Songfacts®:

• This gentle instrumental was written by Alex Lifeson in tribute to Neil Peart, his bandmate in Rush who died in 2020 after a battle with brain cancer.
  
  Lifesong started working on the song in 2016. "When we knew about Neil's illness, I was visiting him," he told Songfacts. "It struck me, sitting on his balcony, watching the sunset. That song is a beautiful echo of that moment, the sunlight filtering through the trees as the sun was going down, and that whole idea of the sunset being the end of the day. It was very poignant, and it just resonated with me and became that thing to me for him."
• This is the closing track on the 2022 self-titled debut album by Envy Of None, the band Alex Lifeson started with Alfio Annibalini, Andy Curran, and lead singer Maiah Wynne. The album covers a lot of musical ground, but bears little resemblance to Rush. When Lifeson came up with "Western Sunset," he thought it would be a great way to close out the album.