Willie Nelson Inhabits The Songs Of Others On 'First Rose Of Spring'

Enlarge this image

Willie Nelson Pamela Springsteen/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

toggle caption

Pamela Springsteen/Courtesy of the artist

Willie Nelson

Pamela Springsteen/Courtesy of the artist

There's something about Willie Nelson's voice where you just believe what he's saying, even when he's singing a song he didn't write himself. And he does a lot of that on his recently released, 70th studio album, First Rose of Spring.

First Rose of Spring was released July 3, and I spoke to him just a couple of days before it came out. In this session, we discuss how Nelson is able to inhabit songs other people write and why he chose some of the songs on his new album. He also talks about working on a memoir with his sister Bobbie and the kind of advice he gives his sons, Lukas and Micah, who are also musicians. Before you hear our conversation, let's start with a bit of the title track from the album. Listen in the audio player above.