''First Rose of Spring'' is the 70th solo studio album by American singer-songwriter

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album ''Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of '' Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and ''Stardust'' (1978 ...

. It was released on July 3, 2020, by

Legacy Recordings Legacy Recordings is an American record label that is a division of Sony Music. Formed in 1990 after Sony's acquisition of CBS Records, Legacy originally handled the archives of Sony Music-owned labels Columbia Records and Epic Records. In ...

. The album was produced by

Buddy Cannon Buddy Cannon (born April 20, 1947 Lexington, Tennessee) is an American country music songwriter and record producer. Active since the late 1970s, he is known primarily for his work with Willie Nelson and as Kenny Chesney's record producer, for ...

. The album was originally scheduled to be released on April 24, but was pushed back to July 3 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

Content

The album features eleven tracks. Nelson and Cannon co-wrote two originals for the album, while the remaining tracks include compositions by

Chris Stapleton Christopher Alvin Stapleton (born April 15, 1978) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and grew up in Staffordsville, Kentucky. In 2001, Stapleton moved to Nashville, Tennessee, t ...

Toby Keith Toby Keith Covel (born July 8, 1961), known professionally as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer. He released his first four studio albums—1993's ''Toby Keith'', 1994's ''Boomtown'', 1996' ...

and

Pete Graves Pete Graves has been a British television presenter working for British Sky Broadcasting. He anchored live association football and rugby union matches on Sky Sports. He also co-presented on Sky Sports News and Sky News. Radio Graves event ...

. The title track was written by

Randy Houser Shawn Randolph Houser (born December 18, 1975) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Signed to Universal South Records in 2008, he charted the single " Anything Goes". It was a top 20 hit on the ''Billboard'' country singles chart ...

Allen Shamblin Allen Shamblin is a country music songwriter who was born in Tennessee, and was brought up in Huffman, Texas. After graduating from Sam Houston State University he worked in Austin as a real estate appraiser. In 1987, he quit his job and mov ...

and

Mack Vickery Mack Vickery (June 8, 1938 – December 21, 2004), also known as Atlanta James and Vick Vickers, was an American musician, songwriter, and inductee in the Hillbilly Hall of Fame and Alabama Music Hall of Fame. His songs have been recorded by ...

. The closing track of the album is a cover of

Roy Clark Roy Linwood Clark (April 15, 1933 – November 15, 2018) was an American singer and musician. He is best known for having hosted ''Hee Haw'', a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969 to 1997. Clark was an important and influen ...

's "Yesterday When I Was Young", originally written by

Charles Aznavour Charles Aznavour ( , ; born Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian, hy, Շահնուր Վաղինակ Ազնավուրեան, ; 22 May 1924 – 1 October 2018) was a French-Armenian singer, lyricist, actor and diplomat. Aznavour was known for his dist ...

as "

Hier encore "Hier encore", whose original French title translates to "Just yesterday" or "Not so long ago", is a song composed by Georges Garvarentz and written by Charles Aznavour and released in September 1964. History It was subsequently released in Eng ...

Critical reception

''First Rose of Spring'' received positive review from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received a score of 76 out of 100 based on six reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Peter J. Hoetjes from ''Glide Magazine'' praised the album's songwriting and use of organic instruments, saying that Nelson "willfully imbues ''First Rose of Spring'' with his own brand of bitter honesty, giving the album the sort of emotional resonance that the majority of his contemporary peers forgo in exchange for switchboard instrumentation and hollow lyricism." Writing for ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'', Elisa Bray gave the album four out of five stars, describing it as "the work of an artist who will never grow old."

Commercial performance

''First Rose of Spring'' debuted at No. 5 on ''Billboard''s Top Country Albums with 12,000 album equivalent units.

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from the album liner notes. Performance *Dave Angell – strings *Monisa Angell – strings *Jerry Bifano – strings *Buddy Cannon – acoustic guitar, background vocals *Melodie Cannon – background vocals *Chad Cromwell – drums *David Davidson – strings *Ward Davis – background vocals *Connie Ellisor – strings *Alicia Enstrom – strings *Kevin "Swine" Grantt – upright bass *Mike Johnson – steel guitar *Anthony La Marchina – strings *Catherine Marx – piano, B3 organ, Wurlitzer, Rhodes *Willie Nelson – Trigger, lead vocals *Larry Paxton – upright bass *Sari Reist – strings *Mickey Raphael – harmonica *Bobby Terry – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, steel guitar *Kristin Wilkinson – strings *Lonnie Wilson – drums *Karen Winkelmann – strings Production *Luke Armentrout – mastering assistant *Kevin Boettger – assistant engineer *Buddy Cannon – production *Tony Castle – recording, mixing *Steve Chadie – recording *Andrew Darby – mastering assistant *Shannon Finnegan – production coordinator *Michelle Freetley – assistant engineer *Bobbi Giel – mastering assistant *Steven Lamb – copyist *Matt Leigh – assistant engineer *Steve Mazur – assistant engineer *Andrew Mendelson – mastering *Nick Molino – assistant engineer *Bryce Roberts – assistant engineer *Bobby Terry – additional engineer *Kristin Wilkinson – string arrangements Other personnel *Alexandra Dascalu Nelson – back cover photo *Micah Nelson – artwork

Charts

References

{{Authority control Willie Nelson albums 2020 albums Albums produced by Buddy Cannon Legacy Recordings albums Albums postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic