Mortality hangs heavily on A Beautiful Time, as perhaps it should. The album came out on April 29, 2022, a day that's otherwise known as Willie Nelson's 89th birthday, and it arrived roughly two months after the death of his sister Bobbie, who played alongside him for the better part of 40 years. A Beautiful Time was recorded long before Bobbie's passing, with Buddy Cannon -- the producer who has been Willie's regular collaborator since 2012, when he returned to Sony/Legacy with Heroes -- supervising sessions that feature musicians who've been regulars on Nelson's albums over the last decade. All of this means A Beautiful Time is very much of a piece with the records that immediately proceed it
