Willie and Merle Reunite for 14-Track Album

Haggard, Nelson. Photo: Danny Clinch

Legacy Recordings will release Django and Jimmie, a new studio collaboration from Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, on June 2.

Helmed by Nelson’s longtime producer, Buddy Cannon, Django and Jimmie premieres 14 new studio recordings (full list below) including “Missing Ol’ Johnny Cash,” an homage to country music’s original Man in Black, featuring guest vocals from Bobby Bare. The title track is a tribute to jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and Jimmie Rodgers.

Cannon helped pen five album tracks, including four co-writes with Nelson. There is an equal number of Haggard solo-writes. Additional tracks include an interpretation of Bob Dylan‘s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”; and the future outlaw country classic “Unfair Weather Friend,” written by Marla Cannon-Goodman (Buddy Cannon’s daughter) and Ward Davis.

Nelson and Haggard each pay musical tribute to the other through solo performances: Willie singing Merle’s “Somewhere Between” and Merle covering Willie’s “Family Bible.”

According to Haggard, there’s “new songs, a couple of classics and Willie sang like he was a teenager.”

Nelson sums up the duo’s new collaboration simply saying, “It’s good music, I got a good feeling about it.”

In 1983, the pair’s Pancho & Lefty became a honky-tonk blockbuster and No. 1 country album following its January release. The success opened the doors for a number of follow-up projects including ’87’s Seashores Of Old Mexico album, 2007’s double album Last Of The Breed with Ray Price, and the Merle Haggard-penned “A Horse Called Music” (the lead track on 2012’s Heroes, Nelson’s first album for Legacy).

Django and Jimmie Track Listing: 

1. Django and Jimmie (Jimmy Melton/Jeff Prince)
2. It’s All Going To Pot (Buddy Cannon/Jamey Johnson/Larry Shell)
3. Unfair Weather Friend (Marla Cannon-Goodman/Ward Davis)
4. Missing Ol’ Johnny Cash –feat. Bobby Bare (Haggard)
5. Live This Long (Shawn Camp/Marv Green)
6. Alice In Hulaland (Willie Nelson and Buddy Cannon)
7. Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright (Bob Dylan)
8. Family Bible (Walter M. Breeland/Paul F. Buskirk/Claude Gray)
9. It’s Only Money (Nelson/Buddy Cannon)
10. Swinging Doors (Haggard)
11. Where Dreams Come To Die (Nelson/Buddy Cannon)
12. Somewhere Between (Haggard)
13. Driving The Herd (Nelson/Buddy Cannon)
14. The Only Man Wilder Than Me (Haggard)