There are so many Willie Nelson albums, and yet nobody in their right mind would argue that there are too many Willie Nelson albums. Earlier this year, the 92-year-old country legend released his 154th studio LP Oh What A Beautiful World. This fall, Nelson will follow that album with a new tribute LP called Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle.
Like so many recent Willie Nelson albums, Workin' Man is a full-length salute to one of Nelson's bygone contemporaries. In this case, it's another mythic figure in country music history, Merle Haggard. Nelson and Haggard played a whole lot of shows together before Haggard passed away in 2016, and they released three collaborative albums, starting with 1983's Pancho And Lefty. Workin' Man includes Nelson's final recordings with two of his late bandmates: His pianist sister Bobbie Nelson, who passed away in 2022, and Paul English, who started playing drums for Nelson in 1955 and who died in 2020.
On Workin' Man, Nelson covers 11 classics from across Merle Haggard's careers, including "Mama Tried," one of the most perfect songs that has ever existed. Today, he's shared his version of "Workin' Man Blues," a song that Haggard took to #1 on the country charts in 1969. Nelson's version ends with great jazz-inflected guitar solo and with Nelson muttering that maybe we can fade it out somewhere in there. I'm glad they didn't fade it out! Below, check out Nelson's "Workin' Man Blues" cover, Haggard's original, and the new album's tracklist.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Workin’ Man Blues"
02 "Silver Wings"
03 "Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down"
04 "Today I Started Loving You Again"
05 "Swinging Doors"
06 "Okie From Muskogee"
07 "Mama Tried"
08 "I Think I’ll Just Stay Here And Drink"
09 "Somewhere Between"
10 "If We Make It Through December"
11 "Ramblin’ Fever"
Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle is out 11/7 on Legacy. Nelson is still out on this summer's Outlaw Music Festival tour. The man does not stop.
