Editor's Note: Annie Zaleski has been awarded one of two No Depression Criticism Fellowships to write in-depth album reviews on roots music's most important albums. Read her previous review of Kacey Musgraves' Middle of Nowhere here, and stay tuned for more from both No Depression Criticism Fellows all year long.
Long careers often involve many sonic twists and turns, meaning that putting new music into context can be difficult. For some of these artists, their best work is so beloved or acclaimed that everything else pales in comparison; for others, their later work simply isn’t very good, either due to creative missteps or misguided attempts at modernizing their sound.
Neither of those potential outcomes applies to Willie Nelson, though. At age 93, the musical icon continues to release solid country records at a steady pace. In fact, Dream Chaser, which arrived in March, is his 11th studio album since 2020. Although this album focuses largely on original songs, Nelson has also recently recorded album-length tributes to Ray Price, Harlan Howard (ND story), George Gershwin, and Merle Haggard (ND review). In 2021, he cut The Willie Nelson Family, a full-length with his long-time band and family members. Two years later, he released his first bluegrass album, Bluegrass (ND review), that featured re-dos of songs from his career recorded with (among others) members of Alison Krauss’s Union Station.
“When I have enough, I’ll put an album out,” Nelson told AARP in 2023, when asked whether it’s getting more difficult to come up with song ideas. I don’t try to push it. I think I’ve been kind of lucky through the years. I just wait and let it happen.”
If all of this sounds familiar, that’s because this musical approach — writing solid songs, building albums around a strong theme, working with trusted collaborators, and occasionally trying out new things — is what Nelson has been doing for decades now. After finding fame in the early 1960s as a songwriter for other people (notably, Patsy Cline cut “Crazy” and Roy Orbison recorded “Pretty Paper”) he found his groove as a recording artist in the 1970s. He formed his band The Family in 1973; created an outlaw country canon (collaborations with Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson); and occasionally landed a commercial hit (1978’s standards collection Stardust). All told, Nelson has released more than 150 albums.
The overarching theme of this career is consistency. A Nelson album will always feature timeless country songs, showcase imperfect narrators, and include lyrics that get to the heart of the human condition. Dream Chaser is no exception. Across 10 songs, the album encompasses keening ballads, jaunty blues numbers, taut honky-tonk, and genial twang. Curved pedal steel, ornate piano, and Mickey Raphael’s mournful harmonica soar in and out of the mix; these flourishes add emotional depth with a light touch.
On recent full-lengths (including Dream Chaser) Nelson’s consistency is bolstered by the influence of Buddy Cannon. The producer brings songwriter sensibilities (in fact, he regularly cowrites with Nelson), along with a rigorous approach to quality control. He intuitively knows what a good song sounds like and ensures that Nelson’s albums stick to this framework. For example, he decided that Bluegrass shouldn’t be duets, even though that might have been the easier commercial route. “The more I looked at his catalog, the more that felt like a gimmick,” Cannon told Texas Monthly. “These songs deserve better than that.” Crucially, he also doesn’t overproduce Dream Chaser, giving the album warmth and ensuring the individual instruments have room to breathe.
