a special report to johnnykmusic by Johnny Gumbo 11/13/05Willie and family………
Got an opportunity to reconnect with an old musical friend on Sunday night at The Palace in Waterbury (a great venue, by the way, reminiscent of the of the way theaters used to be with the marble steps, high painted ceilings, gold flecked wood trim, and side balcony boxes…great acoustics). It almost seemed a little grandiose for a Willie concert. As we settled into our seats in the right lower mezzanine, I had some trepidation about seeing Willie live again after 15 years. I wondered if the magic would still be there. But I was happy to drag out my shit-kickers, black leather vest, western necktie and cowboy hat as I knew I would not stand out at a Willie concert (although most were dressed much more average-Joe like). Willie’s music has always had a blue-collar, down home quality that is universal in its appeal.
I first got interested in Willie back in the early ‘70’s just before his breakthrough album, Red Headed Stranger (wore that 8-track sucker out in my little Ford pick-up) and probably have more of his albums/CD’s than any other performer. Over the course of the next 20 years, got to see him in a number of venues from shit-kickin’ bars to big coliseums (even got to light up a fattie with him one night after a performance in the parking lot of an auditorium in Mobile, Alabama). I had just exited the Air Force and the “outlaw” image that he and the late Waylon Jennings portrayed fit right in to my mindset. So I wanted this night to be the same as I remembered many others. Willie’s concerts are foot tappin, do-your-own-thing happenings all wrapped up in warm fuzzies.
Didn’t have to wait long. No opening act, some brief promotional hype and then, as is his nature, Willie walked quietly on stage dressed in his usual garb…jeans, t-shirt, sneakers, hair in two long braids under a red bandana….waved a couple of times while the rest of the band got into place, picked up “Trigger” (his Martin N-20 nylon-string acoustic) and once again, as he has for every concert he’s ever done, launched into “Whiskey River” as a huge Texas state flag unfurled behind the band. AHH! I was back home. From there we were taken in rapid succession through many of the standards (my personal favorite, the medley “Crazy”, “Night Life” and “How Time Slips Away”). As usual the band and he were in complete sinc…his sister, Bonnie, on piano, Paul English (“Me and Paul”) on drums, Bea Spears on bass guitar, and Mickey Raphael on harmonica. Noticeably absent was Jody Payne, back-up guitar. Don’t know if he was just absent tonight or had stopped touring.
By the time we had worked our way through some of the oldies (Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain, Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys ) to “On the Road Again”, “Always on my Mind”, and “Poncho and Lefty”, I was ready for “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground”. Willie is a master songwriter and his nasal tone has a way of just pulling you in and holding you there on every note. And you forget what a superb guitarist he is. When he and Bonnie get rolling on some instrumentals, like “Down Yonder”, it’s pure honky-tonk. By the time we got to “The City of New Orleans” I knew the evening was getting to the point of being over, but, like always, I didn’t want it to end.
As I thought about it, I realized that, even though the music was the same, there was a little less energy in his step, a little less zip in his on-stage presence. And then it hit me, the guys gettin’ old (72) and so are the band. Bea Spears was wearin’ a baseball hat and t-shirt (always had a big cowboy hat and western shirt), Paul was still dressed in black but just played a snare drum, and Bonnie had to be helped to and from the piano. And if they were gettin’ old, then “the gumbo” must be gettin’ old, too. Well, it ain’t true. Willie’s still the man, an American icon, and his music crosses every genre (his latest CD “Countryman” is a collection of reggae music) and, I’ll be back to see him, waiting for that flag to unfurl and those immortal words…”Whiskey River take my mind……”
Johnny Gumbo 11/13/05
willienelson.com
AMG biography
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