Legacy Recordings, the catalogue division of Sony Music Entertainment, will release the new studio album Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle from Willie Nelson in all configurations on Friday, November 7. The album will be available digitally, on CD and as a single LP black vinyl release and may be pre-ordered HERE.
Workin’ Man premieres Willie’s new interpretations of 11 classic songs written by Merle Haggard, the latest in Nelson’s storied history of focusing entire albums on a single songwriter’s or artist’s work. In just the last decade, Willie has released albums focusing on songwriters Harlan Howard, Ray Price, George Gershwin and Rodney Crowell and released two volumes of songs associated with Frank Sinatra. Nelson and Haggard were longtime friends and collaborators who released three collaborative albums together: 1983’s Pancho and Lefty, 2007’s Last Of The Breed (alongside Ray Price) and 2015’s Django and Jimmie.
The first single from the album is out now and is Willie’s take on the classic “Workin’ Man Blues,” which was a #1 country hit for Haggard in 1969.
Eleven of Willie’s favorite Merle compositions were handpicked for the album. Nelson’s new performances include songs from various parts of his career, from tracks off of Merle’s first #1 Country album, 1966’s Swinging Doors (“Swinging Doors,” “Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down”) and late 60s career-defining hits (“Mama Tried,” “Okie From Muskogee”) to 70s classics (the heart-breaking holiday track “If We Make It Through December,” the southern-rock tinged “Ramblin’ Fever”) and Merle’s #1 honky-tonk classic from 1980 “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here And Drink.”
The album announcement also comes as Willie Nelson gets ready to start the final leg of the Outlaw Music Festival 10th Anniversary Tour in the northeast and midwest starting tomorrow with an all-star lineup that includes Willie, Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, Waxahatchee and Madeline Edwards. In addition to entertaining the audience from the stage, Willie brings along his new hemp-derived THC-infused social tonics Willie’s Remedy+.
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