God's Problem Child
A few years into his 80s, and Willie Nelson’s touch is as light and comforting as ever. *God’s Problem Child* is a mellow, often reflective set of outlaw country and folk that finds Nelson wrestling directly with mortality—sometimes gravely (the touching “Old Timer”), sometimes not (the hilariously straight-faced “Still Not Dead,” as in, “I woke up still not dead again today”). It concludes with a salute to his old friend and longtime duet partner Merle Haggard on “He Won’t Ever Be Gone.”
Written partly over text messages with his co-writer Buddy Cannon, Willie Nelson’s latest album finds the cosmic joker contemplating mortality with endearing humor and touching honesty.
A consideration of aging, loss and engaging the world from that lived in perspective, it feels like Nelson's personal state of the union.
Our take on the 83-year-old country icon's latest, on which the passage of time is rendered with timeless wisdom and beauty.
Nelson remains aware of time’s cruel passages but unwilling to yield to its intentions.