Across recent years, Willie Nelson has sprinkled tribute albums into his release schedule, with past projects celebrating the works of Frank Sinatra, Ray Price and the Gershwin brothers. That trend continues with Nelson's first album of 2023: I Don't Know a Thing About Love, a collection of songs written by Harlan Howard.
The coiner of "three chords and the truth" as the definition of country songwriting, Howard wrote songs made famous by Buck Owens ("I've Got a Tiger By the Tail"), Waylon Jennings ("The Chokin' Kind"), Bobby Bare ("The Streets of Baltimore"), Brenda Lee ("Too Many Rivers") and Conway Twitty ("I Don't Know a Thing About Love"). Those and five other selections were covered by Nelson for his upcoming Buddy Cannon-produced album, which arrives on March 3.
The album's first single, "Busted" was penned in 1962 and became a country hit the following year for Johnny Cash and the Carter Family before entering pop's Top 10 via Ray Charles— which should give you an idea of how smoothly Howard's hard country songwriting translated across genre lines.
Howard songs of note beyond those on this project include Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces" (a Hank Cochran co-write) and The Judds' "Why Not Me" (a Sonny Throckmorton and Brent Maher co-write).
The album features cover art by Nelson's son Micah.
Nelson turns 90 on April 29. Before that, the five-part documentary series Willie Nelson & Family will debut at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, which will be held on Jan. 19- 29.
READ MORE: Miranda Lambert + Willie Nelson Score Multiple 2023 Grammy Award Nominations
I Don't Know a Thing About Love Tracklist
1. "Tiger by the Tail"
2. "The Chokin' Kind"
3. "Excuse Me (I Think I've Got a Heartache)"
4. "Life Turned Her That Way"
5. "I Don't Know a Thing About Love"
6. "Streets of Baltimore"
7. "Busted"
8. "She Called Me Baby"
9. "Too Many Rivers"
10. "Beautiful Annabel Lee"
