Texas Country and New-Tech Tricks for Nelson

Artist: Willie Nelson.

Title: “Me and the Drummer,” on Luck Records.

Where: Now in stores, after an early life as an Internet-order item.

What: The country legend’s first album of original material since “Teatro” in 1998, and his first set of rootsy Texas country, complete with pedal steel and fiddle, since 1980’s “San Antonio Rose” with Ray Price. Nelson is signed with the major label Island Records, which will release a blues album from the singer in August, but he uses Luck Records, a label he founded and co-owns, as an outlet for more personal, less commercial projects.

What Else: The enhanced CD contains audio and visual material accessible via computer. Sections include Nelson’s annual Fourth of July Picnic, his Farm Aid benefits, his celebrity-studded 60th birthday party/concert and biographical material tracing his origins in tiny Abbott, Texas. Interviewees, speakers and performers include Neil Young, Dennis Hopper, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson.

Question: Can you teach an old dog new-tech tricks?

Answer: “Oh, I don’t know,” Nelson says. “I just listen to the music. I’m not really into the high-tech side of it. I know very little about it. I think I do know how to go make a record, and I’ll leave it to the other smart guys to figure out how to sell it.”

On the Road Again: Nelson plays Sept. 3 at Pechanga Entertainment Center in Temecula and Sept. 4 at the Sun Theatre in Anaheim.