Willie Nelson releasing second Frank Sinatra covers album

That’s Life features 11 songs

Willie Nelson is set to release That’s Life, his second collection of songs made famous by jazz crooner Frank Sinatra. The 11 track project will be available on CD, LP and digitally on February 26th via Sony Legacy Recordings. A limited edition marbled blue color variant vinyl LP will be available exclusively at Barnes & Noble. The songs were recorded at the world famous Capitol Studios in Hollywood, where Sinatra created a string of album masterpieces, with additional recording at Pedernales Studios in Austin, Texas.

Honoring the enduring inspiration of Sinatra, That’s Life finds Nelson inhabiting 11 more of the most treasured songs in the Great American Songbook, including the title track, “Luck Be A Lady,” and a duet with Diana Krall on “I Won’t Dance,” among others.

The album was produced by Buddy Cannon and Matt Rollings, and sees Nelson deliver new studio performances that come alive in a musical landscape animated by lush string and vibrant horn arrangements. Recording industry legend Al Schmitt — who’s recorded and mixed more than 150 gold and platinum albums and won more Grammy Awards than any other engineer or mixer — mixed That’s Life. The album cover features a brand new painting of Nelson and his iconic guitar, Trigger, standing in the glow of a twilight streetlamp, evoking classic Sinatra album covers of yore.

That’s Life follows Nelson’s 2018 tribute to Sinatra called My Way, which earned Nelson a Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Solo Album. That album was also produced by Cannon and Rollings and featured 11 tracks.

Nelson and Sinatra were close friends, musical colleagues and mutual admirers of each other’s work throughout Sinatra’s lifetime. In the 1980s, Sinatra opened for Nelson at Golden Nugget in Las Vegas and the two of them appeared together in a public service announcement for NASA’s Space Foundation.

In February 2012, Willie Nelson entered into an historic new record deal with Legacy Recordings, marking a label homecoming for Nelson, who, from 1975-1993, had cut a phenomenal string of top-selling singles and albums for Columbia Records, beginning with 1975’s seminal smash Red Headed Stranger. New titles by the artist under the Legacy imprint include newly recorded songs and performances as well as archival releases, personally curated by the artist, drawn from all phases of his career including his recordings for RCA Records and others. Since signing with Legacy, Willie Nelson has sold more than one million albums for the label.

That’s Life is Nelson’s 71st solo studio album and 15th overall for the label.

CD | LP

  1. Nice Work If You Can Get It
  2. Just In Time
  3. A Cottage For Sale
  4. I’ve Got You Under My Skin
  5. You Make Me Feel So Young
  6. I Won’t Dance – featuring Diana Krall
  7. That’s Life
  8. Luck Be A Lady
  9. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
  10. Learnin’ The Blues
  11. Lonesome Road

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com