Willie Nelson is a little over one month away from his 93rd birthday. He’s released 78 solo albums going all the way back to 1962, and he’s logged more days on the road than just about any other musician in history. But he’s not done yet. Nelson plays his first show of 2026 Thursday evening at the Luck Reunion in Spicewood, Texas, and he’s just announced his 79th LP, Dream Chaser, which is landing on May 29.
The leadoff single, “Dream Chaser,” is available right now. Nelson co-wrote the acoustic country ballad with Buddy Cannon and Bobby Tomberlin. It’s a meditation on life and aging. “Today I looked in the mirror,” Nelson sings. “And I caught me by surprise/The man I saw looking back at me/Almost didn’t recognize/Wasn’t I just a kid/Moving to Tennessee/With an old guitar and eyes full of stars/Chasing a crazy dream?”
The album also includes the new track “I Can’t Read Your Mind,” which Nelson and Cannon co-wrote with Bob Dylan. “[We] were talking a while back about writing a song together,” Nelson told GQ last year. “He had an idea of ‘I can’t read your mind.’ We started with, ‘I can’t read your mind. The letters are too small.’ I handed that over to Buddy, and he took it and turned it into a good song. That’s pretty rare with Bob.”
Nelson and Dylan have toured extensively together over the years, including the 2024 and 2025 iterations of the Outlaw Festival tour, but they’ve rarely shared credit on a song. The last one was “Heartland,” from Nelson’s 1993 LP, Across the Borderline.
Nelson will perform at Luck Reunion this week along with Booker T. Jones, Trampled by Turtles, and St. Vincent. And he kicks off a mini tour on April 22 at Avondale Brewing Company in Birmingham, Alabama. It wraps up on May 2 at Whitewater Amphitheater in New Braunfels, Texas.
There are no signs yet of a 2026 version of the Outlaw Festival tour. But Dylan is slowly rolling out dates for his own summer tour. He’s playing a pair of shows at the Chateau Ste Michelle Winery in Woodinville, Washington, on June 6 and 7 with Lucinda Williams and the John Doe Folk Trio. He then heads to the WinStar World Casino and Resort in Thackerville, Oklahoma, on July 2. They will presumably announce additional dates in the near future.
The track listing for Willie Nelson’s Dream Chaser:
1. Dream Chaser (Written by Buddy Cannon, Bobby Tomberlin, and Willie Nelson)
2. Fly Away (Written by Buddy Cannon and Bobby Whitlock)
3. We’d Make A Good Movie (Written by Willie Nelson, Buddy Cannon, and Bobby Tomberlin)
4. I Can’t Read Your Mind (Written by Willie Nelson, Buddy Cannon, and Bob Dylan)
5. Whiskey Wants Me To (Written by Buddy Cannon and Bobby Tomberlin)
6. Wonder What I’m Gonna Do (Written by Willie Nelson and Buddy Cannon)
7. After All (Written by Willie Nelson and Buddy Cannon)
8. Love Overdue (Written by Mickey Raphael, Donald W. Poythress, and Anna Lisa Graham)
9. I Don’t Think I’ve Cried Today (Written by Buddy Cannon, Bobby Tomberlin, and Willie Nelson)
10. Developing My Pictures (Written by Earl Montgomery)
