Nelson may be the "Last Leaf on the Tree"

"Last Leaf On The Tree" is Nelson's 76th solo studio album and his 153rd album overall, according to Texas Monthly's interactive All Willie Nelson Albums Ranked list. It marks the first time he's worked with his son Micah in the producer's chair, though the two frequently perform together onstage. Micah has also been part of family-oriented albums such as 2017's "Willie and the Boys" (along with Micah's older brother Lukas Nelson) and 2021's "The Willie Nelson Family."

The album's first spotlight track is a cover of Tom Waits' "Last Leaf." Waits initially released "Last Leaf" on his 2011 album "Bad As Me" with Rolling Stones' Keith Richards singing along. On "Last Leaf," Nelson sings alone.

Micah said he took a "sculptor's approach" to producing the album. "It's an approach that I really love and have used a lot over the years — just throwing the clay down and stepping back, then maybe adding a little more, and then maybe shaving down here, and kind of building the tracks that way."

Micah handled most of the instrumental work himself: He played more than two dozen instruments, from guitars and pianos to "sticks and branches, logs and dead leaves." He also illustrated the album cover and helped create animation for the "Last Leaf" video alongside his wife, Alexandra Dascalu Nelson. Micah, 34, also helped identify tracks by younger generations of songwriters that suited his father's voice and personality. Among them are "Do You Realize??", one of psychedelic indie band Flaming Lips' best-known songs; "Lost Cause" from Beck's 2002 album "Sea Change"; and "If It Wasn't Broken" by Los Angeles folk-punk artist Sydney Lyndella Ward, a.k.a. Sunny War.

"Willie singing 'If It Wasn't Broken' is the sweetest and greatest thing that's ever happened to me as writer and musician," Ward said. "I used to play that song on the Venice Beach boardwalk and would have never imagined back then that Willie Nelson would ever even hear it. I feel grateful and inspired."

Nelson's longtime harmonica player Mickey Raphael recommended the late Warren Zevon's "Keep Me In Your Heart," which fits squarely into the album's central theme — as does the meditative mantra "Come Ye," from jazz great Nina Simone's 1967 album "High Priestess Of Soul."

Nelson also sings two songs written by longtime friend Neil Young: "Are You Ready For The Country" from 1972's "Harvest," and the impressionistic six-minute classic "Broken Arrow" from Buffalo Springfield's 1967 album "Buffalo Springfield Again." And Richards, who was among the star-studded guests for Nelson's 90th-birthday bash at the Hollywood Bowl last year, is represented with "Robbed Blind" from his 2015 album "Crosseyed Heart."

Also featured at the Hollywood Bowl shows was Micah's own rendition (with producer and musician Daniel Lanois) of "The Ghost," which Willie wrote in 1962 and recorded in 1967. Willie revives the song near the end of "Last Leaf On The Tree." There's also a new Willie/Micah co-write, "Color Of Sound," and Willie's rendition of Micah's song "Wheels" from a 2017 album released under Micah's musical moniker Particle Kid.

Nelson most often records his parts at Pedernales Studios near his home outside of Austin, but this time he traveled to Venice, Cal. and joined Micah at the Hen House, a studio that has been central to Micah's recording career for a decade. Willie plays his acoustic guitar Trigger throughout. Guest musicians include Raphael, Lanois on pedal steel, and former Doors drummer John Densmore and Senegalese musician Magatte Sow on percussion.

The track list is:
1. Last Leaf (written by Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan)
2. If It Wasn't Broken (written by Sydney Lyndella Ward)
3. Lost Cause (written by Beck David Hansen)
4. Come Ye (written by Nina Simone)
5. Keep Me In Your Heart (written by Warren Zevon & Jorge Calderon)
6. Robbed Blind (written by Keith Richards)
7. House Where Nobody Lives (written by Tom Waits)
8. Are You Ready For The Country? (written by Neil Young)
9. Do You Realize?? (written by Wayne Coyne/Steven Drozd/Michael Ivins/David Fridmann)
10. Wheels (written by Micah Nelson)
11. Broken Arrow (written by Neil Young)
12. Color Of Sound (written by Willie Nelson & Micah Nelson)
13. The Ghost (written by Willie Nelson)