Fall music from Austin artists includes Willie Nelson and sons, and more

Autumn has brought the usual onslaught of new releases from Austin musical artists, both highprofile and under-the-radar. Here’s a look at some of our favorites so far.

Willie, Lukas & Micah Nelson, “Willie and the Boys: Willie’s Stash, Vol. 2” (Legacy). The first volume in this loosely structured “Willie’s Stash” series of archival recordings, 2014’s “December Day,” featured siblings Willie & Bobbie Nelson on songs that placed Bobbie’s piano playing front-and-center with Willie’s singing. Now comes another family affair, as Willie’s youngest sons Lukas and Micah join him for a dozen tracks that emphasize their vocal interplay.

Initially recorded at Pedernales Recording Studio in Spicewood as part of the sessions for Willie’s 2011 “Heroes” album with producer Buddy Cannon, these tracks featured a cast of Austin and Nashville musicians backing Willie and Lukas, with Micah’s vocals added later. All three of them are fine singers; if Willie remains the most distinctive, Lukas isn’t far off, often sounding eerily like a younger version of his father. Micah’s voice is slightly less twangy and more plainspoken, but pleasant and effective in its own way.

When they join in three-part harmony, there’s the kind of natural magic that has long been ingrained in classic country music history, dating back to the Carter Family and beyond. It’s fitting, then, that almost all the material here is decades old, coming mostly from the pens of four Hanks: Williams, Cochran, Locklin and Snow.

They might sound best of all on “Healing Hands of Time,” the lone Willie original in the batch. As the lead vocal passes from Willie to Lukas to Micah, it’s as if those hands of time are being passed into the future, more than a halfcentury after the song was written. Live in Austin: Willie Nelson & Family, along with Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, play Dec. 29-31 at ACL Live.

Whitney Rose, “Rule 62” (Six Shooter). The Canadian country singer-songwriter who moved to Austin last fall and released an EP in January follows with a full-length release that ups the ante on her promising future. Recorded in Nashville with Mavericks leader Raul Malo and Niko Bolas co-producing, “Rule 62” features an A-list cast of musicians including guitarist Kenny Vaughan (Marty Stuart, Lucinda Williams) and keyboardist Jen Gunderman (Sheryl Crow, Jayhawks).

It’s the songs that are the focus here, though, from the classicsounding heartbreak ballad “You