Oh What A Beautiful World

Just shy of his 92nd birthday, the legendary American songwriter shows no signs of stopping: Oh What a Beautiful World is Nelson’s 77th solo studio album. This one continues his hallowed tradition of interpreting the work of his own favourite songwriters—in this case, its 12 songs were either written or co-written by fellow Texan Rodney Crowell, who also appears to sing backup on the title track. Nelson has been recording Crowell’s songs for decades (including on 2024’s The Border), but here the tracks he’s selected are poignant in their focus on the mundane sweetness of life: quiet mornings, rainstorms, old clothes that fit just right. Bittersweet memories of simple childhood pleasures resurface on “Banks of the Old Bandera”, though the rope they used to swing on over the swimming hole has long since tattered and frayed. All the more moving, then, when Nelson sings on “The Fly Boy & the Kid”, “May you always stay in touch with the things that keep you young/When you’re staring at injustice, may you never bite your tongue.”