An album of all-new recordings, Willie Nelson’s God’s Problem Child adds 13 new songs to the legendary artist’s repertoire, including seven recently written by Willie and Buddy Cannon, his longtime collaborator and producer. The album is Willie’s first to debut all-new songs since Band of Brothers (his fourth Legacy release) reached No. 1 on the Billboard Country chart and No. 5 on the Billboard 200 in 2014. An album that reflects on mortality while marveling at the beauty and absurdity of it all, God’s Problem Child finds Willie at one of the creative peaks of his career, writing and singing with the seasoned wit and wisdom that can only come from the kind of life he’s living. The album opens with Willie’s performance of “Little House On The Hill,” a song written by Lyndel Rhodes, Cannon’s 92-year-old mother. The album’s title track, penned by Jamey Johnson and Tony Joe White, includes vocals by both writers and old friend and musical cohort Leon Russell (on what may be Russell’s very last recording). The Willie penned “Still Not Dead,” pokes fun at the many exaggerated reports of his demise he’s heard over the years while “Delete and Fast-Forward” is his unabashed analysis of the 2016 United States elections and how to deal with the aftermath. In keeping with the album’s subtext of memory and mortality, God’s Problem Child closes with “He Won’t Ever Be Gone,” a song written by Gary Nicholson that pays tribute to Willie’s outlaw country comrade, Merle Haggard. Haggard’s last album was 2015’s Django and Jimmie, a musical collaboration with Nelson.
