For more than three decades, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard built a rare musical bond, releasing four collaborative albums: Pancho & Lefty (1983), Seashores of Old Mexico (1987), Last of the Breed (2007, alongside Ray Price), and Django and Jimmie (2015), which arrived just a year before Haggard’s passing. Now, Willie returns to that shared legacy with a stripped-back, deeply personal tribute on his latest record.
Titled Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle, the album lives and breathes on feeling rather than flash. It’s not about modern polish—it’s about memory, comfort, and the joy of familiar voices and sounds. For longtime fans, it feels like stepping back into a room filled with old friends, where time slows and the music simply flows. Willie’s relaxed delivery, backed by players who have been at his side for decades, gives the record its warm, lived-in heart.
Tribute albums were once a staple of country music, and while the tradition has faded for many artists, Willie has never abandoned it. Over the years, he’s honored legends like Lefty Frizzell, Kris Kristofferson, Ray Price, Frank Sinatra, Rodney Crowell, and more. Some of those projects hit harder than others—but here, his love and respect for Haggard feel unmistakably real and deeply earned.
The album pulls together eleven handpicked songs from across Haggard’s legendary catalog. A few of the most familiar tracks, like “Mama Tried” and “Ramblin’ Fever,” feel more like affectionate revisits than reinventions, and Willie’s voice—weathered and fragile at 92—reveals the passage of time. But when he leans into songs like “If We Make It Through December,” “Somewhere Between,” “Today I Started Loving You Again,” and the title track, “Workin’ Man Blues,” everything clicks. His signature guitar, subtle and expressive, carries much of the emotional weight.
But this project mourns more than Merle Haggard alone. Recorded at Willie’s Pedernales Studio near Austin, the album includes the final sessions with members of his longtime “Family” band—his beloved sister Bobbie Nelson, who passed in 2022, and drummer Paul English, who died in 2020. Their presence gives the music a deeper meaning, as if the album quietly preserves their last moments together in sound.
There are imperfections throughout the record: small lyrical changes, relaxed ad-libs, and loose edges that would be cleaned up on a modern country release. But that’s exactly what makes it special. At one point, Willie warmly calls out, “Play it, sister,” and it feels like a window opening into a private moment between siblings.
In the end, this album doesn’t feel like a polished tribute. It feels like friends gathering one last time, with a few of them now only present in spirit. As Willie and his guitar glide through “Silver Wings,” it’s easy to imagine Merle smiling somewhere nearby.