Archive for December, 2011

Willie Nelson’s New Year’s Eve Bash in Austin (Dec. 31, 2011 – Jan. 1, 2012)

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

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Thanks so much to Janis from Texas for sending me these pictures she took at Willie Nelson’s New Year’s Eve concert last night at Moody Theater, in Austin.   Wow!  What a party!  At the end of the show Willie  started thanking everyone on the stage, and it took a long time, so many friends and family.    What a great way to end one year and begin another one, with Willie Nelson music.  Willie and band also played Friday night at the venue.

I listened from Colorado, where our family gathered this weekend to welcome nephew Austin back from year in Army in Korea.  So I listened to the concert over a game of scrabble with my sister, then again later when Sirius/XM rebroadcast it.  Both enjoyable, but nothing to compare with being there.  On the upside, within minutes after the concert I was home in my pajamas already.

So, thank you, Willie Nelson & Family & Friends for a great show and Sirius Radio, for making the broadcast available, so us fans who couldn’t be there could hear that fantastic concert live, and then two more times.  (The show will be re-broadcast again today; go to www.Sirius.com to find out how you can sign up and listen to the show.  You’ll thank me later.)  And thanks to Janis for the pictures.

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Dallas Wayne did a great job, as usual, as the event’s host.  I’ve watched Dallas and Jeremy Tepper and the Sirius/XM radio staff work those remote broadcasts, and there is so much going on behind the scenes to make it seamless to those of us listening. Good job, guys and gals.

Dallas interviewed Ray Price and Jamey Johnson, who was also at the show tonight.  During course of show, he commented briefly about the memorial for Bee Spears held earlier in the day, saying how respectful and lighthearted and loving it was.  Also, Dallas broke the news that Bill Mack the Satellite Cowboy will be returning to the Sirius/XM family, during the overnight.  I’m hoping for the return of Willie Wednesday!  I’d tune in during the middle of the night, to hear Willie call in and talk with Bill.

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The radio broadcast started with Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys. Mr. Price, who will celebrate his 86th birthday next week, sounded great, and sang the songs that we all know and love, and it was beautiful. Then Lukas Nelson and the Promise the Real electrified the audience, opening with’Four Letter Word’, then played songs from albums and introduced some new tunes that I hope we get to hear on the band’s new album, when it comes out early this year.

Friday night’s show was the band’s first, without Bee Spears, but tonight was the first time for many to see the band without Bee there.  And it must have been strange.  Even listening over the radio, my breathe caught in my throat when Willie introduced the band, and Bee wasn’t there.  The extra-musically talented Billy English played bass, and Micah Nelson played drums, along with Paul English.  Bobby Nelson played piano, and of Willie did everything else.

The band entertained with the songs we love: Whiskey River; Still is Still Moving to Me; Ain’t It Funny How Time Slips Away; Crazy; Nightlife; Mama Don’t Let Your babies grow up to be Cowboys; Good Hearted Woman; Down Yonder, On the Road Again, Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground, Superman, Milk Cow Blues, Move It On Over, a beautiful gospel set, with  ‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken’, ‘I’ll Fly Away’, and my favorite gospel tune, ‘Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.”  Willie Nelson’s fan club is making the concert available on a collectible USB drive; for information on how to purchase:  www.WillieNelson.com.

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Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real band stayed on stage after their set to play, and Lukas took the lead on ‘Flooding Down in Texas’.  Willie invited Jamie Johnson, (who played at last night’s show, too), on stage to sing ‘Write Your Own Song’ with him, and it was such a beautiful rendition.   Jamey sang another song, too, and it sounded like Lukas was playing with him (Wish I’d record together), and in one song  Jamey added his own lyrics, “I’m bringing in 2012 with Willie Nelson and Billy Gibbons House Band”.

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The show paused for the midnight hour, and Willie led everyone in auld lange syne.  I couldn’t tell what was going on, just listening to the show, but it involved Texas Father Time (Texas has it’s own Father time, as it turns out), who according to Janis,  came down from a giant skull that was hanging up on the ceiling, along with the balloon drop.  On the radio we heard Willie say,   “Father Time looks like Ben Dorsey”.

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Today in Bobbie Nelson’s birthday, and Willie led the crowd in singing happy birthday to her.

At at the show’s end, Willie took several minutes to thank his band, and personally Billy English, he named everyone in Lukas’ band, Jamey Johnson, Kimmie Rhodes, Billy Gibbons, Amy Nelson, Susie Nelson, and others I can’t remember.  And Willie wished us all Happy New Years, and thanked us fans all over the place, with, “We love every damn one of you.”

The band played a moving version of ‘Healing Hands of Time’, and it felt like this weekend’s concerts have helped start that process.   Thank you, Willie Nelson and Family.

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Saturday, December 31st, 2011

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Thanks to Janis from Texas for sharing her photos .

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Micah Nelson

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

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Saturday, December 31st, 2011

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Support Family Farmers; Support Farm Aid

Saturday, December 31st, 2011


www.FarmAid.org

Farm Aid relies on the support of people like you to do the year-round work to keep family farmers on the land.Click here to create a hopeful 2012 and give a gift to Farm Aid now.Your tax-deductible donation will enable us to build on Farm Aid’s solid accomplishments for family farmers in 2011.This year, Farm Aid:

  • Led the nation in standing up for family farms with inspiring music, changing lives by promoting food from family farms.
  • Met with the White House to speak up for the need for new and current farmers to have access to credit and for fair markets for farmers and ranchers.
  • Brought together nearly 100 farm advocates in Kansas, from across the country, to strengthen a network of first responders who provide resources to farmers in need.
  • Delivered more than 150 tons of hay to farmers unable to feed their animals in drought-stricken Oklahoma and Texas.
  • Answered more than 700 hotline calls from farmers, ranging from farmers in crisis to beginning farmers with questions about starting their own farms.
  • Gave $300,000 in grants, supporting 44 farm and rural service organizations around the country that help farmers thrive, build the Good Food Movement, and take action to change the food system.

All of this extraordinary work makes a real difference in the lives of farm families. But we can’t do this work without you.Please, don’t miss your last chance in 2011 to keep family farmers on the land.Sincerely, Carolyn Mugar, Executive DirectorP.S. Thanks for your support, and have a happy, hopeful New Year!

Watch Willie Nelson in Woody Harrelson feature on CBS Sunday Morning (1/1/2012)

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

http://cincinnati.com/blogs

Woody Harrelson will be featured in a segment on “CBS Sunday Morning” this weekend (9 a.m., Channel 12).

Lee Cowan, a former Channel 5 reporter, does the interview. Here’s the CBS release:

This weekend on  CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood, Lee Cowan interviews the actor Woody Harrelson near his home in Maui, Hawaii.

Once referred to as one the most under-appreciated actors of his generation, Harrelson managed to move beyond his role as the beloved bartender at Cheers to make almost 40 films, playing a variety of characters including his most recent, as the chain-smoking, racist cop in “Rampart.”

Cowan talks to Harrelson, a Vegan and raw food enthusiast, about his career, his relationship with his father – who died in prison in 2007 – and why he chose Hawaii as the place to raise his family.

Plus: The interview includes a cameo by Harrelson’s friend and fellow Maui resident, Willie Nelson.

BROADCASTS SUNDAY, JANUARY 1 ON SUNDAY MORNING (9;00 – 10:30 AM, ET) Advance excerpt below. MANDATORY CREDIT: CBS SUNDAY MORNING

As he was getting his first big break on Broadway, another role – the chance to play a hapless bartender on “Cheers,” coincidentally also named Woody — came his way. Harrelson discusses:

LEE COWAN: “So, you had to choose basically between going into TV or staying on Broadway?”

WOODY HARRELSON: “Well, to me, it was a hard choice. I was thinking, you know, changing from my life from living in New York and doing theater – which is what I really wanted to be doing – to going to L.A., and I was like, ‘Well, I need to stay pure. I don’t wanna do television, I gotta stay pure and do theater.’”

COWAN: “So, what changed your mind?”

HARRELSON: “Every other person said, ‘Go do that frickin’ show, you idiot!’”

Read entire article here.

Willie Nelson Family & Friends, Austin (12/30/11)

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

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Paul English

Thank you Janis from Texas, for the pictures she shared from last night’s show. I appreciate these fans who send me pictures after the shows! Everyone appreciates you.

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Billy English, on bass

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Ray Price

Amy and Susie Nelson, Austin, Texas (12/30/11)

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

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Thanks to Janis from Texas for sending these pictures from last night’s Willie Nelson & Family concert in Austin, last night.

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Saturday, December 31st, 2011

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This day in Willie Nelson history: Kennedy Center Honors (12/30/98)

Friday, December 30th, 2011

Photo of Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson
(singer/songwriter, born April 30, 1933, Abbott, Texas)
Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts aired on December 30, 1998, on the CBS television network.,  and Willie Nelson was honored along with Bill Cosby, Fred Ebb & John Kander, Andre Previn, and Shirley Temple Black.

Willie Nelson
(singer/songwriter, born April 30, 1933, Abbott, Texas)

Willie Nelson is one of contemporary music’s rare genuine icons, the 65-year-old singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor remains a restlessly creative soul. In a career that now spans five decades recording more than 200 albums, writing many of this country’s most enduring songs, acting in more than 30 movies and television shows, crisscrossing the country on his concert tours, and masterminding innumerable benefit concerts, Willie Nelson has continually renewed his artistic vision, remaining always what Kris Kristofferson calls “a profound, original songwriter in a class with Stephen Foster who continues to enrich our lives with greatness.”

In this decade alone, Nelson has recorded a string of critically acclaimed albums like Across the Borderline, Moonlight Becomes You (a collection of standards), and Just One Love (a prime example of Texas-style country music), along with two albums as a member of the Highwaymen. Nelson also has been the subject of an alternative rock tribute album, three boxed sets, and a star-studded 60th birthday television special. And he continues to tour, spending more than 200 nights a year on the traveling bus that is his home away from home.

His voice is instantly recognizable: a plaintive, sweet sound that magically pierces the heart. His geniius is more: he creates music that is a soul-searching exploration of love and spirituality, often very sad, drawn from the deep well of this country’s many voices–country, gospel, pop, jazz, and blues–but uniquely original. “If America only had one voice,” says Emmylou Harris, “it would be Willie’s.

“Willie Nelson was born in the farmlands of central Texas, got his first guitar at age six, and was weaned on the music of such fellow Texans Bob Wills and Ernest Tubb, as well as the big bands of the day, their Tin Pan Alley pop songs, and the hits of Frank Sinatra. Willie knew early on that he would not be a farmer, but an entertainer. While still in his teens, Nelson started playing dances and honky-tonks, and by the time he graduated from high school, Nelson had his own regular radio show.

After a brief stint in the Air Force, Nelson landed in Houston, where he made his first commercial recordings. With a few of his songs, performed by others, hitting the charts, Nelson moved to Nashville to make his fortune as a singer. After only two years he had well established himself as the town’s most sought-after writer with three monster hits: “Funny How Time Slips Away,” “Night Life,” and the landmark Patsy Cline single, “Crazy.”

In 1970 Nelson moved back to Texas, performed at honky-tonks and rock concerts, and recorded two of his classic albums Shotgun Willie and Phases and Stages. His 1975 album, Red Headed Stranger, a country concept album, yielded a hit, “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” and spearheaded a traditional country revival. The following year, a compilation album of previously issued Nelson material, Wanted.- The Outlaws, became the first million-selling country album, remains one of the best-selling country music album of all time, and sparked a musical revolution.

By 1978, Nelson changed course again with Stardust, a collection of pop standards that spent more than a decade on the country charts. Nelson also embarked on his acting career that came to include the films Thief, The Electric Horseman, Honeysuckle Rose, Barbarosa, Songwriter and, most recently, Wag the Dog. On television he has appeared as guest star on such shows as “Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman” and “Nash Bridges.”

His Fourth of July picnics, which began in 1973, have become the stuff of legend, while his Farm Aid shows have helped call attention to the plight of the American farmer. His popularity soared and his work became a national touchstone for American popular music. In 1980, he was invited to sing the National Anthem at the Democratic National Convention. Nelson also recorded duets with such diverse stars as Julio Iglesias, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Leon Russell, Dolly Parton, Neil Young, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, George Jones, and Merle Haggard.

Willle Nelson helped reinvent country music. Throughout his career he has not only entertained, but has given us part of our heritage. His music helps us to know what we are as Americans and where we came from. “Willie Nelson’s impact on American music is indelible,” says Carlos Santana. “He stands at the crossroads of all the sounds and colors of his country. What he reflects is true soul and sincerity.” What he is– is Americana.

Can’t make it to Austin to see Willie Nelson & Family on New Year’s Eve? Listen to live broadcast on Sirius/XM radio

Friday, December 30th, 2011

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Willie Nelson & Family New Year’s Eve with Ray Price

Willie’s Roadhouse, SiriusXM 56

Willie’s Roadhouse rings in the New Year with an historic live concert broadcast from Willie Nelson & Family, along with an opening set from his special guest Ray Price, direct from the new ACL Live at the Moody Theater on Willie Nelson Blvd. in Austin, Texas. Dallas Wayne will anchor the festivities with exclusive backstage reports and interviews between sets.

On-Air Time: Saturday, December 31 10 pm ET

Rebroadcasts: Sunday, January 1 1-4 am ET and 2-5 pm ET.

To find out how you can subscribe and hear the show:
www.Sirius.com .

Willie Nelson & Family NYE concert available on special Trigger key chain

Friday, December 30th, 2011

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$40.00
www.WillieNelson.com

Willie Nelson’s website is selling special USB drive keychains shaped like Willie Nelson’s guitar Trigger, with a mp3 copy of Willie Nelson & Family’s live performance tomorrow night.

Note, it is for Willie Nelson’s performance only. Other artist performances from the show will not be on the Trigger USB. Please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery.

To purchase your special key chain/USB drive/Willie Nelson souvenir, visit Willie Nelson’s on-line store here.

Friday, December 30th, 2011

 

Moody Theater, Austin City Live

Friday, December 30th, 2011

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Thanks to Lane and Katrina for sending pictures from Austin tonight.

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Shoeshine Friday! Yes it is.

Friday, December 30th, 2011