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Willie in Times Square: It’s a Family Affair
Willie Nelson calls his band of kindred spirits the Family, but at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City Monday night it was a family band with the DNA to prove it. Onstage with Willie, all at one time, were daughter Paula on vocals, sons Lukas on guitar and Micah on percussion, sister Bobbie on piano, her son Freddy Fletcher on drums, plus Susan Tedeschi, Derek O’Brien and Dahr Jamail on guitar and Mickey Raphael on harmonica. It was a Willie set like I’ve never seen before, with Willie, Lukas, Tedeschi and O’Brien trading leads on “Texas Flood,” a truly rocking version of Billy Joe Shaver’s “Georgia On a Fast Train” and a medley of “I Saw the Light” and “I’ll Fly Away” that had the throng of free-booze-swilling New Yorkers raising their index fingers to the heavens.
A post-Farm Aid benefit for the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance (co-founded by Willie’s wife Annie) and hosted by Willie’s Maui neighbor Woody Harrelson and Daryl Hannah, the show was loose, even by Willie standards. The 74-year-old American folk hero even played a big, red electric guitar on a few songs, though “Trigger” needn’t be jealous. The set didn’t even open with “Whiskey River” (it came third), but with a couple of songs from Paula and her teenaged brother Lukas, who is becoming a monster on the electric guitar.
After a cluster of offbeat selections, Willie would always rein it back in with a hit like “You Were Always On My Mind” and “On the Road Again,” and everybody in the house, including political comedian Stephen Colbert in a red, white and blue leather jacket, would swoon. “Here’s one for Waylon,” he said before starting “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys,” attracting “yee-haws” as authentic as the designer bags on Canal Street.
Willie has cut his hair to shoulder length, but he let it all hang out on Monday. It was probably the best set I’ve ever seen him do, perhaps because you got the feeling, as songs were called out and improvised, that Willie could handle anything musically that came flying his way. His dextrous guitar-playing was adventurous, intuitive and his singing was right there where it’s always been. It was a night to marvel at a true, pure musician. I had a blast.
There were, no doubt, many in the well-heeled crowd who had never seen Willie Nelson in concert before. If they were expecting the Deathbed Willie of the tabloids, they were rejoicefully wrong.
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By betsy
September 11, 2007 10:46 AM | Link to this
I’m sooo jealous. Sounds like that Willie show was one for the history books. Did it get taped so the huddled masses can buy a copy?
By Pissed
September 12, 2007 1:55 PM | Link to this
How do we contact attal. We need a massive push to get him to sign a last minute band. Attal Presents is saving a TON of money by not having to pay these bands that cancelled. They can spend that money to bring somebody in last minute. CONTACT ATTAL PRESENTS NOW!