Archive for March, 2015

“Stand up, Little Sister, and let everyone see you.” — Willie Nelson

Tuesday, March 31st, 2015

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It’s a highlight of every Willie Nelson & Family show.  While Willie Nelson’s set list changes every night, he always calls on his sister Bobbie to play a solo.  It is such a treat to hear her play, whatever song Willie calls out to her.  And at the end, he always asks her to stand so her fans can see her.   There is so much love between them.

 

Farm Aid and Dollars and Sense Collaboration (introduction by Willie Nelson)

Tuesday, March 31st, 2015

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Farm Aid has collaborated with the magazine Dollars & Sense to create an issue that examines the current economic state of agriculture in America. Read Willie Nelson’s introduction and then browse and download the entire issue below.

The Wealth of the Land and the Power of the People

By Willie Nelson

Last year at the annual Farm Aid concert in Raleigh, N.C, I met Phillip and Dorathy Barker, Black farmers who, like many minority farmers, lost much of their farmland as a result of discriminatory lending practices by banks and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Today, Phillip and Dorathy farm the 20 acres they were able to hold on to in Oxford, N.C. They also operate a non-profit organization, Operation Spring Plant, which provides resources and training to minority and limited-resource farmers, including a program that introduces young people to farming and provides youth leadership training. Phillip said one of his goals is to provide tools for the next generation and to help young people “come back to the farm to understand the wealth of the land.”

“Wealth of the land.”

That’s a powerful phrase. Phillip believes the next generation must see a sustainable livelihood from the land, but the wealth he refers to can’t be measured only in dollars. It is measured in the experience of working on the land, tending the soil, and caring for the animals and crops that grow from it. It’s measured in the ability to be independent, to feed himself and his family. It’s measured in the way he and Dorathy sustain and strengthen their community. It’s measured in being rooted to a place, and passing something valuable to the next generation.

It seems to me that understanding the real wealth in the land is key to a sustainable future for all of us.

Our greatest challenge is in re-visioning how the majority see “wealth.” The wealth of the land cannot be boiled down to the investors’ return on investment. It cannot be gauged by the commodities it returns to us—in gallons of oil and bushels of corn.

The drive to extract as much value from the land as possible—to maximize production without regard to whether we’re exhausting the soil, to give over our farmland to Wall Street investors, to seize land held by families for generations for corporate profit— bankrupts the land, our food, our nation, and our future.

We need to redefine wealth as the ability to make a decent living from the land as well as to sustain it for the next generation. To grow crops for food and fuel while simultaneously enriching the soil upon which future crops depend. To support a family and a community. To work in partnership with nature to protect our health and the health of our planet. As caretakers of our soil and water, this has been and always should be the essential role of the family farmer.

Today, fewer than 2% of us live on farms. Clearly, we can’t all be family farmers, but we can all shift our priorities to ensure we’re doing our best to support them and encourage new farmers to get started on the land. Playing music to bring awareness is how I started Farm Aid in 1985, and it’s how I continue to support the people who best know how to care for the land: our family farmers. Each and every one of us has the power to do what we can to support and sustain family farmers.

Our common wealth depends on it.

— Willie Nelson
President, Farm Aid
www.FarmAid.org

DOWNLOAD DOLLARS & SCENTS:
http://www.farmaid.org/site/c.qlI5IhNVJsE/b.9265629/k.D90D/Farms_Today__A_Collaboration_with_Dollars__Sense.htm?msource=homepage

Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard at Whitewater Amphitheater (March 26,27,28, 2015)

Monday, March 30th, 2015

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photo: John Doyle

www.RollingStone.com
by: Chuck Eddy

Capping three evening pairings with Willie Nelson at WhiteWater Amphitheater on Saturday, 15 minutes outside the Central Texas river-tubing paradise of New Braunfels, Merle Haggard thought the audience wasn’t being responsive enough to his “we don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee” line, so he tried it again. A minute or so later, Nelson came out to finish “Okie From Muskogee” with him, for fans who by then were all in on the joke, and from there they both went into what Haggard called a new song “about the same subject”: “It’s All Going to Pot,” off their impending fourth duets album together, Django & Jimmie. After “Pancho and Lefty” and another new tune, they took a break while Nelson’s smaller combo set up. But the night served as a primer on what both great men share.

SIDEBAR
Willie Nelson and Jimmy Kimmel Watch Willie Nelson Ace Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘Pot Quiz’ »
They both have birthdays coming up, for one thing. In April, Nelson turns 82 and Haggard turns 78. And Haggard’s earlier set was itself preceded by brief turns by two of the icons’ offspring: Paula Nelson opened, finishing her string of covers dueting with her dad on Creedence’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain”; Noel Haggard’s somewhat stoic set was lengthened a little, since it took some time to lure his dad from the tour bus. Add much younger Ben Haggard backing Dad on guitar and Nelson’s sister Bobbie adding boogie-woogie piano bounce to his songs, and it was quite a family affair in general.

Hill Country trees behind them – WhiteWater’s the kind of venue where people with RVs can camp out – Haggard and Nelson both indulged blues and jazz sides, though Nelson both more blatantly and nonchalantly, and with fewer musicians. Haggard’s set allowed for several sax and harmonica breaks and a good fiddle hoedown, though. He opened with “Big City,” covered “Folsom Prison Blues,” dedicated “Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down” to “all the female drunks in the house,” and speeded up “The Fightin’ Side of Me” for “all the soldiers fightin’ for us.” But what most got his nine-person combo cooking was Sleepy John Estes’ “Milk Cow Blues.”

Nelson’s band – spiked by standup bass and two drummer-percussionists, one specializing in egg shakers, along with Bobbie tinkling ivories and a frequently gnarly tone from the frontman’s beat-up guitar – was almost all rhythm. “On the Road Again” and “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” most got a crowd marinated in light beer and other substances singing along, and a Toby Keith-less “Beer for My Horses” shocked the system. But between the “Whiskey River” kickoff and spiritual-choir wrap-up, the real highlights came when sister Bobbie supplied the most groove: an extended “Night Life” and a Hank Williams “Jambalaya”/”Hey Good Lookin’”/”Move It On Over” medley that led straight into “Georgia on My Mind” followed by Billy Joe Shaver’s “Georgia on a Fast Train.” Rock, jazz, blues, gospel, Hoagy Carmichael, it all fed into the same stream – like Haggard’s set, an object lesson for those who believe great country music is about purism, when really it can come from anywhere.

Willie Nelson and Paula Nelson, “Have You Ever Seen the Rain”

Monday, March 30th, 2015

Thanks, Lisa Pittman, for the video!

The Texas Flag flies tonight in tonight in Missouri behind Willie Nelson

Monday, March 30th, 2015

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Thank you Budrock, for sending these photos from tonight’s show in Missouri.

Buddy said he was happy because he gets to hang the Texas flag, after going five shows without the flag. It looks great back where it belongs.

Bobby Flaco wasn’t as happy though. His console would not fit in the sound booth at the venue.  He had to go digital!

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Willie Nelson @Whitewater Amphitheater, New Braunfels, TX

Monday, March 30th, 2015

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Folk Uke! On tour! With Amy Nelson and Cathy Guthrie Live and in Person

Monday, March 30th, 2015

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FU is hitting the road!

Folk Uke will be opening for the legendary band X for a series of shows in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas! Our first shows will be this Friday and Saturday (Apr. 3 & 4) at the Marquis Theatre in Denver, Colorado! Other dates include: Aspen, Santa Fe, Dallas, Houston & Austin.

Check here for tickets: http://www.folkuke.com/shows.html

Willie Nelson sits in with the Paula Nelson Band (Whitewater Amphitheater) (3/28/15)

Monday, March 30th, 2015

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photo:  Janis Tillerson

Lucky for us music lovers and fans, the Paula Nelson Band opened the show every night at Whitewater Amphitheater March 26,27,28, before Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson performed.  What a treat! And on Saturday night, her dad came out and watched her perform, and then joined Paula for a reprise of their duet, “Have You Ever Seen the Rain.”

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Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic in Austin (Tickets on sale April 10th)

Monday, March 30th, 2015

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Willie Nelson is bringing his 42nd annual Willie Nelson 4th of July Picnic back home to the Austin360 Amphitheater this year with a star-studded lineup of family & friends, including Merle Haggard, Eric Church, Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, Jamey Johnson, Sturgill Simpson, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Asleep at the Wheel, Leon Russell and much more, including a live broadcast on SiriusXM Willie’s Roadhouse.

Tickets on sale April 10th, through Ticketmaster.

Willie Nelson ends his show with birthday love for Budrock

Monday, March 30th, 2015

Budrock, Lighting Director for Willie Nelson and Family, celebrated his sixty-fifth birthday at a Willie Nelson and Family Show. I asked him how many birthdays he has worked on his birthday at a WN&F show in all the decades he has worked for Willie, and he told me, “Most of them”.

 

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On Saturday night, just as Willie was saying goodnight to the crowd, and thanking us, (yeah, him thanking us — crazy, right?), Willie’s daughter Amy scurried up beside her dad and whispered in his ear. Then, just as the band was getting ready to play that lively music they play when Willie walks off the stage, Willie puts his hands in the air and says, “Wait, wait, Stop!”  And he said he just got reminded it was Budrock’s birthday, and then he led everyone in a sing along. It was pretty sweet.

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Willie Nelson, Whitewater Amphitheater (3/28/15)

Sunday, March 29th, 2015

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photo: Janis Tillerson

Larry Butler gets a birthday hug from Willie Nelson

Sunday, March 29th, 2015

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Larry Butler spent his birthday at a Willie Nelson show, and got a hug to celebrate.

Willie Nelson and Family (Whitewater Amphitheater)

Sunday, March 29th, 2015

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photo: Janis Tillerson

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Happy Birthday, Budrock!

Saturday, March 28th, 2015

All the best wishes for a great birthday to Buddy Prewitt, Willie Nelson & Family lighting director.  Spending another birthday at a Willie Nelson & Family Show.   Even if he has to work today, it’s pretty cool.

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Happy Birthday to Budrock “the Illuminator” Prewitt, lighting director for Willie Nelson and Family. Spending another birthday at a Willie Nelson and family show! That is living large. Even if he has to work.

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Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, “Poncho and Lefty”

Saturday, March 28th, 2015

Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard rehearsed some new songs and some old songs in the afternoon before the show at Whitewater Amphitheater last night.