Well, he waved at everyone with a camera. Megan got me a ticket for Christmas (she doesn’t care for Willie Nelson) to see him playing with the Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel. My seat was fantastic: second row, just to the left of center. Here’s the view I had.
Oh yeah, that’s his famous guitar with the hole in it. Asleep at the Wheel came out alone at first and played about 6 tunes. They were basically a honky tonk band with a clarinet and trumpet (think Dixieland). The two fiddle players were amazing (one was 14!) and several of them sang vocals. They played several standards (“Don’t Fence Me In,” yeah, Cole Porter, and a beautiful version of “What a Wonderful World”). They’re a great group and I recommend downloading some of their tunes on iTunes.
When Willie came out the crowd went berserk and by the time they quieted down, he was well into “Whiskey River.” I was surprised how old he looks, but he can still sing and play. He went into a medley of his early hits–”Crazy” and “Night Life” among others. Then they played several tunes from their new album. My favorite was called “Hesitation Blues.” The lyrics were very jazzy–that is full of double entendres, but very funny. The dixieland horns worked amazingly well with the fiddles and steel guitar.
When the harmonica player came out, I knew it was about to get good. “How about some Pancho and Lefty?” The crowd went nuts again. The singer from Asleep at the Wheel did a great Merle Haggard. Then came “Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to Be Cowboys” and “Always on my Mind.” Next was a medley of Bluegrass standards beginning with “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” and including “I’ll Fly Away.” Then he did “On the Road Again” and I figured that was it, but no. They did my favorite Willie song–”Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” and a couple of new ones that he had written after a recent carpal tunnel surgery. Lyrics like “Too many pills and too much pot” really whipped up the audience. They were good tunes–surprisingly funny.
He then took off his guitar and waved to crowd. “This is part where we used to walk over behind the stage and wait a little bit, but one time we came back and you all were gone.” So they just went ahead and played their encores which included a couple new ones and “Georgia on my Mind.”
Now, I got to my seat and realized I didn’t have my battery or memory card in my camera, so no high-res pics, unfortunately. But, my cell phone did take these 15-second clips. Enjoy them in their grainy splendor.
