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Saturday, July 5, 2008
Willie Picnic ‘08: Report 1
When the rain poured down at 1:15 p.m., just as Pat Green was beginning his set, it blew nearly halfway into the amphitheater, soaking many of us who thought we were in the “sheltered” seats.
The illusion of protection was enough for many wandering the grounds, though. They overwhelmed the staff and surged down the rain-slicked ramp between the seating sections. Those of us in the seats had to stand to see … and there we all were: Standing, wet, dancing and dripping, shoulder-to shoulder.
I was writing between the raindrops in my notebook. For a moment, it felt like a real Willie Nelson Fourth of July Picnic.
After that, it was just a concert.
Don’t get me wrong, it was a fine concert. In every shady spot with a seat, there was a senior citizen waiting it out to Ray Price and Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. Underfoot there was no shortage of children enjoying the day. Everywhere else, there were music fans of all sorts waving their ($7, $8, $9 or more) beers in the air and having a good time.
I arrived as Del Castillo was finishing up just before noon and settled into my seat for what was going to be several interminable waits in between sets. There was a full 5 minutes of silence before someone thought to turn on a little house music. There were no emcees of any sort beyond the occasional appearance by a local disc jockey.
The 30-minute delays between sets were, simply put, the most exhausting part of the day. It’s just not fun looking at your watch at 5:05 and knowing that it’s not only more than 4 hours until Willie’s set, but that half of that time is going to down time, with nothing to do but buy $40 T-shirts, $9 cheeseburgers or a $4 bottle of water.
Asleep at the Wheel has gotten little respect in my past reporting on the picnics, typically because they take the stage at the beginning of the show, but after watching Friday’s show, I have to hand it to them. Ray Benson and Co. played all out — from “Miles and Miles of Texas” to “Happy Trails” — for a pretty sparse early afternoon crowd.
Johnny Bush took the stage at 2:15 with no introduction at all (this was typical) and seemed a little bitter at his hometown: “During our portion of the show what you hear is traditional country music,” Bush said. “It’s something you don’t hear much in this town anymore.”
That’s not overboard, but when he pulled out his fiddle and presented it to the crowd — “This is a fiddle” — there seemed to be little humor in his voice.
It was Ray Wylie Hubbard, who took the stage with son Lucas, harmonica guru Mickey Raphael and a drummer whose name I didn’t catch, who stole the show. “Snake Farm” sounded fantastic, but was quickly blown away by a bluesy instrumental that was essentially a jam-off between Lucas and Raphael.
“Drunken Poet’s Dream” was a stunner, as well. When Hubbard left the stage, he hadn’t played “Redneck Mother” and there had been no shouts for it. Good for Ray Wylie. It was a great set.
Next up, Billy Joe Shaver was at his animated best, shadow boxing and throwing verbal jabs at his stand-up bass player until … he wrapped up “That’s What She Said Last Night.”
“Worst song I ever wrote,” Shaver had said when he started the song. Toward the end of the song — the part where a cell phone is a tongue-in-cheek metaphor for the male sexual organ — Billy Joe is describing how next time he’s going to get a bigger model, one that vibrates, talking about how women like them “bigger and better.”
Then he steps in it: “Some of ‘em like the black model — bigger and better,” he said. There was a deathly pause in the crowd. “Like Cowboy Troy,” Shaver quickly added, referring to the black country singer. “Bigger and better.”
I don’t know if Shaver knew he had crossed the line or not, but he quickly wrapped up the song and launched into “I’m Just and Old Chunk of Coal (But I’m Going to be a Diamond Someday).”
Shaver just can’t seem to keep out of trouble.
A raucous and irreverent performance by David Allan Coe, up next, might have gotten Shaver off the hook, and over the past two Texas picnics in Fort Worth, I had gushed over how Coe’s performances had been dynamite stuff.
On Friday, it was not to be. Coe and band took the stage in all black, perhaps overlooking that the entire Verizon stage, gear and backdrop were solid black. The effect rendered him all but invisible to everyone except those nearest the stage. He looked small, not larger-and-meaner-than-life, as he opened with a rough version of “Storms Never Last.”
After an almost-non-musical, disjointed version of “If That Ain’t Country,” Coe picked up a little energy with “Take This Job and Shove It” and finally hit his stride with “The RIde.” But his set was all but over by then. His closer, “You Never Even Called Me By My Name,” did get the day’s first thunderous sing-along.
By 6:30 p.m., Los Lonely Boys had wrapped up their jams, there was still plenty of daylight, there had not been a single Willie sighting and the third-to-last band was coming up next. After the big rain and a few brief showers, it was cool and breezy in the shade.
I don’t yet have attendance figures, but it was far from sold-out. For $10, anyone with a spot on the lawn could upgrade to reserved seating.
The Cherokee Cowboys start up on time, looking sharp in their white button-up shirts. I’m counting 14 of them — with Ray Price there’s enough of them to make 5 Los Lonely Boys.
Ray sounds great and gets a lot of respect from the crowd as he sings “Heartaches by the Number,” “Night Life,” “Make the World Go Away” and “For the Good Times.”
During “You Don’t Love Me Anymore” he forgets the last few lines of the song and laughs to himself. “That’s what you’d call a senior moment” he tells an adoring crowd. I don’t know if it was spontaneous (I’d like to think it was), but he follows this up with a poignant version of “Time” — sounding just as sharp as he’s ever been.
It must be good to be Merle Haggard, knowing that you can pick any of dozens and dozens of huge hits to open the show with and it’ll be met with a roar. Haggard picked an easy pleaser, “Mama Tried,” but followed that up with a few slightly more obscure songs “That’s the Way Love Goes,” “Makeup and Faded Blue Jeans” and “White Line Fever.”
We hear “Rose of San Antone” for the third time, but it hardly matters. “Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink” gets the biggest reception of the night.
After a long delay, again, we’re primed for Willie’s first appearance of the “picnic” at 9:15 p.m.
And here comes a rock band? It’s 40 Points and they jam for a trio of songs. I don’t mind seeing 40 Points — Lukas Nelson can really play that guitar — but they should’ve been on the lineup. When you’ve waited for nearly 10 hours to see Willie, it’s time to see Willie
At 9:38, we finally do, and a minute later we hear picnic nirvana: “Whiskey River take my mind …”
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