WILLIE NELSON

The Border (Legacy)

There’s something unbelievable about listening to a 91-year-old’s 152nd album. But, as crazy as those numbers sound, The Border is exactly that. Back with his long-term writing partner, Buddy Cannon, the original outlaw country star Willie Nelson doesn’t sound a day over 75.

There’s four new songs by the pair on The Border, including the touching Once Upon A Yesterday and a couple of harder-hitting numbers, the best of which is the groove-based tough love track, Kiss Me When You’re Through. The only downside is that the opening title track is so exceptionally good that the rest of the album feels a little weak in comparison – a stark look at life as a guard on the American/Mexican border, it comes close to the work fellow Highwayman Johnny Cash released in his later years. But once you get over that, it’s impossible not to enjoy Nelson’s vocal delivery and to be reminded of what a tasteful guitarist he is, too. Here’s to album 153!

words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES