Willie Nelson and Gillian Welch offer up Mother's Day 2020 musical tributes

Sunday is Mother’s Day, as you surely know, and here are a couple country tributes to moms everywhere. First up: Willie Nelson shared this cover of “I’m the Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised” which was written by outlaw country great Johnny Paycheck, who had a hit with it back in 1977. It’s also on Willie’s new album, First Rose of Spring, which is due July 3 via Sony Legacy. Watch the lyric video below.

Gillian Welch, meanwhile, has celebrated by releasing this vaulted demo that she recorded on a portable reel-to-reel in her home in the early 2000s. “We can’t always be with the ones we love, but that can’t stop us from saying ‘I love you,’” Gillian says. “I wrote this song one May when I was far away and couldn’t be with my mom on Mother’s Day. Then I called and sang it into her answering machine when I knew everybody’d be sitting down to eat.” You can listen to that below as well.

Don’t forget to call your mother on Sunday, and happy Mother’s Day!