Listen: Willie Nelson Covers Beck’s “Lost Cause” for 153rd Album ‘Last Leaf On The Tree’
Photo Credit: Pamela Springsteen
Willie Nelson flexes his unparalleled range again today with a cover of Beck’s “Lost Cause,” shared as the third preview single for his forthcoming studio album Last Leaf On The Tree. Set to release on Nov. 1 via Legacy Records, Nelson’s next set arrives as his 76th solo studio album and 153rd release overall and continues the country star’s tradition of honoring other iconic songwriters—this time with a hand from his son Micah, who assisted in the selection of a new range of songs that could interestingly fit his father’s style.
That finely-honed sound reworks Beck’s 2002 Sea Change standout into a haunting, atmospheric plains song far afield from the original. Under a wide-open sky striped with painterly daubs of piano and distant strings, Nelson forges a path forward with Trigger and sings an ode to a wounded love. Micah–who performs as Particle Kid–fades in and out with vocal harmonies; his steady hand also guides the slow surge of emotion from Willie’s producer chair, which he occupies for the first time on Last Leaf On The Tree after a lifetime of live and studio collaboration.
“This one’s really like a country song in a way,” Micah says of the song, which was one of many Beck tracks considered as he worked out a well-balanced tracklist for his father. “It’s this relationship gone south, and just reconciling with all that. It’s a very clear narrative country song, but it’s kind of psychedelic, too.”
After hearing Shotgun Willie’s cover, Beck shared that “Willie’s songs have been my companions for most of my life. I’ve been lucky to get to hang out and sing with him on several occasions over the years. There’s no one like him in music and it’s the greatest honor to have him record this song.”
“Lost Cause” follows previously released covers of The Flaming Lips’ neo-psych classic “Do You Realize??” and Tom Waits’ bittersweet and retrospective Bad As Me cut “Last Leaf,” which offers the album’s title. Elsewhere, Nelson will treat another indie offering with “If It Wasn’t Broken” by Sunny War–a.k.a Sydney Lyndella Ward–who remarked that the cover is “the sweetest and greatest thing that’s ever happened to me as writer and musician. Willie’s longtime harmonica collaborator Mickey Raphael recommended Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me In Your Heart,” which suits the album’s central theme and figures alongside other classics like Buffalo Springfield’s “Broken Arrow” and Nina Simone’s “Come Ye.” Willie and Micah co-wrote the new entry “Color of Sound,” and Willie closes the collection with a new recording of “The Ghost,” which he first penned in 1962.
Nelson’s cover of “Lost Cause” is available on all streaming services now, and fans can pre-order and pre-save Last Leaf On The Tree here. Read on for the album’s complete tracklist.
Last Leaf on the Tree – Willie Nelson
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)
