Fellow Texans Edie Brickell and Willie Nelson have collaborated on a new song, "Sing to Me Willie."
"On Christmas Day, 2018, Willie asked me to write a song for us to sing together," Brickell explains. "What a gift! My father and Texas are my biggest connections to Willie. I never hear his voice without loving memories of people and places back home. If only my dad could have heard this song.”
Brickell was born in Dallas and attended Southern Methodist University. She had a No. 7 hit in 1988 with "What I Am." Brickell is married to Paul Simon.
Nelson hails from Abbott, Texas and lives part-time near Austin.
Here are the lyrics:
Verse 1: Brickell
We played your music at my daddy’s funeral
And the pastor was amused
He said it’s hard to follow Whiskey River
As he looked at us in the pews
That was so long ago
And it still can make me smile
When I feel so all alone
You make me feel alright
Chorus
Sing to me, Willie
A Texas lullaby
I’m so lonesome really, I could cry
Your voice reminds me of my home
Take me to Texas with a song
Verse 2: Nelson
Indian paintbrushes, wild blue bonnets
All along the freeway up to Bonham
A longhorn steer is grazing by the river
Down in Blanco at sunset
There are some places you can call forever
And some people you can’t forgetVerse 3: Nelson
Painted ponies, sopapillas
Sometimes the land is flat as a tortilla
But the love that rises up to meet you
Makes you feel that you never leftChorus 2:
Play for me, Willie
Play your guitar
Take me to Texas with a song
Verse 4: Nelson
Mockingbirds and cicadas
Can be heard from Lubbok to Laredo
A sweet breeze is blowing through the front yard
Every evening at sunset
Outro
Now there are places you recall forever
And some people that you can’t forget
Other songs about Nelson include Toby Keith and Scott Emerik's "I'll Never Smoke Weed with Willie Again," Nathaniel Rateliff's "Willie's Birthday Song" and MIles Davis' "Willie Nelson."
