Willie Nelson salutes Gershwin with 'Summertime,' due Feb. 26

Willie Nelson, last year's recipient of the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, will salute the brothers George and Ira with a new album.

Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings George Gershwin, due Feb. 26, finds the veteran singer/songwriter -- no stranger to traditional pop -- lending his distinctly grainy voice to standards such as It Ain't Necessarily So, It's Not For Me, Somebody Loves Me, I Got Rhythm, They Can't Take That Away From Me and, naturally, the title track.

Nelson established himself as an interpreter of pre-rock classics with the 1978 album Stardust, which also included material by the Gershwins -- as well as Irving Berlin, Kurt Weill and Duke Ellington -- and proved a big and enduring hit with country fans.

Summertime will feature a pair of duets, with Sheryl Crow, who joins Nelson on Embraceable You, and Cyndi Lauper, his partner on Let's Call The Whole Thing Off.