich singer-songwriter tradition and there’s a special bond between Lone Star State songsmiths as Nelson has proved throughout the decades covering many of his fellow Texas artists. Oh What A Beautiful World sees Nelson showcasing the talented work of Rodney Crowell.

Willie first recorded a song by Crowell over 40 years ago. “Till I Gain Control Again” appeared on the 1983 Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings album, Take It to the Limit. Crowell has a history with Nelson too, as he caught Willie shows during the latter’s time in Houston in the mid-1960s.

Extrapolating from his more recent cover of the Crowell and Allen Shamblin co-write, “The Border” (the title track to Nelson’s 2024 album), Nelson now offers a full LP of Crowell songs. Press materials detailed the tunes.

From early tracks like 1976’s “Banks Of The Old Bandera” (recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker) and 1981’s “Shame On The Moon” (a hit for Bob Seger) to 90s tracks like “What Kind Of Love,” (co-written by Will Jennings based on a Roy Orbison melody), “Stuff That Works” (co-written with Guy Clark), from early 2000’s cuts written for hit albums by Keith Urban and Tim McGraw to four cuts from Crowell’s beloved 2010s albums and a cut released as recently as 2021.

Longtime Nelson collaborator Buddy Cannon produced Oh What A Beautiful World, which sees Nelson backed by a band of “Nashville gunslingers,” as per the press release, and featuring Willie’s vocals along with his storied guitar Trigger.

Preview Oh What A Beautiful World with the title track featuring harmony vocals by Crowell:

Oh What A Beautiful World Tracklist:

1. What Kind Of Love
2. Banks Of The Old Bandera
3. The Fly Boy & The Kid
4. Forty Miles From Nowhere
5. I Wouldn’t Be Me Without You
6. Making Memories Of Us
7. Oh What A Beautiful World (with Rodney Crowell)
8. Open Season On My Heart
9. Shame On The Moon
10. She’s Back In Town
11. Still Learning How To Fly
12. Stuff That Works