Willie Nelson was on Willie’s Place today, on the Bill Mack Show, on Sirius/XM Radio.  Every week now, Bill asks Willie about his Fourth of July picnic next summer, which will be at the new Back Yard just outside Austin, Texas.   Willie gave a list of artists who may play at the Picnic today.  All I can say is wow.

Willie Nelson and Family
Kris Kristofferson
Jamey Johnson
Ray Price
Johnny Bush
Billy Joe Shaver
David Allen Coe
Leon Russell
Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel
Dallas Wayne
Gene Watson
Paula Nelson
Amy Nelson, Cathy Guthrie – Folk Uke
Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real with Micah Nelson
Micah Nelson and the Reflectables
Jack Ingram
Billy Bob Thornton and the BoxMasters
Geezinslaws
Ray Wiley Hubbard
Randy Rogers
Jean Watkins
County Yard and teh Hound
Billy Bob Thornton and the BoxMasters
Geezinslaws
David Allen Coe 
Court Yard Hounds (Martie Maguire and Emily Robison of Dixie Chicks)

Tickets are on sale for Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic at the  Back Yard, in Bee Cave, Texas.  The show is general admission, and tickets are on sale now at www.gettix.net, and you can get the link at the www.thebackyard.net .

Willie Nelson performing “My Window Faces The South” live on the Ernest Tubb Show. He’s backed by Tubb’s band the Texas Troubadours with Leon Rhodes featured on lead guitar.

Willie Nelson and Bobbie Bare hang out at their old hang-out — Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge.  They are some of the celebrities interviewed for a TV documentary to air locally June 11.  Nelson says late owner Hattie (Tootsie) Bess “probably ran a bar tab for every down-and-out songwriter in town.”

The Tennesseen
May 8, 1995

Some Things Never Change
by Tom Wood and Mark Ippolito

When Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson went strolling down memory lane one day last December, they found the World Famous Tootsie’s Orchid lounge on Lower Broadway just the way they left it.

Frozen in time, old photographs of high-profile country music stars still cover the walls of Tootsie’s along with the yellowed picture of lesser-known entertainers.  Everywhere — on everything — there are autographs of singers, pickers and tourists from around the world.  The beer is cold, the music is loud and the place reeks of stale cigarette smoke.

Yep,some things never change.

The country music legends returned to their roots to film a syndicated TV special, Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge:  Where the Music Began, which will air June 11. 

“Tootsies was always a kind of magic place,” said Nelson, who hosted the special.  “It’s like a shrine to country music.”

“Tootsie kept us going.  She probably ran a bar tab for every down-and-out songwriter in town,” Nelson said about Hattie (Tootsie) Bess.  One thing had changed for Kristofferson’s brief visit — “It was like the Wild West sometimes,”  he said, recalling the bar’s rowdier days.  But on this day, Kristofferson was soaking in the atmosphere and recalling a special time in history.

"For me, rather than any kind of violent place, it was a place where people who were on fire with ideas of songs and stuff would run into each other and bounce them off each other.  That’s what matter to me," said Kristofferson, who penned Me and Bobby McGee before embarking on an acting career.

“It was a great place to hang out and find your peers.  You know, probably like the cafes over on the Left Bank in Paris, where all the writers would hang out. 

“It’s like having a home for these homeless souls who never go home themselves.  We used to spend our every waking moment trying to pitch our songs or something.”

Also on hand were Bobby Bare, Hank Cochran, Jimmy Dean and other country music personalities, reminiscing about the days when aspiring songwriters and singers spent long hours at Tootsie’s.  Before they were stars, these up-and-cominers would pitch songs to the Grand Ole Opry stars who stopped in for a beer between Opry sets at the Ryman.

“I met Jim Reeves sitting in a booth right here,” Bare siad.  “We became friends. I met Faron Young at a table right here.  He came in and knocked my hat off.”

Although the Ryman and Tootsie’s were jut an alley apart, beteran singer/songwriter Tom T. Hall ntoed the wider gulf that exited between the two muic venues.

"I got my start at Tootsie’s Lounge.  But it was many miles between there and here"; Hall said as he stood on the renovated Ryman stage in a recent tribte to songwriters.

But Tootsie’s wasn’t for everybody.  "I never hung out at Tootsie’s, not one time in my life.  They think I have because most everybody else did.  But I never did, said Johnny Cash.

In many ways the venues were the yin and yang of country music’s roots — the bright spotlights of the Grand Ole Opry in stark contrast to the harsher, more surreal surroundings of Tootsie’s.

Nelson, whose hits include Crazy and On the Road Again, got his first songwriting job while performing at Tootsie’s.  According to old news articles, he cried on the shoulder of the late proprietor, Hattie (Tootsie) Bess, and once was so depressed he walked out the door to lie in the middle of Broadway, begging someone to run over him.

“And that never happened…. at least I don’t think it die,” Nelson laughlingly recalled on the TV special Where The Music Began.

A fond memory for Kristofferson was how Tootsie loved to chase unruly customers from the premises with a long hat pin she kept in her dress.

“She’d go around here at quittin’ time with that hat pin and she’d stick it in your butt if you ever were tardy getting out. I don’t think she ever did me.  I saw her do it to Charley Pride, though,” he said.

When asked wehtehr it was true that he used to sleep at the bar when he had no place to stay.  Kristofferon shrugged, “I have no idea wehre I was sleeping half the time in those days.”

Today, Tootsie’s  is pretty much a relic of a bygone era but still a tourist favorite to see wehre — as the special is so aptly named — the music began.

Tootsie’s opens at 10:00 a.m., goes non stop through the afternoon, picks up steam into the night and on until the wee hours of 2 a.m.  Six aspiring singers play continuously throughout the day.  And occasionaly, a surprise artist will pop in just like in the old days.

Mandy Barnett, who portrays Patxy Cline in the musical Alaways…Patsy Cline, which plays all summer at the Ryman Auditorium, said, “I just really like Tootsie’s and the atmosphere.  I sing in church, but I sing in honky-tonks, too.  I get up there and sing all the time.

“It’s kind of like the Ryamn — it has a lot of history — and everybody there is really nice.”

Adds red-hot singer Tracy Bird:  “Tootsie’s — now I’ve been there and drank a cold oen before.  It’s kind of a step back in time there.  It’s just really interesting to go into that place and check everything out.”

Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge still holds a unique and special place in the lroe of country music and the hearsts of fans. 

"Tootsie’s is part of the origin of country mjusic.  It ranks right up there with the Grand Ole Opry and the ryman Uditorium as places people must see," said Ruble Sanderson, the current co-owner of Tootsie’s with Steve Smith.

“You could spend all day in here looking at the walls,” Smit said, “and when you come back tomrorow, you’ll find something you missed.”

No trip to Nashville would be complete without a visit to the world-famous dive, and it draws fans by the busload.

“I’m kind of awed by how tourists are awed,” Sanderson said.  “The tour buses start coming in the morning, and people want ot et there potos taken in front of all the picture.  We get a lot of international tourists form Canada, Japan, Australia and Western Europe.

Night Life
December Day
Rainy Day Blues
Hello Walls
Local Memory
Funny How Time Slips Away
Bloody Mary Morning
My Own Peculiar Way
Good Hearted Woman
Yesterday’s Wine

Monique, from the Hague, in the Netherlands, created this slide show using pictures from Mickey Raphael’s website at
www.MickeyRaphael.com.

Nice job, Monique!

Monique is my go-to gal for website techie stuff.  She has been so very helpful.  Anyone going to Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic will have a chance to meet her — she and her husband are travelling to the U.S. and braving the Texas heat to see Willie and the band, and meet fans and friends in the U.S.  

See you in Austin, Monique.  And thanks a lot!

 Photo by Rob Thomas/The Capital Times

http://host.madison.com
by Doug Moe

This story has everything — music, celebrity, surprise, mistaken identity and, most important this time of year, golf.

Everyone lives happily ever after in the end, especially Willie Nelson, the legendary singer-songwriter who played a sold-out show in Overture Hall Tuesday night.

Willie got to play golf in La Crosse Wednesday afternoon while the rest of us were working.

I know Willie was planning to play Wednesday because his bassist of more than 40 years, Dan “Bee” Spears, told me. How I happened to be talking on the phone with Spears Wednesday morning is what you might call the rest of the story.

It began around 2 p.m. Tuesday, when a Badger Cab pulled into the parking lot of Nevada Bob’s Golf on West Towne Way.

Joel Zucker owns Nevada Bob’s in Madison. He’s had it for 20 years, the last three in the present location.

Tuesday morning, Zucker received a phone call from Steve Ploch, this area’s account executive for TaylorMade golf equipment.

Ploch had heard through channels that someone with Willie Nelson’s organization would be coming into the store looking for TaylorMade golf clubs for Willie.

Zucker — who sold Nelson a pair of golf shoes in Las Vegas in 1987 — said he’d be happy to set him up.

When the cab pulled into Nevada Bob’s Tuesday afternoon, it was Bee Spears who got out.

Spears has been playing with Nelson since 1968, and that’s not unusual. Most of the band — including drummer Paul English, harmonica player Mickey Raphael and Willie’s pianist older sister, Bobbie — are lifers or close to it.

Spears told Zucker that Nelson hadn’t played golf for a while but had recently hauled out his old set of clubs and was threatening to hit the links.

Spears — a solid eight handicap — wanted to get his friend and boss a new set as a surprise gift.

Zucker provided the whole package: woods, irons, bag.  Spears left grinning.  He also left six tickets to the show.

A group from Nevada Bob’s took in Tuesday night’s performance — great seats, of course — and afterward I happened to run into them in the Ivory Room having a post-concert cocktail.

This is where the mistaken identity comes in, a circumstance we can blame on a generation gap.

A young Nevada Bob’s employee — the former junior golf champion Max Hosking — was in the store when Spears showed up.  All Hosking saw was an older guy with faded jeans and expensive boots — Max later estimated his clothes cost $10 and his boots $1,000 — heard the name Willie Nelson, and assumed Spears was Nelson.  And so at the Ivory Room, Max’s dad, Jeff Hosking, told me Willie had been at Nevada Bob’s.

Well, I knew Willie is a golf nut. I corresponded for years with the late Austin writer Bud Shrake, who co-wrote “Willie,” Nelson’s autobiography. (In one letter Shrake said that Willie had wanted to call the autobiography, “I Didn’t Come Here, and I Ain’t Leavin’.”)

In the book, Nelson and Shrake wrote: “Golf is not only a game, it is an addiction.”

Wednesday morning, I stopped by Nevada Bob’s to try to get the story from Zucker.

No, Joel said, Willie hadn’t personally been in.  He started to explain about Spears, then pulled out a card with a cell phone number on it.   Zucker dialed the number and handed me the phone.  It was Bee Spears.

Spears was in La Crosse, for the band’s show tonight at the La Crosse Center.

I told Spears how much I’d enjoyed the Madison show, and he said the band felt it had gone really well. “That’s one of the nicest halls we’ll play all year,” he said. “The audience makes the show.” He laughed. “We’re just migrant workers, after all.”

He was in the band’s tour bus, Spears said, having just come from Nelson’s personal bus that was parked adjacent, where he’d told Willie about the new clubs. Nelson’s eyes had lighted up.

“We’re going to hit the ball around this afternoon,” Spears said. “Willie is like a kid in a candy store.”

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/doug_moe/article_01ace38e-3213-11df-827e-001cc4c03286.html

Bill Mack announced on Willie’s Place, Sirius/XM Radio, that it is Willie Wednesday, and that Willie Nelson will be calling in to their show today to talk with him and Cindy, and take calls from fans.

He usually calls in around noon Colorado time.  Call in for a rare chance to talk live with Willie Nelson.

Here’s the numbers: good luck getting through: 877-394-5543, or 877-3WILLIE. Keep trying; that line is always busy.

www.XMradio.com

On of the great reasons to belong to Willie Nelson’s fan club is for their pre-sales they offer for many of WN&F shows.  You must be a fan club member to purchase the tickets before they go on sale to the public, but that’s only $29.99/year, well worth the cost, for the chance to purchase those close tickets.

I just purchased my front row tickets to the Colorado Springs show next month from the fan club.   The World Arena had a pre-sale that started yesterday, but those seats started at row M.   The fan club pre-sale started this morning at 10:00 a.m., and they had the  first 12 rows reserved for Willie Nelson fan club members.  So thanks to Willie Nelson and Club Luck for giving us first shot at the tickets!

Please note, always check with venue, or www.WillieNelson.com to confirm any thing listed here.

Thanks to Kenneth for sharing this picture with all of us.

Photo by:  Rick Foster

On October 29, 2009, Willie Nelson and Family performed in Winchester, West Virginia, at the official grand opening of the Patsy Cline Theater.  Patsy’s husband and daughter attended the festivities.  Local singers opened the show for Willie Nelson and his band, and they got the shirts to prove it.

Virginia (10/29/09)