Music Review: Willie Nelson takes it back to Texas, with notes of Mexico, on ‘The Border’

Willie Nelson has never in his long life not wanted to be making music. After 2023 saw him celebrate his 90th birthday with an epic two-night concert celebration at the Hollywood Bowl, get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and release two studio albums along with the usual constant touring, 2024 finds him as unretired as ever, with Friday’s release of “The Border.” It’s his 152nd album, counting live collections and collaborations, according to Texas Monthly, which recently took on the titanic task of ranking them. While his last studio album, “Bluegrass,” explored the music of Kentucky, the new one — produced by longtime collaborator Buddy Cannon and released by Sony’s Legacy Recordings on streaming, CD and vinyl — is firmly planted in his native Texas and its stark southern borderlands. Inflections of Mexican music have run through almost all of Nelson’s work, but he occasionally leans into it, as he did with the 1998 masterpiece “Teatro.” He does the same — sort of — with “The Border,” whose best tracks have heavy doses of the sounds of Mexico. “From the shacks and the shanties come the hungry and poor,” he sings, “some to drown at the crossing some to suffer no more.” Nelson delivers the lines with a darkly direct rasp reminiscent of the final recordings of his Highwaymen bandmate Johnny Cash.