Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, today released the second track from Willie Nelson’s anticipated new studio album Last Leaf on the Tree.
The album’s second spotlight track – Willie’s rendition of The Flaming Lips “Do You Realize??” – is available on all DSPs today (Thursday, September 19). Listen HERE.
One of The Flaming Lips’ most enduring songs is an existentialist masterpiece well-suited to the tao of Willie. From their perspective, the Lips loved it. “He’s just such a unique singer,” lead singer Wayne Coyne says. “You hear one second of his voice, and you go, that’s him.” Fellow bandmember and song co-writer Steven Drozd says his only regret is that his late father won’t get to hear it: “I wish he was still alive to see this happening, that Willie Nelson is doing a Flaming Lips song I had a part in co-writing. He’d be very proud.”
Also available today is a video of Coyne and Drozd expanding on hearing Willie perform their celebrated song. Watch HERE.
On November 1, Willie Nelson’s Last Leaf on the Tree will be available digitally, on CD and amber swirl double LP vinyl. In addition, the Willie Nelson webstore will have an exclusive version which includes a limited-edition lithograph created by album producer, Willie’s son Micah Nelson. All versions are available for pre-order HERE.
Last Leaf on the Tree is Willie’s 76th solo studio album and his 153rd album overall, according to Texas Monthly’s interactive All Willie Nelson Albums Ranked list. The album finds Willie covering an eclectic collection of songs by rock legends, idiosyncratic singer songwriters, alt-rock heroes, and indie folk artists, as well as a new recording of Willie’s 1967 song, “The Ghost,” and a new composition by Willie and Micah Nelson.
Read Peter Blackstock’s in-depth essay on the making of The Last Leaf on the TreeHERE
In addition to producing, Micah Nelson played many of the instruments, designed the album cover, and helped create animation for the video of the album’s first single, a cover of Tom Waits’ “Last Leaf” alongside his wife, Alexandra Dascalu Nelson. Willie plays his trusty guitar Trigger throughout and the two are joined by a host of celebrated musicians plus guest spots from legendary producer and musician Daniel Lanois, John Densmore of The Doors, Senegalese musician Magatte Sow on percussion and harmonica master Mickey Raphael, who has played alongside Willie for over 50 years.
The single comes just as Willie Nelson & Family finish their run co-headlining the final leg of this year’s Outlaw Music Festival Tour with Bob Dylan and John Mellencamp. The tour concludes this weekend on Sept. 21 with the annual Farm Aid benefit concert in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with guests including Neil Young, Dave Matthews, Mavis Staples, Nathaniel Rateliff, Charley Crockett, and Lukas Nelson with the Travelin’ McCourys.
Meanwhile, Micah Nelson will be joining Neil Young for two shows on Sept. 23 and 24 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY before embarking on his Particle Kid West Coast OctoberQuest 2024 tour.
Willie Nelson – Last Leaf on the Tree
Last Leaf (written by Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan)
If It Wasn’t Broken (written by Sydney Lyndella Ward)
Lost Cause (written by Beck David Hansen)
Come Ye (written by Nina Simone)
Keep Me In Your Heart (written by Warren Zevon & Jorge Calderon)
Robbed Blind (written by Keith Richards)
House Where Nobody Lives (written by Tom Waits)
Are You Ready For The Country? (written by Neil Young)
Do You Realize?? (written by Wayne Coyne/Steven Drozd/Michael Ivins/David Fridmann)
Wheels (written by Micah Nelson)
Broken Arrow (written by Neil Young)
Color Of Sound (written by Willie Nelson & Micah Nelson)
The Ghost (written by Willie Nelson)
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