Matt This time Willie Nelson is doing Sinatra for his latest “My Way” who has always been of his favourites and is the second album for the prolific octogenarian this year. Buddy Cannon is back again but only co-producing this one with Matt Rollings who also in addition contributes piano, wurlitzer, B-3 organ, horn arrangements and string arrangements being almost identical in input for Willie’s last album of a similar nature in 2016, “Summertime, Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin” and there is also another of Gershwin’s numbers included for this album. Only one guest is included being Norah Jones who these days makes fairly regular appearances with him appearing on the Live album with Wynton Marsalis “Here We Go Again” in 2011 and also popping up on his 2013 release of duets “To All The Girls”. Micky Raphael on harmonica is the only band member from his prior album for this year “Last Man Standing” to cross over for this one. One other interesting note is Jay Bellerose is the Jazz drummer who has appeared with so many of today’s artists including Allen Toussaint, Natalie Cole, Madeline Peyroux, Elton John, Joe Henry, Aimee Mann, Bonnie Rait, Sam Philips and that just names a few.

What else would one start with for a Sinatra album but “Fly Me To The Moon’ with the perquisite Swing injection and still keeping in touch with his Country background having Steel guitar in amongst the horns, with a quick solo also added from it in this lively swinger. Mickey’s harmonica leads for the next two Johnny Mercer tunes, “Summer Wind” and “One More For My Baby ( And One More For The Road)” all delivered with Willie’s great casual vocal approach. A lively swinging take for “A Foggy Day” with horns and that harmonica once again right amongst it all and then a lovely take with Strings to follow for the ballad “It Was A Very Good Year” . More Classic Sinatra Swing with Rodgers and Hart’s “Blue Moon” and back for another classic ballad “I’ll Be Around” followed by the swinging Cole Porter composition “Night And Day”. Cole Porter follows again for the lovely duet with Norah Jones in “What Is This Thing Called Love” with another of Sinatra’s classic ballads “Young At Heart” to bring us up the final track and title song being Sinatra’s most famous “My Way” with a beautiful interpretation from Willie adding a little of his own touch with Mickey’s harmonica adding pathos to the vocal.

How many albums has he done resurrecting the old numbers and there really is no other artist today who matches his experience with them. There has been a couple of misses with him doing this material in the past but more so due to oversupply if anything but not here. It is always hard to follow your first great one being “Stardust” but he sure comes close with this and always Willie keeps just a slight Country connection making them all his own. Once again beautiful stuff from the master.

Matt On Willie Nelson’s latest offering once again we have Buddy Cannon doing the Production for the tenth album with the addition of co writing every song with Willie and as with the previous album “God’s Problem Child” the band line up is pretty much the same just with a few less guests in “Last Man Standing” as there is only the one actually being Alison Krauss on fiddle and backing vocals who does not even get a mention as a guest just added to the band's line up in the album’s credits. One of the integral parts to Willie’s band these days is long time collaborator Mickey Raphael on harmonica who has been accompanying Willie for nigh on thirty years and almost nearly as integral to Willie’s sound as Trigger but not quite. Honky Tonk, Western Swing with a couple of ballads thrown in for good measure are the album’s basis making this one a straight up Country album being Willie Nelson’s bread and butter and there really is no greater exponent of this music style living today.

The album kicks off with “Last Man Standing” with a mention concerning Waylon Jennings, Ray Price, Merle Haggard and Norro Wilson and how Willie is lamenting he is the last of them on the title number. Honky Tonk based ‘Don’t Tell Noah” comes next followed by “Bad Breath” concerning his mortality with the line “Bad breath is better than no breath at all” with a great little solo from Mickey Raphael’s harmonica followed by Willie on Trigger. “Me And You” is Honky Tonk which motors along with a great beat behind it with quiet a nice ballad following “Something You Get Through” with the harmonica of Mickey Raphael’s coming to the fore and some great steel guitar added as well. Western swing get’s a shot with the fairly quick time of ‘Ready To Roar” and the next number “Heaven Is Closed” has Willie mentioning that “hell is overcrowded so I think I will stay where I am” . “ I Ain’t Got Nothin” follows with more of that Honky Tonk feel in “She Made my Day” and the other ballad comes next “I’ll Try To Do Better Next Time” with the album closing up with a slight Bluesy influence in “Very Far To Crawl”,

Great album of all original material. I have heard people mentioning it’s brevity as it only runs for thirty four minutes but for me not a factor being brought up in the day of records which is not far of many album times anyway. Still not a lot has changed since his previous “God’s Problem Child” which in my opinion has just a slight edge over this one.

Matt Nine days after the release of Willie’s “You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker” in 2006 Cindy Walker passed away aged 87. She was one of Country music greatest song writers whose career spanned six decades with some of her greatest songs recorded by Bob Wills, Jim Reeves, Webb Pierce, Ray Charles, Bing Crosby, Roy Orbison with quite a few more that could be added. Her songs were honest, frank, direct with a touch of double meaning at times and most important of all, they were truly original. Of all the recent albums released by Willie Nelson since 2000 this one is still his finest effort. Perhaps it is the familiarity of the tunes for him as he has played and known many of them since his early teenage days long before “Crazy” in the late 1940’s and many of his own heroes in Country music played them in their repertoire as well and with all this familiarity “Willie took to it, like a duck to water”.

Western Swing is one of the main components of the album’s construction and why not start with one of her co written Bob Wills songs “Bubbles In My Beer” and of course it’s a fiddle that gets things underway for this shuffle being primarily guitar backed with Willie vocals right out front but the next song that follows almost steals all the limelight being the beautiful double meaning ballad “Not That I Care”. “Take Me In Your Arms and Hold Me” is another ballad originally recorded by Eddy Arnold followed by more Western Swing with “Don’t Be Ashamed Of Your Age” and next was another massive one for her being the ballad “You Don’t Know Me” where even Elvis and Ray Charles had a crack at but it was Jerry Vale who pulled in the hit. The co-written Bob Wills songs, “Sugar Moon” and “Cherokee Maiden” give more of that Western Swing with “Miss Molly” added and that fiddle accompanied with Honky Tonk piano keeps them motoring along. “I Don’t Care”, “The Warm Red Wine” are more of Cindy’s classics with the beautiful Western themed “Dusty Skies” with one exquisite Harmonica solo inserted by Charlie McCoy perhaps being with “Not That I Care” one of the albums best tracks. More Swing with “It’s All Your Fault” follows with one more gem to finish proceedings up being the lovely ballad “I Was Just Walking Out The Door”.

Cindy Walker had sent Willie Nelson a song she had wrote specifically for him just prior to this album but never recorded and instead he decided to take on many of her Classics . Hopefully she managed to hear it prior to her death as she had been ill for a while by then and maybe for her it was a WC Handy moment as well, just as when he first heard Louis Armstrong”s Plays WC Handy and a tear came to her eye also, for the great renditions that Willie recorded in tribute.