Technically, The Border is the sequel to A Beautiful Time, the 2022 album that found Willie Nelson once again ruminating upon a road long traveled. Nelson's latter-day albums with producer Buddy Cannon often concerned mortality, a quality that lends a natural gravity. That trait isn't quite absent on The Border -- Willie's 75th album, appearing after a pair of winning covers records released in the wake of A Beautiful Time -- yet it is subdued. When Nelson ponders "Once Upon a Yesterday," he's thinking of old songs and departed friends, more grateful that it happened than sad that those days are gone. Similarly, when he's wondering "How Much Does It Cost" to be free, he sounds bemused, not rueful. That levity extends through the jazzily jaunty "What If I'm Out of My Mind," joining the aforementioned tunes among the handful of Nelson/Cannon originals on the record ("Kiss Me When You're Through" is the other). Nelson cedes the weightier material to Rodney Crowell, whose "The Border" and "Many a Long and Lonesome Highway" open the respective sides of The Border, creating the impression that this album is a bit contemplative. That's not the case. Thanks to the fanciful "Hank's Guitar" and the sly shuffle "Made in Texas" -- an amiable slice of Western swing with nods to Bob Wills, Lone Star beer, and the immortal joke "You can always tell a Texan/But you can't tell him much" -- the album carries a lightness that's emphasized by its brisk running time. That might mean The Border, unlike A Beautiful Time, doesn't quite feel like a final chapter but rather a welcome coda restating Nelson's strengths with casual ease. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine