Willie Nelson Pays Homage to Friend and Icon Frank Sinatra on New Album That’s Life

Willie Nelson is set to release a new studio album – That’s Life – on February 26th, paying homage to his friend and fellow icon Frank Sinatra. This will mark Nelson’s 15th studio album for Legacy Recordings and will be available on CD, vinyl and on digital. Pre-order here: https://smarturl.it/ThatsLife_PreOrder

Willie Nelson is set to honour his friend and fellow icon Frank Sinatra with the release of his new studio album – That’s Life – set for release on the 26th February. The record continues Nelson’s longtime appreciation of Sinatra’s artistry and music (exemplified on 2018’s My Way that earned Willie the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Solo Album).

Willie’s second album made of standards and classic made famous by Sinatra finds Nelson inhabiting more of the treasured songs in the Great American Songbook, recorded in the spirit of the legendary 1978 Stardust album. Even the album cover painting evokes Sinatra’s classic album images. The record was produced by Buddy Cannon and Matt Rollings and was recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood.

Willie and Frank were close friends, musical colleagues and mutual admirers of each other’s work. 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.”

That’s the attitude Willie brings to That’s Life with his sublime interpretations of Sinatra signature songs including “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” “Just In Time,” “Cottage For Sale,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “You Make Me Feel So Young,” “I Won’t Dance” (featuring Diana Krall), “That’s Life,” “Luck Be A Lady,” “In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning,” “Learnin’ The Blues” and “Lonesome Road.”

Willie Nelson – That’s Life track listing

1. Nice Work If You Can Get It (Ira Gershwin & George Gershwin; Sinatra-Basie: An Historic Musical First, 1962)
2. Just In Time (Adolph Green, Jule Styne & Betty Comden; Come Dance With Me!, 1959)
3. A Cottage For Sale (Larry Conley & Willard Robison; No One Cares, 1959)
4. I’ve Got You Under My Skin (Cole Porter; Songs For Swingin’ Lovers!, 1956)
5. You Make Me Feel So Young (Josef Myrow & Mack Gordon; Songs For Swingin’ Lovers!, 1956)
6. I Won’t Dance – featuring Diana Krall (Jerome Kerr, Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach, Jimmy McHugh & Dorothy Fields; A Swingin’ Affair!, 1957)
7. That’s Life (Dean Kay & Kelly Gordon, That’s Life, 1966)
8. Luck Be A Lady (Frank Loesser; My Kind Of Broadway, 1965)
9. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning (David Mann & Bob Hilliard; In The Wee Small Hours, 1955)
10. Learnin’ The Blues (Dolores Vicki Silvers; Session with Sinatra EP, single, 1955)
11. Lonesome Road (Nathaniel Shilkret & Gene Austin; A Swingin’ Affair!, 1957)