And as if living in Hawaii isn’t cool enough, lucky Shelly Brown was one of the lucky who attended the Neil Abercrombie for Governor fundraiser, and got to see Willie Nelson & friends in concert. Tom Conway and his band played, as well as Willie K. Willie and Abercrombie are old friends. Shelly sent along more great photos from Charles Bateman, who was also at the show.
Shelly wrote:
“The concert was opened up by Willie K who wowed the crowd with an incredible artistic rendition of “We Are The World”. Willie K impressions of all the singers included the Dion Warwick and Willie Nelson duet portion of the song and the crowd went crazy over this song.
“Then Willie Nelson and Tom Conway’s band took the stage and the crowd went ballistic.
The playlist went pretty much like this:
Whiskey River
Good Hearted-Woman
Crazy/HelloWalls/Nightlife medley
Always on My Mind
Nobody’s Fault but Mine
I’ll Fly Away
Circle Will Be Unbroken
(Willie then asked the crowd if they wanted to hear Hank Williams; we all said hell yeah)
Move it On Over
Jambalaya
Blue Eyes Cryin in the Rain
On the Road Again
I Saw the Light
Before the crowd could even ask for a “Hana Hou” (“Do it Again” in Hawaiian), Willie asked us, “Do Y’all Mind if we play one more?” This left the crowd totally disarmed. Willie mirrored a local, very humble style that the crowd loved.
Willie’s lovely wife, Annie, was close at hand throughout the concert and actually acted as a stage hand at times, grabbing Willie’s electric Fender guitar and Tom Conway’s guitar and leads and other items. She was the epitome of aloha.
The crowd left feeling bonded together with Willie and Neil Abercrombie’s vision of what Hawaii and America can be.
After the concert me and my new friends from very different corners of America were treated to a rare vision of a Waikiki lunar moon rainbow. We all toasted Willie for this special Hawaii treat.”
Mahalo, and much aloha,
Shelly R, Brown, and Charles Bateman Jr
