Willie Nelson does Sinatra on next album

That's Life, Willie Nelson's new studio album is scheduled for Feb. 26 via Legacy Recordings and will be available on CD, 12" vinyl LP and digital formats. Pre-order here.

Honoring the enduring influence and inspiration of Frank Sinatra, That's Life continues Willie's longtime musical appreciation of Sinatra's artistry and repertoire, an exploration exemplified by 2018's My Way, which earned Willie the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Solo Album.

Willie's second album of standards and classics made famous by Frank Sinatra, That's Life finds Nelson (who has penned a few standards himself including "Crazy," "Funny How Times Slips Away," "On The Road Again" and many more) inhabiting more of the most treasured songs in the Great American Songbook.

It was recorded in the spirit of the groundbreaking 1978 Stardust album (Willie is one of the first contemporary artists to "cover" the Great American Songbook), 2016's Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin (a Best Traditional Vocal Album Grammy Award winner) and 2018's My Way.

The album cover painting of Willie and his iconic guitar, Trigger, standing in the glow of a twilight streetlamp, was created by Paul Mann, a painter and illustrator known for his film poster work. It evokes classic Sinatra album images like In The Wee Small Hours (whose title song is featured on That's Life). Other key tracks on Willie's new album include "I Won't Dance" (featuring Grammy and Juno Award winning vocalist Diana Krall) and "A Cottage For Sale" premiering HERE.

Produced by Buddy Cannon and Matt Rollings, That's Life was recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood--where Frank Sinatra, the first artist to record at the facility, created masterpieces from March 1956 to November 1961--with additional recording at Pedernales Studios in Austin, Texas.

Willie delivers 11 new studio performances with string and horn arrangements mixed by recording industry legend Al Schmitt (who's recorded and mixed more than 150 gold and platinum albums and won more Grammy Awards than any other engineer or mixer).

Both Nelson and Sinatra were close friends, musical colleagues and mutual admirers of each other's work throughout Sinatra's lifetime. In the 1980s, Sinatra opened for Willie at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas and the two of them appeared together in a public service announcement for NASA's Space Foundation.

"I learned a lot about phrasing listening to Frank," Willie said in an interview for AARP magazine (June/July 2018). "He didn't worry about behind the beat or in front of the beat, or whatever-he could sing it either way, and that's the feel you have to have."

Track listing (songwriters, year of Sinatra version):

01. Nice Work If You Can Get It (Ira/George Gershwin; 1962)
02. Just In Time (Adolph Green/Jule Styne/Betty Comden; 1959)
03. A Cottage For Sale (Larry Conley/Willard Robison; 1959)
04. I've Got You Under My Skin (Cole Porter; 1956)
05. You Make Me Feel So Young (Josef Myrow/Mack Gordon; 1956)
06. I Won't Dance - feat. Diana Krall (Kerr/Hammerstein/Harbach/McHugh/Fields; 1957)
07. That's Life (Dean Kay/Kelly Gordon, 1966)
08. Luck Be A Lady (Frank Loesser; 1965)
09. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning (David Mann/Bob Hilliard; 1955)
10. Learnin' The Blues (Dolores Vicki Silvers; 1955)
11. Lonesome Road (Nathaniel Shilkret/Gene Austin; 1957)

Musicians:

Willie Nelson - Trigger

Matt Rollings - piano, B-3 organ, vibraphone, hand claps
Dean Parks - electric guitar, acoustic guitar, hand claps
David Piltch - bass, hand claps
Jay Bellerose - drums, tambourine, hand claps
Mickey Raphael - harmonica
Paul Franklin - steel guitar
Chris McDonald - trombone
Jeff Coffin - tenor saxophone
Mark Douthit - alto saxophone
Barry Green - trombone
Mike Haynes - trumpet
Doug Moffet - baritone saxophone
Steve Patrick - trumpet, piccolo trumpet
Matt Forbes - hand claps
Ed Cherney - hand claps
Buddy Cannon - hand claps

Strings: Kristin Wilkinson, David Angell, Monisa Angell, Carrie Bailey, Kevin Bate, David Davidson, Conni Ellisor, Cornelia Heard, Alison Hoffman, Paul Nelson, Sari Reist, Karen Winkelmann

Strings orchestrated by Kristin Wilkinson
Horns orchestrated by Chris McDonald