{"id":1997259,"date":"2025-09-04T18:09:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T18:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=1997259"},"modified":"2025-09-04T18:09:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T18:09:15","slug":"willie-nelson-covers-hits-by-merle-haggard-on-new-solo-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/willie-nelson-covers-hits-by-merle-haggard-on-new-solo-album\/","title":{"rendered":"Willie Nelson covers hits by Merle Haggard on new solo album"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><story-emphasis util-module-path=\"elements\/story\" section=\"entertainment\" link=\"\/entertainment\" layout=\"has-lede\"\/><\/p>\n<hr class=\"colorbar\" style=\"background:#009bff\"\/>\n<h2 class=\"display-5 subhead spacer-small\">On November 7, Willie Nelson&#8217;s &#8220;Workin&#8217; Man: Willie Sings Merle&#8221; arrives. It includes covers of songs including Haggard&#8217;s legendary &#8220;Mama Tried.&#8221;<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><media-gallery-promo asset-id=\"75870418\" style=\"min-height: 240px;\" class=\"column twelve-column no-gutter spacer-large\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Preparing to enter his seventh decade in the music industry, 92-year-old country music and American icon Willie Nelson is releasing his 78th solo album.<\/p>\n<partner-banner util-module-path=\"elements\/partner\" class=\"spacer-large\" min-height=\"600\" fluid=\"\" outstream=\"\" momentum=\"\"\/>\n<p>&#8220;Workin&#8217; Man: Willie Sings Merle&#8221; arrives on Nov. 7 from Sony Music&#8217;s Legacy Recordings.<\/p>\n<p>The release&#8217;s lead single, Nelson&#8217;s cover of Merle Haggard&#8217;s 1969 No. 1 country hit &#8220;Workin\u2019 Man Blues,&#8221; is currently available.<\/p>\n<p>Nelson&#8217;s latest album arrives as he prepares to start the final leg of the 10th anniversary of his Outlaw Music Festival tour with Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, Waxahatchee and Madeline Edwards.<\/p>\n<partner-banner util-module-path=\"elements\/partner\" fluid=\"\" bottom=\"\" lazy=\"\" class=\"spacer-large\" min-height=\"390\" outstream=\"\"\/><media-image image-set=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2021\/05\/19\/PNAS\/30e3c610-a791-48dd-ba9b-4507e15dea2c-91then05-070.jpg bestCrop, https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2021\/05\/19\/PNAS\/30e3c610-a791-48dd-ba9b-4507e15dea2c-91then05-070.jpg?crop=2675,2006,x365,y5 4:3, https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2021\/05\/19\/PNAS\/30e3c610-a791-48dd-ba9b-4507e15dea2c-91then05-070.jpg?crop=1508,2011,x823,y0 3:4, https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2021\/05\/19\/PNAS\/30e3c610-a791-48dd-ba9b-4507e15dea2c-91then05-070.jpg?crop=3133,1762,x1,y249 16:9\" image-alt=\"Willie Nelson, left, with help from pal Merle Haggard, center, performs for a capacity crowd of approximately 800 during the grand opening of Willie Nelson's Nashville Night Life on Music Valley Drive May 27, 1991.\" credit=\"Ricky Rogers \/ The Tennessean\" caption=\"Willie Nelson, left, with help from pal Merle Haggard, center, performs for a capacity crowd of approximately 800 during the grand opening of Willie Nelson's Nashville Night Life on Music Valley Drive May 27, 1991.\" orientation=\"horizontal\" class=\"spacer-large\" util-module-path=\"elements\/media\"\/><\/p>\n<p>As well, on Sept. 20, Nelson will headline the 40th annual Farm Aid concert event in Minneapolis. There, he&#8217;ll be joined by Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews &amp; Tim Reynolds, Margo Price, Billy Strings, Nathanial Rateliff and more.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"presto-h2 wp-block-heading\">What to expect from Willie Nelson&#8217;s latest album?<\/h2>\n<p>Nelson and Haggard were longtime friends and collaborators who released three collaborative albums together: 1983&#8217;s\u00a0&#8220;Pancho and Lefty,&#8221; 2007&#8217;s\u00a0&#8220;Last Of The Breed&#8221;\u00a0(alongside Ray Price) and 2015&#8217;s\u00a0&#8220;Django and Jimmie.&#8221;<\/p>\n<partner-inline util-module-path=\"elements\/partner\" class=\"spacer-large\" placement=\"native-article_link\" sizes=\"[[300, 250], [3, 3]]\" min-height=\"250\" fluid=\"\" outstream=\"\"\/><cta-atoms-container-inline util-module-path=\"elements\/cta\" class=\"spacer-large\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Nelson recorded his latest album at Austin&#8217;s Pedernales Studios with vaunted session musician and harmonica player Mickey Raphael serving as a co-producer. The album also marks his final release with his sister Bobbie Nelson playing piano and Paul English on drums.<\/p>\n<p>The album includes versions of 11 of the Country Music and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer&#8217;s favorite Haggard songs, including &#8220;Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down,&#8221; &#8220;Mama Tried,&#8221; &#8220;Okie From Muskogee,&#8221; &#8220;If We Make It Through December&#8221; and &#8220;I Think I&#8217;ll Just Stay Here And Drink.&#8221;<\/p>\n<partner-banner util-module-path=\"elements\/partner\" fluid=\"\" bottom=\"\" lazy=\"\" class=\"spacer-large\" min-height=\"600\" outstream=\"\" momentum=\"\"\/>\n<p>Solo album No. 78 for Nelson is the latest in a decade of work that has seen him focus on songwriters Harlan Howard, Ray Price, George Gershwin and Rodney Crowell and release two volumes of songs associated with Frank Sinatra.<\/p>\n<lit-timestamp class=\"column ten-column no-gutter spacer-small\" slot=\"timestamp\" publishdate=\"2025-09-04 16:23:53 +0000 UTC\" updatedate=\"2025-09-04 16:23:53 +0000 UTC\"\/><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.tennessean.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On November 7, Willie Nelson&#8217;s &#8220;Workin&#8217; Man: Willie Sings Merle&#8221; arrives. It includes covers of songs including Haggard&#8217;s legendary &#8220;Mama Tried.&#8221; Preparing to enter his seventh decade in the music industry, 92-year-old country music and American icon Willie Nelson is releasing his 78th solo album. &#8220;Workin&#8217; Man: Willie Sings Merle&#8221; arrives on Nov. 7 from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1997260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[22887,39915,30218,22220,21751,239390,23849,22846,323444,362227,6297,284334,21741,317148,305355,51971,42175,311076,21739,298114,362228,21800,240904,362225,21738,239343,239347,23759,362226,362229,330028,312687,317149,23152,284335,239344,362224,22640],"class_list":["post-1997259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-22887","tag-affiliate","tag-ai","tag-arts","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrities-u0026-entertainment-news","tag-country","tag-country-music","tag-crow","tag-crowell","tag-eamotion","tag-enabled","tag-entertainment","tag-frank","tag-frank-sinatra","tag-highlights","tag-john","tag-john-mellencamp","tag-local","tag-local-affiliate-arts-u0026-entertainment","tag-mellencamp","tag-music","tag-music-2021","tag-nelson","tag-news","tag-overall","tag-overall-positive","tag-positive","tag-rodney","tag-rodney-crowell","tag-sheryl","tag-sheryl-crow","tag-sinatra","tag-story","tag-story-highlights-ai-enabled","tag-u0026","tag-willie","tag-willie-nelson"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Willie-Nelson-covers-hits-by-Merle-Haggard-on-new-solo.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1997259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1997260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1997259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1997259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1997259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}