Willie Nelson, Asleep at the Wheel and Leon Rausch, and Darren Hoff

The 1966 voice of Willie Nelson that kicks off Setlist: The Very Best of Willie Nelson Live (RCA/Columbia/Legacy) is itself worth the price of a picnic, rollicking through "I Gotta Get Drunk" with a vitality that rejuvenates the familiar concert tune. One of 11 acts inaugurating Sony's Setlist series, Nelson's best live cuts cull from previous releases, nicely curated anew. Surprisingly, no "Whiskey River," but "Crazy" and "Night Life" are marvelously upended jams from 1978, and a closing local recording of "On the Road Again" from the following year captures the Family Band come into its own. Like last year's Willie and the Wheel, Asleep at the Wheel's latest release, It's a Good Day (Bismeaux), recruits Texas Playboy legend Leon Rausch, providing the former lead vocalist a comfortable bed of Western swing to renew his role. Rausch's vocals are strafed with an effective rasp of age, reveling in "I Didn't Realize" and the strutting "Basin Street Blues" on a perfect pairing for the Wheel's 40th anniversary. Willie resurfaces to duet with Rausch on "Truck Driver's Blues," while the latter's playful turn with Elizabeth McQueen on "Alright, Okay, You Win" highlights the LP. Former Weary Boy Darren Hoff also makes his return with a new band on eponymous debut Darren Hoff & the Hard Times. While the local quartet plays its brand of country-rock fairly close to the hip, unloading Texas croons "Out Into Nothing" and "The Time's Rollin' On" alongside electric kickers "Oh Midnight" and "Stop Breaking Down," Hoff delivers his best when unfettered on the drawling "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" and blues burning closer "Long Hard Road."