God's Problem Child

Editors’ Notes 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.”