Early on in this guest-packed collection recorded at LA’s Hollywood Bowl over two nights in April 2023, Willie Nelson’s son Micah takes the stage to sing “Die When I’m High (Halfway to Heaven)”, a song he wrote when he was playing a lot of dominoes with his dad during the pandemic. The song imagines Willie looking back on his improbable life, from young musician raised in poverty by his grandparents in Abbott, Texas, to hard-working legend who’s still eager to get on the bus at 90: “They say people my age are expected to fade,” Micah sings, “Well, I’m afraid I’ve let them down.” The moment proves that Long Story Short is not just another tribute album: It’s a thoughtful testament to one of America’s greatest artists, and it proves Nelson can out-sing just about anybody into his 10th decade. Fifty-three tracks distilled from four hours of performances each night by Nelson’s greatest living contemporaries and acolytes, it’s also a souvenir from an extremely well-attended birthday party. Billy Strings kicks off the celebration with “Whiskey River”, channelling Nelson and Family’s late-’70s performance with fiery picking and harmonica. Charley Crockett steps into 1971’s “Yesterday’s Wine” like a pair of old boots, crooning over gorgeous pedal steel and fiddle. Allison Russell and Norah Jones team up for “Seven Spanish Angels”, a gospel classic Nelson recorded with Ray Charles. But it’s Nelson’s appearance midway through that kicks things to another gear. He reunites with Booker T. Jones for “Stardust”, the Hoagy Carmichael standard the two included on Nelson’s album of the same name. He teams up with Buddy Cannon, another long-time collaborator who has produced more than a dozen of his recent albums, for “Something You Get Through”, an overlooked gem from 2018’s Last Man Standing. Nelson and Sheryl Crow deliver a gorgeous take on “Far Away Places”, the 1948 standard written by Joan Whitney and Alex Kramer. Nelson admits before the performance that he doesn’t know the key; by the end he’s improvising lines with Crow, adding new dimensions to the well-known classic. After more friends and luminaries, including Neil Young, Keith Richards and Bob Weir, everyone takes the stage for “Happy Birthday”. Even though the group is singing for him, Nelson doesn’t step away from the mic. He sings it along with everyone else.