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Paul English, classy drummer

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Paul English, On the Road Again
by Billy Jeansonne
cover photo by Joseph Kaszynski
Jan/Feb/Mar 2005

“There is no other drummer who can beat Paul English playing behind me, and I watched him become the great drummer that he is today. He learned to play drums playing behind me. 1955 was the first time we played together, in Ft. Worth, Texas on my radio show. Paul’s brother Oliver is also a great musician and helped Paul a lot in those days. But when I left Ft. Worth, Paul was just learning. The next time I saw him was in Houston. He heard I was looking for a drummer and applied for the job. He’s been with me ever since, and he has always been my friend, my best friend.”

Wille Nelson
9/10/2004

39 years of drumming in Willie Nelson’s band has placed Paul English in a respective category that few drummers ever achieve, rivaled only by Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones. Very few drummers have enduring careers of this magnitude. Paul English is one of those drummers:

Classic Drummer (CD) Paul, when did you first begin working with Willie?

Paul English (PE): I first started working with Willie in 1956 at Majors Place, at 4010 Hemphill in Fort Worth, Texas, making $8.00 a night three nights a week. Willie was a disc jockey in Fort Worth and I was a leather tooler. My brother Oliver and Willie were doing a 30-minute live show on “The Western Exposure”, Willie’s radio show, to promote a job. They needed a drummer. I had never played drums before, but I went out there and started playing a snare drum on 1-2-3-4, with brushes. I was one of the few who could take off work to play, so we did that about three weeks.

Then Willie got a job and took me with him, benevolent as he would be and still is. Willie said, “Let’s take Paul, he hasn’t been playing three weeks for nothing.”

So that was my first gig. I like to say, “I played my first job ever with Willie and I will play my last one with Willie.”

CD: How did the band transform from there?

PE: That band didn’t transform. We were working at a nightclub about six weeks and then the place got sold, as they usually did back then. Me and the front man went out on Jacksboro Highway and worked for a guy named Billy Wade. After that, my cousin, my brother, and myself, put a band together.

I stayed friends with Willie all this time, and in 1966 I was living in Houston. He came by my house and spent the night. He said, “Do you know how to get in touch with Tommy Roznaski?”, who was a friend of ours that played the drums. “I’m looking for a drummer”, and I said, “Well, I play the drums probably better than him or at least as well.” Willie said, “Would you work for $30.00 a night?” I said yes. That’s where i’ve been ever since. So I’ve been with Willie Nelson since 1966. It’ll be 39 years this January.

paul5

CD: From 1956 to 1966, did you stay in touch with Willie? Did you continue learning to play drums?

PE: Oh yes, in fact I was a big fan as well as a friend. When he recorded “Then I Wrote”, I took the album to the radio station and had them record it to an 8 track tape so I could pay it in my car. I’m still learning as a matter of fact. Back when I started playing drums there was nobody to emulate like there is now. There was Gene Krupa, but we didn’t have videotapes to watch and I didn’t know how to read music. I started out by playing the drums to music. I should have learned to play the drums first, then get the job.

CD: You’ve been playing with Willie most of your life. What other bands have you played in?

PE: Between 1956 and 1966, I played with a lot of bands. I’m proud of them all, but one that I’m especially proud of, is Delbert McClinton. I recorded with him on the first single he ever did in 1963. It was called “If You Really Want Me To, I’ll Go”, which became a minor hit. There were only three people who played on that record, Johnny Patterson, Delbert McClinton, and myself. Johnny played guitar and overdubbed bass. Delbert sang and played harmonica. The band was called Delbert McClinton and the Rondells. I also worked four years with Ray Chaney, a local guy in Fort Worth. Once I started with Willie, it’s been a good job and a full time job with him. I wouldn’t want to work for anybody else.

CD: When Willie writes a new song, how do you approach the song from a drumming standpoint? Does Willie give you direction?

PE: When Willie starts playing a new song, I usually get a good feeling of what the song should sound like. I play what I feel it needs. Willie never tells me exactly what to play, but if he feels it’s too busy, he may tell me to hold back a little or straighten it out if he thinks it’s a little too much on top, he’ll tell me to lay back or keep it cleaner. But I generally play what I want.

CD: What are some of your favorite songs to play each night?

PE: “Funny How Time Slips Away”, “Night Life”, and of course, “Me and Paul.” We play that song every night. It takes me back many years. Working with Willie, we both have a lot of good memories together. We’ve been together for so many years. The song “Me and Paul”, was on a concept album called “Yesterday’s Wine”. Willie wrote six songs in one night to go on that album.

CD: What were the crowds liked in the early days? What are some of the largest crowds the band has played to”

PE: When the band first started, we’d play 200 – 300 seaters, mostly for the door. In the 60’s when we played a show, there were sometimes as many as fifteen well-known artists playing the show. Everyone form Ray Price, George Jones, Hank Thompson, Jr., Johnny Cash, Bill Anderson, to Ernest Tubb would play shows together.

We had a Fourth of July Picnic in Oklahoma and played to seventy four thousand people. That’s the biggest crowd we ever had. This was in the late seventies. Then we played the Academy Awards which was shown to about seventy four million people. Johnny Carson hosted the show that night and what a class act he is. I really respected him. He was a great guy, a fantastic human being. He was really down to earth. He was also a very good drummer!

CD: How many nights a year does the band work now?

PE: We go from 130 to 150 days a year. To do that many days a year, you ‘re on the road better than 200, maybe 225 days. The most we ever worked was about 180 days a year. That was back when we just started getting popular.

CD: The band now travels in three tour buses. How did you travel in the early days of playing with Willie?

PE: In 1966 we had a 1947 GM bus. We bought it from Red Adair, the Texas firefighter. Then we went to a Mercury Station wagon pulling a trailer. Now we have three buses. Willie’s bus is called Honeysuckle Rose. The band crew are getting new busses this wear. We’re excited about that.

CD:Â How did the cape become part of your outfit?

PE: In 1967 we were in California. We were going to buy new uniforms. We had two jackets, two shirts, and two pairs of pants. Willie and I were walking and he saw this cape in the window and said, “Aw you gotta have that, go get the cape.” I paid $25.00 for it. We played Panther Hall in Fort Worth and I wore the cape. A lot of girls wanted autographs after the show, so the cape stayed. I’ve had about seven capes.

Somebody asked me, if I wrote a song about the cape what would it be? I siad, “Long Time Forgotten”. Willie brought me three beautiful capes for my 71st birthday. All my original capes were burned when my house caught on fire in the 80’s. I wore one of the capes Willie bought me when we played John T. Floores Country Store in Helotes, Texas. That cape is in the Willie Nelson Museum in Nashville. We played John T. Floores Country Store from the word go. When we first started playing there, about 200 people would show up. Now the palce can hold 2,500 people. We play there at least twice a year.

CD: If you had not met Willie, would you have purused drumming as a career?

PE: I had other interests, but they didn’t involve music. I kept my drums set up fin the kitchen just in case. I don’t think you can get away from music. Even when I worked for $35.00 a night, sometimes I would fly to Florida to work the job and fly back. I would spend $50.00 flying and lose $20.00 for the love of playing.

CD: What does 2005 bring for Paul English and the band?

PE: Beginning in February, we play several dates in Australia. Then we go to Europe for a couple of weeks.

Posted in Interviews, Paul English | 5 Comments »

Willie Nelson and Mickey Raphael, in the recording studio

Friday, March 12th, 2010

www.premierguitar.com

This picture is from a new article written by Elianne Halbersberg, about musicians, and how they can get the most out of their time spent in the recording studio. You can read her article at
www.premierguitar.com.

Her current article is entited “Studio Preparation: What You Should Know Before You Go.” For her article, she interviewed artists and music producers, and asked what advice they would give musicians, before they headed into the recording studio. Her panel of experts included Mickey Raphael; Michael Wagener; Jason Burleson; Johnny K; John Leventhal and Bruce Kulick, of Kiss, and others.

I’ve posted several of Elianne’s articles here that she’s written about Willie Nelson and the band. Like many generous Willie Nelson fans out there (and you know who you are), she kindly sends links to articles and videos from time to time, and I just recently made the connection that she was the author of all these other articles. She is a big music lover, and smart about the music business, but most of all I enjoy reading her articles because she is such a Willie Nelson and Family Fan.

Here is a teaser; you can read the entire article at:
http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2010/Apr/Studio_Preparation_What_You_Should_Know_Before_You_Go.aspx?Page=1

Studio Preparation: What you should know before you go
by Elianne Halbersberg

Mickey Raphael knows a thing or two about how to fit, when to play and when to step aside. “I weave the web around the pocket and thread it together,” he says, “and if it gets too crazy, I don’t have to play. If it’s too far out there, I shut the fuck up and listen. That’s something Willie taught me: It doesn’t hurt to sit back and listen. You don’t have to play all the time.

When you’re in the studio, or onstage, you’ve got to be able to listen and work with other guys. When you’re a young player and still learning, you want to play everything you know as fast as you can. Again, it’s like Willie says: Less is more.

Genre to genre, you have to listen to what the song needs and what you can contribute. I’m concerned about playing one note with great tone rather than a solo with all the licks I know. You don’t talk when someone else is talking.

It’s the same thing with music. When the singer is singing, stay out of the way of the lyrics. People want to hear what the singer and the other players have to say. If it’s not your turn to play, watch the other guys and be gracious. It’s a team effort.”

Read the rest of this very informative article by Elianne at:
http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2010/Apr/Studio_Preparation_What_You_Should_Know_Before_You_Go.aspx?Page=1

Posted in Interviews, Magazines, Mickey Raphael | 5 Comments »

Bobbie Nelson Interview

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

by Danielle Hatch
www.pjstar.com

Willie Nelson, the country icon, activist and household name, has another Nelson on the road with him – his sister, Bobbie, who has toured with him since the 1970s.

Maybe you’ve seen her at a show – she’s the lady at the piano with a kind face and a pleasant Southern drawl that seems to add an extra syllable or two onto every word.

Bobbie Nelson, 79, and her brother were raised in the tiny town of Abbott, Texas, by their grandparents – music lovers who would compose songs in the evenings after supper and who insisted the children learn the craft, too. Bobbie was reading music and playing the pump organ by age 6.

“Our grandmother and grandfather loved us so much and started us with a music career that they didn’t even know they were starting us on,” Bobbie Nelson said. “They just loved music.”

Aside from touring with her brother’s band, Bobbie Nelson released her debut solo album, “Autobiography,” at age 76. It’s a collection of her favorite piano pieces, guitar-and-piano duets with her brother and a couple of his classic songs, such as “Crazy.”

Bobbie Nelson recently spoke to Cue about her childhood in Texas, the travel schedule of her piano, and what it’s really like on Willie Nelson’s tour bus.

- Danielle Hatch

How did you get started in music?

Willie and I lived with our grandmother and grandfather, they were gospel singers and into writing their own music, studying it. I was really in love with the piano. My grandfather insisted that my grandmother teach me. We had a pump organ in our house and I got started on that. I learned to read music and play at age 6.

How did you come to live with your grandparents?

My mother and father were just so young when they got married, I was born when they were 17. That marriage never did last.

Willie and I really just clung to each other, because our grandmother worked in the fields, and my grandfather died when we were really young – I was 9 and Willie was 6. I tried to look after him, keep him from getting hurt.

We had such a close, beautiful relationship as children, and that hasn’t changed. Willie and I are as close as we are because we played music together.

What was it like at home in those early days?

We watched our grandmother and grandfather work on their music every night. He was a blacksmith and when he came home, after we had our dinner, they would work on their music. They took lessons from a mail order school and were studying composition, it was really wonderful watching them.

Then we got electricity in our little house and our grandfather got us a radio. This radio brought the rest of the world and the music to our ears that we hadn’t heard before.

How did you come to play in your brother’s band?

When I was 16 and Willie was 14, I married a man who was a little older and he organized our first band (Bud Fletcher and the Texans). We worked together for a few years. (My husband) was killed, and Willie went to the Air Force.

I didn’t play with him until after he had been recording and gone to live in Nashville and written “Hello Walls” and “Crazy” and had become very famous already as a songwriter. It was about ‘71 when he was recording with Atlantic Records and wanted me to do a gospel record with him. We did the “Troublemaker” album. He said, “We sure have missed playing together, haven’t we?” And I said, “Yes, we have.” I was playing supper clubs and cocktail lounges, that sort of thing, and teaching music in Austin. He said, “Let’s just start playing together again.” So it gave us an opportunity to regroup.

Was it hard to accept his offer, because it meant you’d have to go on the road?

It did. But my children were grown at the time and in college, so I didn’t really have any reason not to go on the road. He never did want me to leave my (three) sons until after they were older. After we did “Troublemaker” and “Shotgun Willie,” we started working more locally. Then we did “Red Headed Stranger,” and it was all much better after that. We could get better transportation, I could have a piano to travel with me.

What kind of piano do you play?

It’s a 7-foot Steinway. I’ve traveled with that piano 15 years now. It’s fabulous. I’ve never had so much luxury in my life, and I’m very grateful for it.

In fact, we’re going to do a European tour. We haven’t gone there in a few years, but we’re going back this year and they say we’re going to take my piano with us. I’m really not sure how that’s going to work out – I hate to put my piano on an airplane.

Your brother has his guitar, “Trigger.” Do you have a name for your piano?

I’ve never named it. But I just say it’s my companion, and it’s really true.

When Willie gave me my first band ring years ago – it was after we had done “Red Headed Stranger” – I had ordered it to fit my ring finger on my right hand. But it didn’t fit; it fit the ring finger on my left hand. So I guess that was fate telling me that’s what I’m really married to.

You released your first album, “Autobiography,” at age 76. What made you finally decide to record?

I wanted to do something so I could leave something for my youngest son. And I have a little granddaughter, she’s 19 now and in school.

I was going into the studio with Willie to record a couple of songs that Willie had just written. We have a studio out here in Austin, where we live. There’s a little golf course and a studio, and Willie and my son were playing golf. He said, “Sister Bobbie, why don’t you go warm up that piano?” So I did, and they recorded what I was warming up with – I had no idea.

And, I had learned a lot of music that I didn’t want to forget – jazz, boogies and piano songs from when I was a kid. I was working with Hammond Organ Studios, I used to demonstrate organs and play for dinner clubs, songs like “Laura” and “Deep Purple” and “Stardust,” all of these beautiful old songs. It was hard for me to choose which ones I really wanted to put on an album, because I had so many that I loved. And I loved the things that Willie has written.

Willie Nelson and Family has quite a reputation; there are arrests for marijuana and Moonshine every now and then. What’s it really like on the road?

Every now and then? It seems like we don’t know for sure when we go out if we’re going to come home or not (laughs).

I ride the bus with Willie and we travel around together, we have a couple of bus drivers and our road manager. We really work hard. We do a show almost every night. Then we travel that very night to the next city where we’re going to perform the next day. So our lives are spent sleeping on the bus.

I go inside a hotel when I get there, but Willie lives in the bus. It’s very difficult for him to get off the bus because there are people waiting for him. It’s really kind of funny. Anywhere we park the bus we’re going to have a crowd.

Willie really feels about marijuana that it is his medicine, that he uses it to relax himself. And he doesn’t really smoke like he used to. He’s getting older and has some problems, too. So we don’t really need to do a lot of those things. We maybe drink too much coffee or wine at night, but that’s about the extent of our party (laughs).

Now, I don’t know how the other guys live their lives, but we have already determined that after we had so many arrests, some of the road crew have said, “We’re not going to smoke on our bus anymore” (laughs). Because they’re tired of getting arrested.

I’ve heard that Trigger, the guitar, has a hole in it. And once the hole makes Trigger unplayable, that Willie is going to stop touring. Is this true?

I certainly hope that Trigger doesn’t decide that he can’t come with us anymore, because that would make a huge difference in the way that Willie feels about playing. It’s the only instrument that can give him the sound that he really wants – between that instrument and the amplifier he uses. He could change guitars, but it’s not the same. It’s just like me and a good piano. I could probably replace my piano, but I don’t know that he could replace Trigger. So I don’t know what would ever happen when Trigger says “I’ve had it.”

How long do you plan to tour?

We hope to be able to tour as long as we can. Because we really do feel that this is our life. We have a new challenge every day to do a great show, to meet as many people as we can, and to bring to them, hopefully, the good that they get from it. I don’t think Willie and I, either one, would be very healthy if we didn’t tour. It keeps us young and healthy and happy.

http://www.pjstar.com/entertainment/x497924798/Family

Posted in Bobbie Nelson, Interviews | 5 Comments »

Willie Nelson Interview, with Erica Harpold

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Posted in Interviews, You Tube, Vimeo | 4 Comments »

Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson: Songwriter

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

People Magazine
Feb. 13, 1984
by Chet Flippo

Is it true that when cowboys die, they go to Texas? Tonight is cowboy heaven for sure — as two forever young good ole boys named Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson smile and press the flesh and inch their way through phalanxes of ecstatic fans on their way to the bandstand. Out front, a couple thousand of the faithful are whooping it up and pouring down the Lone Star beer at Austin’s Opry House, a true shrine of C&W. It was here that Willie put modern Country on the map in the early ’70s when he gave up on Nashville’s establishment and drifted on down to Austin to forge an alliance between hippies and rednecks.

Hordes of both — now almost indistinguishable, what with their pierced ears and long hair and pounds of silver and gold jewelry and flowered shirts and skintight jeans (and that’s only the men) — are starting their “Willie” chant. Even though the concert footage has already been shot at the Opry House for Songwriter, the movie that Willie and Kris are filming here, Willie got cabin fever after awhile and decided he just had to do a show. Since he now owns the Opry House, along with a lot of other prime Austin real estate, it wasn’t too hard to set up. Austin can never get enough of Willie, especially since he now spends most of his time in Colorado or on the road. He is still a holy man in Texas.

Backstage, Willie, still in his “Doc Jenkins” black garb from the day’s shooting, smiles his guru smile and shakes the hands of preppies in blazers and bikers in leather and grandmothers in shawls and little children and clean-cut jocks and guys who look suspiciously like dope dealers and businessmen wearing suits and left-over ’60’s hippies and farmers and former University of Texas coach Darrell Royal. They are smiling at each other so much that, if you didn’t know better, you might think this is a mob of some kind of babbling religious freaks. But no, they’re just Willie fanatics.

Willie embraces Kristofferson, who is still wearing the black outfit of the “Blackie Buck” character in the movie. Kris and Willie are the old pros of progressive C&W and their lined faces and salt-and-pepper bears show a lot of years of being rode hard and put up wet. But, as a bystander points out, they fearlessly — and recklessly — went up against heavy odds in fighing Nashville’s establishment.

“And, bah Gahd, we won, didn’t we, Willie?” rasps Kris in his window-rattling rumble of a voice, hugging Willie amid the chaos. “Yeah, Kris, I guess we did,” Willie says quietly. Then he and his band hit the stage to plead: “Whiskey river, take my mind.”

The crowd erupts and doesn’t stop. It’s an old-fashioned hoedown with dancers and drinkers twirling and swirling thorugh hours of Willie and Kris, and Kris and Willie stripping down to black T-shirts and dripping with sweat by the time they turn Amazing Grace into a Country Mass — hundreds of europhoric worshipers jumping to their feet and pointing their fingers heavenward and singing along witha Texas sermon from Matthew, Mark, Kris and Willie. And not one fight. Remarkable for a honky-tonk.

“God, Willie’s great,” Kris says a few minutes after the show, back in his modest suite at the Ramada Inn, as he picks his way through stacks of toys for his children and calls room service to order himself some rabbit food and volcano water.

Ten years ago, when they were really living the lives of Doc and Blackie, Kris and Willie existed on shots of tequila and more shots of tequila, with the occasional night out on shots of Jack Daniel’s. They were living right out there “on the border,” as Kris sings in this movie. And they were slogging through the drugs-and-alcohol diet thought essential to capture the exquisite pain of country music.

No longer. Kris pulls off his T-shirt to reveal that he’s healthy now, rippling muscles and all that. Coherent. Sane. Everything that he is not in Songwriter. Doesn’t drink or drug anymore. Runs 10 miles a day. Plays golf with Willie. Eats right. Is writing songs again after a long drought.

“Yeah, things are going real good,” he says with a satisfied sigh from his easy chair, boots up on the table. “I got married. Wasn’t no big thing, but yeah, we got a little boy now. My wife’s named Lisa. She’s a lawyer. She was in law school at Pepperdine when I met her. We had a little boy on the seventh of October — Jesse Turner Kristofferson. ‘Jesse’ for an old football coach I had and ‘Turner’ for [band member] Turner Stephen Bruton.

“Wille’s got a great philosphy — about running, about golf, about everything. Kick it back to where you can enjoy it, you know? I’t like, if youre’ running too hard and you’re miserable, then ease off a little bit. He runs for pleasure, not to drive himself. I swear to God” — he laughts at the notion — “being around Willie is like being around Buddah. He gives off these positive attitudes. Next thing you know, you’re acting like him.”

He laughs again, shaking his head in wonderment as he pushes his room service tray aside. He turns and trains the full force of his intense, sky-blue deep-set eyes on his visitor and says seriously, “I’ll never be like him. I’ll never be able to walk directly from the golf cart to the stage. But I’ll never again put myself through the angst I used to. This film as changed my life as much as A Star is Born did. That was a real turning point because I saw that I had potential as an actor. It was enough to clean me up, to quit drinking, you know. And this move has justified my getting cleaned up. You always hope that working with friends will work, but working with Willie is a real bonus because the chemistry on the screen is so good. This has turned out to be the best experience of my life.”

Posted in Interviews, Kris Kristofferson, Movies, Videos, DVDs, black and white | No Comments »

“Bobbie and Willie Nelson are an entity unto themselves,” — Mickey Raphael

Friday, February 26th, 2010

photo: Taylor Hill/Getty Images

www.mysanantonio.com
by Jim Beal, Jr.

If you’re looking for a word to describe the Willie Nelson sound, you can’t go wrong with “distinctive.”

There’s the Willie Nelson voice, often imitated, never duplicated; the guitar tone, pulled from a battered Martin guitar named Trigger; the songs, among the best in country music; and his Family band, a loose/tight unit that has backed him for decades. All are distinctive. And, where other country bands have a fiddle or a pedal steel guitar, the Family band has a harmonica player. Also distinctive.

“Willie has always been different,” said that harp player, Mickey Raphael, a band member for more than 35 years, from a Virginia tour stop. “He had one of the great steel guitar players, Jimmy Day, and he couldn’t replace him with another steel guitar player, so he started using harmonica. The main thing, though, is Willie’s voice and guitar.”

That distinctive sound will be on display Sunday when Nelson and his band play the Majestic Theatre.

Raphael came out of the Dallas folk scene where he learned from Donnie Brooks, worked places such as the notorious Cellar Club with Mike Ames and then joined B.W. Stevenson’s band. In 1973, UT football coach Darrell Royal invited Raphael to a hotel-room jam that included Charley Pride and Willie Nelson.

“Willie was kind of knocking around Texas then, he wasn’t doing a lot,” Raphael said. “He was playing dance halls, chilling out, working at Floore’s, that was when John T. Floore was still alive. He asked me to join him.”

Raphael has been with Willie since. He’s also played and recorded with Emmylou Harris, Toby Keith, Bobby Charles, Blue Oyster Cult, Elton John, The Chieftains, U2, Mötley Crüe and Neil Young.

“You can’t seek out the work,” Raphael said, “but you have to let people know you’re available. Elton John heard Willie’s ‘Stardust’ album and wanted some harmonica on a song, so he called me. I’m not strictly a country harmonica player, so I’m able to play with Blue Oyster Cult and Mötley Crüe if they call.”

Like Nelson, Raphael has a distinctive style.

“I’m kind of a melodic player,” he said. “I’m more known for my distinctive tone than for being a fast player. I play with a lot of songwriters and, to do that, you have to complement the lyrics. I’ve had some good teachers. Years ago, Grady Martin, who played guitar with Willie, told me: ‘Take that thing out of your mouth once in a while. You play too much. Smoke a cigarette or something.’ I wish he’d told me that 20 years earlier.”

For years, when Willie plays, be it a Family band gig or album, a solo album or a guest shot, the constants have been Raphael and Willie’s piano-playing sister, Bobbie Nelson.

“Bobbie and Willie are an entity unto themselves,” Raphael said.

The band that will take the Majestic stage on Sunday will feature Willie (guitar), Bobbie (piano), Raphael (harmonica), Bee Spears (bass), and the English brothers, Paul and Billy (percussion). That band has to be on its toes because Willie also has a distinctive idea of time and tempo.

“The analogy I use is a snake wagging its tail,” Raphael said, laughing. “We have a saying, ‘Donde esta el uno?,’ ‘Where is the one?’ The one is where Willie says it is. If you’re a human metronome and just lock in and play in time, you’re not going to be where you need to be when Willie gets to where he wants to be.”

The Nelson/Family repertoire is wide and deep. Nelson releases albums at a steady clip. His latest is “American Classic” (Blue Note Records), Great American Songbook selections. “Country Music” (Rounder), a collection of country standards produced with T Bone Burnett, is set for release April 20. And there are a lot of Nelson-penned hits to choose from.

“There’s no set list,” Raphael said. “Willie starts with ‘Whiskey River’ and then usually ‘Still Is Still Moving.’ He’s been doing a couple from the ‘Country’ album, ‘Man With the Blues’ and ‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine,’ and the medley is in there. I couldn’t recite the order. I listen and usually I come in on the second verse. When I’m not playing I listen to his guitar work.”

Raphael has a solo album, “Hand to Mouth,” and another in the works with members of the band Calexico. He also produced, or “unproduced,” the Nelson album “Naked Willie,” for which he stripped strings and other embellishments off ’60s-era Willie songs.

“We kept everything in its original form,” Raphael said. “Those songs were some of the first songs that Willie played guitar on in the studio and you can hear his guitar along with great guitar work by Chet Atkins and Grady Martin. And you can actually hear Willie.”

You want to hear distinctive.

Posted in Interviews, Mickey Raphael, News and Reviews | No Comments »

More albums, more movies, by Willie Nelson

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

by Daniel Bayer
http://photo.net

www.hearstnp.com
by John Goodspeed
February 15, 2001

Fans of country music icon Willie Nelson won’t be surprised to learn he is releasing two new albums this year.

They even may shrug off the fact that he is covering a song by Kermit the Frog and tunes by the writer of Elton John’s pop hits.

After all, the prolific Nelson has recorded more than 100 albums since the first in 1961, and some of his later work can be eclectic.

Fans also are used to seeing Nelson, who takes the stage at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo on Thursday, on the big screen. He’s been in close to 50 movies, and he just completing another staring role.

But this might knock their socks off — it’s a martial arts movie.

No, the title isn’t “The Red Headed Stranger Meets Jackie Chan” or the “Tae Kwon Do Cowboy.” It’s called “Evidence”.

But what’s intriguing is that Nelson really knows his moves.

He studied kung fu, the Chinese self-defense style, when he was a Nashville songwriter early in his career.

His interest was rekindled several years ago when his wife, Ann, and his pre-teen sons Lukas and Micah started studying tae kwon do, the karate-like Korean self-defense system.

“When they started coming along pretty good, I decided I’d better get back into it,” Nelson said with a laugh.

In the Texas-set film, Nelson portrays a tae kwon do teacher.

“I own the school, my daughter is a student and there’s some bad guys,” Nelson said in a phone interview. “It was written, produced, directed and filmed by Master Um, who owns the studio in Austin where all go to school — Master Martial Arts.”

Um, is doing the final edit.

“Tae kwon do is a series of kicking combinations and forms you learn and apply when you’re sparring,” Nelson said. “It’s good for you physically, mentally and in every way.”

“It’s really good training for kids. It teaches them respect and gives them a sense of confidence. And for older people, it’s even better because they need it more — the more discipline and confidence especially,” Nelson 67, added.

It’s not like he needs a boost in discipline, though — or confidence. The celebrated outlaw country singer and songwriter keeps adding to his accomplishments. He is up for two Grammys on February 21 — best long form video for “Teatro” and best traditional blues album for “Milk Cow Blues.” Bot albums were recorded for Island Records, primarily a rock label.

The latter, Nelson’s first blues album, rounded up guest stars including B.B. King and Lyle Lovett and was met with critical acclaim.

“Milk Cow Blues” immediately was followed by “Me and the Drummer,” a praised blend of classics from Nelson and others along with a couple of new tunes on an interactive CD.

Next up are two more on Island — “Rainbow Connection,” due for release in April and “The Great Divide,” a fall release.

Nelson is not afraid of saturating the market with his work — four albums in less than 12 months — because all are very different.

“Rainbow Connection” is the song made famous by Kermit the Frog, who sang it at the opening of “The Muppet Movie.”

“My daughter Amy had been trying to get me to do this song since she was a little girl 20 years ago,” Nelson said. “And finally, during the Christmas holidays, she was in Austin along with my daughter Paula, so we went to the studio and recorded it. It started out as a children’s album, but the further we got into it we decided to go for a family album — songs like “I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover,” a little blues, and a new song I wrote.

“It’s such a different thing than the blues album that Island thought it was a good idea.”

The recording has a more acoustic feel with minimal instrumentation, he said.

Not so for “The Great Divide.” It’s an entirely different animal,” Nelson said.

The album was recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Matt Serletic, who has worked on projects by such diverse artists as alt-rock group Matchbox Twenty and pop singer Celine Dion.

The title track is the only one written by Nelson. Others are by Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas and Bernie Taupin, who wrote many of Elton John’s pop hits.

“It’s different music than I normally do,” Nelson said. “Of coures, the ‘Teatro’ album was different, but this is a stretch in another direciton. I’m not sure what to call it — maybe a way-out-there production.”

Nelson has not heard the final version because Serletic is still working on the album. The approach sounds similar to Santana’s guest-laden “Supernatural.”

“He wants to get folks like Kid Rock, ‘N Sync, Sheryl Crow and Rob Thomas to come in and do harmony and background vocals. I don’t know what all theyr’e going to put on there — strings, horns… I’ll have to wait and see like everyone else.,” Nelson said.

For the rodeo performance, Nelson plans to include cuts form “Milk Cow Blues,” “Rainbow Connection” and “The Great Divide” along with songs from his vault of hits.

But Nelson loves playing in San Antonio, and you never know what to expect when he gets wound up at a show — he might even try out a few tae kwon do moves.

Posted in Albums, Interviews, News and Reviews | No Comments »

Willie Nelson, Mickey Raphael

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

art by Tiffany Maples

http://sacurrent.com
By Jeremy Martin

New to Willie Nelson? Don’t cop to that shit around these parts, partner, unless you do it in a Martian accent. In his 76 years, Abbott, Texas’s native son has done so many phenomenal things a list of them would amount to a religious text, but let’s put it this way: He wrote a hit song for Patsy Cline (“Crazy”) and appeared in a Snoop Dogg video (“My Medicine”). The words “living legend” aren’t really adequate; that should’ve opened up a wormhole in space-time. We’re still waiting for him to bring his Fourth of July Picnic back to San Antonio, but you’ve got a chance to verify his actual existence Sunday at the Majestic Theater, 224 E. Houston Street, on February 28, 2010, majesticempire.com.

Mickey Raphael has played harmonica with Willie Nelson since 1973. He produced 2009’s Naked Willie, featuring Nelson recordings from 1966-1970 stripped of their Nashville studio flourishes. Raphael is currently working with Salvador Duran and Calexico’s John Convertino and Joey Burns to record a follow-up to his 1987 solo album Hand to Mouth.

How is Willie Nelson’s hand recovering? [He canceled a concert last month due to hand pain.]

It’s good. I mean he plays. He had that carpal-tunnel-syndrome operation — it’s been awhile back [2004]. … We’re out on the road now, but we just had a day off yesterday, and we’ve got a day off Monday, so he’s giving it some rest. … He’s the only guitar player we got, though.

What’s the strangest experience you’ve had playing with Willie Nelson?

[Performing in Amsterdam with] Snoop Dogg was pretty unique. We’ve gotten to play with U2. Willie and I went to see Bono in Ireland, and they were working on a record and they asked us to come down and record a song that they released in Europe [“Slow Dancing”]. I don’t think it was a U.S. release. Willie and I played in Georgia at Ray Charles’s funeral. We just did this thing with Wynton Marsalis [2008’s Two Men With the Blues].

How did you begin playing with him?

I met Willie through [former University of Texas football coach] Darrell Royal, at a jam session at the coach’s hotel room after a ball game. He had about 30 people in there … a bunch of musicians and just his buddies and stuff. They just sat around passing the guitar around. Willie sang some. I think Charlie Pride sang some; I can’t remember who else was there. And Willie just said, “Hey, if you ever hear we’re playing anywhere, come sit in.” I started checking his schedule and seeing where he was playing in Texas. … It just kind of segued into playing with him more often.

How did the idea for Naked Willie come about?

I just pitched the idea to the record label. I said, “We’ve got all these great songs from the ’60s, and I wonder what they would sound like without all these strings and background vocals. What would it sound like if Willie had been the producer?

So this was your idea?

Yeah, totally my idea. Willie really heard it when it was finished.

The impression I’d had was it was similar to the way that Let It Be Naked had arisen— something that had been eating away at him for a long time.

No, no. It was something that had been eating away at me for a long time. •

http://sacurrent.com/music/story.asp?id=70955

(more…)

Posted in Interviews, Mickey Raphael, Willie Nelson Art | 3 Comments »

Willie Nelson Interview (Guitar Center 7/23/01)

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

Willie Nelson stands in the pouring rain to meet and greet hundreds of fans that have just watched him perform the 2-hour set he plays almost every night somewhere in the world. Trigger, his 1969 Martin classical, and Snub-nose, his custom semi-hollow electric, have delivered for Willie another stellar show, and accompanied his 67 year-old voice through one classic song after another. Finally, some two hours after the show has ended, after Willie has obliged the last request from a fan, he sits down for an interview with Guitar Center.

Guitar Center: Congratulations on your Grammy nomination and your induction into the Songwriting Hall of Fame.

Willie Nelson: Thank you.

GC: I’ve often heard your refer to yourself as a guitar player, rather than a songwriter. Why is that?

WN: That’s really the way I made my living when I was coming along, when I was a young musician, by playing guitar. I could sing a little bit and as years went by I would sing a little more. But, I really started out playing guitar in my band and other bands.

GC: Have you come to terms with the fact that a lot of popele also think of you as a great singer/songwriter?

WN: Actually, I think of myself more now as a songwriter than I do a guitar player because of guys like Jackie King and Django Reinhardt and all the great guitar players. It’s humbling to be in the presence of that kind of talent.

GC: How big was Django’s influence on your playing?

WN: Very. A great deal more than I really thought. A lot of the stuff I was playing earlier, I found out later had come from some Django stuff, his rhythms.

GC: When I listen to your music, I hear a lot more Texas than Nashville.

WN: Since I come from Texas, there’s a lot of Texas in me. Just because I cross a state line, I can’t get it all out.

GC: Let’s talk about recording. When you record, what kinds of mic’ing and room choices to you make?

WN: If I’m producing the album myself, either one of those things can happen. The last time I recorded was around Christmas time. I did two albums. One was an acoustic album called ‘Rainbow Connection’ in my studio in Luck, Texas. Then, I went to Los Angeles for a big session for another album called ‘The Great Divide.’ So, I’ve done both extremes. Honestly, I’d just as soon have one mic with the guitar, play acoustic, and let the guitar run through the vocal mic. It runs engineers crazy when you want to do that. (laughs)

GC: I think you’ve earned it. What are your thoughts on digital recording versus analog recording?

WN: Used to be, I wasn’t sure. I have two studios, now. there is a big studio in Austin where I have a whole lot of equipment, both digital and analog. I have another little studio across the street from where I live, where i just did ‘Rainbow Connection,’ and it’s all digital. It’s hard for me to tell the difference in the sound.

GC: You you’re happy with it.

WN: Yeah. We are happy with it.

GC: Neil Young is one guy I can think of who seems to be on the analog side of the fence.

WN: Maybe so. Of course, it’s everyone’s personal opinion, however they like to hear themselves. I think it has a lot to do with the building you’re in. The studio we’re in is all very old wood, so it’s like recording inside a big speaker. It sounds really good.

GC: With regard to your songwriting process, how do you introduce new songs to the band?

WN: We have sound checks every day. Whatever we’re working on at the moment, we’ll go over those songs at sound check. Hopefully, by the time we get to the studio, we’ve already worked them up. It will just be a matter of going in and putting them down.

GC: So every thing is worked out live?

WN: We work it out live on the stage. We did one of them tonight, ‘The Great Divide.’ That’s one from the new album that’s coming out that we’re doing on the stage. The other album, Rianbow Connection, I haven’t started doing that yet, but I will.

GC: How does Martin feel about you using one of their guitars (Trigger) for over 30 years?

WN: I’m sure they like that. They’ve made a bunch of Trigger look-alikes and they’re great guitars.

GC: Have you ever had the desire to play another acoustic guitar?

WN: I’ve never found anything as good to me, for what I as trying to get, as Trigger. I could play it acoustically. I can run it through an amp. It still gets a great sound.

GC: What strings are on Trigger?

WN: There’s a guy named Tunin’ Tom that takes care of my guitar. He has a lot of different strings that he uses. I think he has one particular brand that he tries to find, but I’m not sure what they are.

GC: You also played an electric tonight.

WN: I have an electric there, on-stage, the little Snub-nose I call it. I play the blues stuff with that. I play it more during a longer show, but mostly I stay with the acoustic.

GC: Finally, is there a point or year in your career you look on with more fondness?

WN: This is better than anything. It has been very good for a long time. For a long time before that, it was fine. It wasn’t great. I was doing well and traveling around. But, then things started clicking pretty much back when the Red-Headed Stranger album came out. ince then, ti has been easier. Recently, the last couple of years, it seems like we’ve gotten hotter than ever.

GC: Thank you very much for sitting down with me at the end of a long night.

WN: Thank you for waiting.

Posted in Interviews, Trigger | No Comments »

Bee Spears, on Bass

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

IMG_1357 by you.

Bee Spears and Willie Nelson, South Bend, IN (7/4/2009)

www.eqmag.com
By Brian Fox

How did you first start playing with Willie?

My dear friend David Zepner got picked up to play with Willie, but then he got drafted for the Vietnam War. I happened to be there when the guys were talking about finding a replacement, and one of the guys said, “Hell, let’s hire Bee. He doesn’t play worth a crap, but we can teach him what to play, and he won’t come in with any preconceived bullshit!” [Laughs.]

You play a stack-knob ’62 Fender Jazz Bass on studio sessions. What’s the history of that bass?

It belonged to Johnny Paycheck, who played it with Ray Price until Willie took over that gig and bought it off Johnny. I found it in Willie’s basement one day and asked if he wanted to sell it. He said, “Yeah—it’ll cost you two dollars.” I took it, and I still haven’t paid up! [Laughs.] It’s a real sweetheart.

Who are the bass players who have influenced you the most?

A lot of my style comes from growing up playing Mexican nightclubs in Helotis, Texas. Aside from that, I’d say “Junior” Huskey, Paul McCartney, Michael Rhodes, and Ray Brown.

After nearly 40 years with Willie, what’s something you’ve learned about this gig?

Willie is all over the place with his vocal phrasing, so I’ve learned that if you listen to him, you’re dead! He’ll take you up a creek and dump you in a minute. My main role in the band is to make sure he knows where the “one” is, so he can come back to it.

GEAR

Basses Epiphone Vinnie Hornsby Signature Les Paul (live), ’62 Fender Jazz Bass (studio), 1951 Kay upright with a David Gage Realist pickup

Rig SWR Workingman 4004 head, two SWR Workingman’s 4×10T cabinets

Strings DR Strings Extra Life PKB- 45 (Hot Pink, .045–.105)

http://www.eqmag.com/article.aspx?id=98571

Posted in Bee Spears, Interviews | 3 Comments »

Mickey Raphael Interview in Verve

Monday, January 25th, 2010

www.vergelive.com
by Alison Richter

You might say that harmonica player Mickey Raphael has the ultimate gig: for over 30 years, he has toured the world and recorded with Willie Nelson, sharing the stage with one of music’s greatest singers/songwriters/guitarists. For Raphael, being a part of the band is not only artistically fulfilling; it’s also an opportunity to appreciate and enjoy the legend that is Willie Nelson.

Raphael has recorded with a remarkable number of other artists; his discography is pages long and he remains in demand as a session and live player. Last year, he made his debut as an “unproducer” — taking classic early Nelson tracks and removing the strings and choruses that were ubiquitous in the so-called “Nashville Sound” when the songs were recorded 40 years ago. The resulting album, Naked Willie, puts a new slant on old favorites, and a spotlight on the man whose idea it was to strip the masters and bring Nelson’s unmistakable voice into the forefront.

Mickey Raphael spoke to verge about “unproduction,” working with tape, and the world according to Willie Nelson.

VERGE: How did you obtain the masters to “unproduce” these tracks? Who owns them?

RAPHAEL: RCA. I didn’t know anybody there, but I knew someone at Sony Legacy, the label that releases Willie’s catalogs and reissues at Columbia, and they mentioned the Sony/RCA merger. A light came on in my head and I said, “I have a great idea. Can I get my hands on the masters?” They said, “They’re in a vault.” I went to a studio in New York, did a test project with a couple of songs and submitted them.

VERGE: Were you working from the actual reels? How well were they preserved?

RAPHAEL: The reels were in cardboard boxes, falling apart. I didn’t actually touch them; the engineer did it. You can’t play them more than a couple of times because the magnetic surface disintegrates. A lot of times they bake the tapes to keep them intact, so I had one shot to load them to my hard drive. They sounded great. I assume the vault is temperature-controlled, but you never know. Now it’s all on hard drive. The next one will be the same, but with harmonica all over it! I can even take Beatles records, put them on my computer and put harmonica all over them …

VERGE: Too late. They did that themselves.

RAPHAEL: This is true!

VERGE: That album is like listening to an entirely different artist, not at all connected to what he is today.

RAPHAEL: It is. The first time I heard him, this is what he sounded like, so these songs have a special place in my heart. They piqued my interest in Willie. I didn’t grow up on country music. I grew up on the Stones, the Beatles and the Band.

VERGE: How long had it been since you worked with tape?

RAPHAEL: I recorded with Willis Alan Ramsey on tape in Austin, but it’s been a while. It’s interesting to see how they edit tape with a razor blade and cut the tape. It’s so much easier now with digital. I run into kids who are in engineering school, and they learn analog, but not with a lot of hands-on experience.

VERGE: Do you plan on doing more production, or “unproduction,” work?

RAPHAEL: I would do it in a minute! I was working with Buddy Cannon, who produced a string date for Willie and Kenny Chesney [Cannon and Chesney co-produced Nelson’s 2008 album, Moment of Forever], and I said, “In a year or two I’ll take this record and remove the strings. That will be my livelihood.” I would love to do more projects. Producing Willie — that’s not my world with him. I would not approach him. He has Daniel Lanois, T Bone Burnett; he doesn’t see me in that light, but I would love to produce somebody. I will work with anybody that asks. I’ve done some work with Calexico; they’re great guys. We booked a couple of days in the studio and wrote and recorded some stuff, and I co-produced with Joey Burns, their bandleader.

VERGE: Thirty years together — what have you learned from Willie Nelson?

RAPHAEL: Less is more. That’s his mantra. Keep it simple, slow down, don’t sweat the small stuff. He never lets anything bother him, which is something I haven’t learned how to do.

VERGE: The “Nashville Sound” is not so different from some of what we hear today, minus the schmaltzy background choruses, thank God. Still, there are strings at times, and there’s a certain radio-friendly sound that Nashville strives for. Willie Nelson didn’t fit then, and he doesn’t fit now. That said, being an “Outlaw” has served him well in both record and ticket sales.

RAPHAEL: Willie is not trying to get on the radio. Now, a young band needs airplay, and to be heard and to be on the radio, they have to play what radio wants them to play. The DJ no longer comes to work with a stack of his favorite records. It’s test-marketed on homogenized groups of people who represent what the public wants to hear. It’s not art; it’s selling time and gaining sponsors. In that case, you’re not going to get eclectic artists. They have to fit into a niche and be what the majority rules that they want. I’m not taking anything away from them; it’s just the way the business is. If you don’t care, like Willie Nelson, who has a fan base and no end game, you can do what you want and not appeal to the largest demographic buying records. There are great artists, like Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw, who sell millions of records and their music is what the public wants to hear. If you want to make great records that sell and get airplay, listen to how they make their records, because that’s what is commercial. They’re talented artists who invented and found a place where that sells.

VERGE: You once noted that every kid had a harmonica when you were growing up. How has that changed?

RAPHAEL: Every kid has a Wii now. It’s a different paradigm. They’re into Guitar Hero. But a lot of kids are also into retro and the ’70s, and the harmonica is associated more with the blues. That’s how beginning harmonica players hear it. I want to stretch out and use it in all kinds of music and applications.

VERGE: Do harmonica players get short shrift, with people thinking it’s so easy to play?

RAPHAEL: I guess so. It’s barely recognized as a real instrument because everyone can have one and it’s easy to learn “Oh Susannah.” It’s an affordable instrument, you can put it in your pocket and carry it around with you, but it takes work to master it. It’s not as glamorous as being a guitar player, so the numbers aren’t up there of people playing it. It’s a small, dedicated group that’s totally obsessed with it.

http://www.vergelive.com/on-stage.html.

Posted in Interviews, Mickey Raphael | 4 Comments »

Paul English and Willie Nelson

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

paul5

by Tom Netherland
www.tricities.com

Willie Nelson, an American legend, is on the road again. “I played my first show with Willie, and I’ll play my last show with Willie,” said Paul English, Nelson’s friend and drummer dating back to 1956. “There’s not enough Willies to go around. There’s only one, and that’s it.”

Time was when Willie Nelson played beer joints with such names as The County Dump and The Bloody Bucket.

“Willie Nelson is a legend on top of his game,” said Rob Halford, lead singer of legendary heavy metal band Judas Priest. “He’s a showman. He’s the man.”

Yeah, now. But Paul English, Nelson’s friend and drummer dating back to 1956, recalls their rough and rowdy decades before stardom quite well.

“Oh man, we played some pretty bad places,” English said on Monday by phone from Huntsville, Ala. “Those days are gone.”

Forty years of hits and highways later, Nelson’s road leads to Bristol, Tenn., and Viking Hall on Jan. 26. Expect a show loaded with classics, including “On the Road Again,” “Whiskey River” and “Always on My Mind.”

However, long before the Country Music Hall of Fame member became a legend, he slugged it out playing Texas’ beer joint circuit. Rough?

“We played behind chicken wire in those days,” Nelson said during a recent interview by phone from outside New York City. “I carried a pistol in the small of my back, on stage.”

Fitting in a way, given that when he was growing up in Abbott, Texas, Nelson’s heroes included a bevy of gun-toting singing cowboys.

“Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, all those guys, strong male characters,” Nelson said. “I really liked their way, especially the cowboys. The music had a lot to do with it, too.”

Fast forward to Nashville, circa late 1960s. Nelson had written a string of songs now recognized as classics. Faron Young hit with Nelson’s “Hello Walls.” Patsy Cline struck gold with “Crazy.” Ray Price notched a dandy with “Night Life.” And so on.

“I wish I was as talented,” said blues legend B.B. King, who has recorded with Nelson along with several of his songs.

But Nelson, despite a contract with RCA Records and Chet Atkins as his producer, didn’t click with what Nashville wanted in those days. So he bought a farm and became a pig farmer. But he didn’t quit music, evidenced by the night he wrote “What More Can You Do to Me Now.”

“It was in Ridgetop, Tenn.,” Nelson said. “I wrote that the night before my house burned.”

Whoa.

“That got my attention,” Nelson said with a laugh and added that he saved one thing in particular. “My guitar was pretty important.”

Guitar in hand, Nelson moved back to Texas.

“We lived on a closed down dude ranch,” English said. “We were poor. We never thought about making it big. We just did what we wanted to do.”

Meanwhile, Nelson wrote a song about he and English and those chicken wire days, “Me and Paul.” Listen for it in Bristol, as it’s a staple in his shows.

“That’s my favorite song,” English said. “He went to New York to record it. Willie called me and sang ‘Me and Paul’ over the phone. That really made me proud.”

Nelson’s career took off in 1975 when his album “Red Headed Stranger” sold several million copies. Hits atop hits followed. One in particular means the world to B.B. King.

“My number-one song in the world that I like better than anything else is one of Willie’s songs, and it’s called ‘Always On My Mind,’ ” King said. “I’ve heard other people do it, but Willie Nelson’s version of that song really knocks me out.”

Nelson’s star soared to superstar status. As time went by, his appeal reached well beyond country music. Among his nearly 200 albums and thousands of songs recorded, Nelson has recorded with rock’s Aerosmith and U2, blues master B.B. King, pop’s Norah Jones, folk’s Bob Dylan and on and on.

For now there’s another show to play, this time in Bristol. Look for English, Nelson’s best friend, on the drums.

“I played my first show with Willie, and I’ll play my last show with Willie,” English said. “There’s not enough Willies to go around. There’s only one, and that’s it.”

So from Bristol and beyond, country music’s red-headed stranger travels on. See him while you can, an American legend who’s on the road again.

“I’ll see you down the road sometime,” Nelson said.

IF YOU GO
Who: Willie Nelson
When: Jan. 26, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Viking Hall, 1100 Edgemont Ave., Bristol, Tenn.
Admission: $38-$58
Info: (423) 764-0188
Web and audio: http://www.willienelson.com

http://www2.tricities.com/tri/entertainment/music/article/superstar_willie_nelson_in_bristol_tenn._jan._26/39723/

Posted in Interviews, Paula Nelson | No Comments »

Willie Nelson and Family in San Jose, (12/6/09), with Asleep at the Wheel

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

MUSIC NELSON242
Photo: Genaro Molina
www.mercurynews.com
Shay Quillen

The always restless Willie Nelson has become, if anything, even harder to pin down. He’s made alt-country music with Ryan Adams and regular ol’ country with Kenny Chesney, done Ray Charles songs with Wynton Marsalis and crooned reggae numbers with Toots Hibbert.

Just this year he has released a jazzy album of standards, “American Classic,” with a little help from Diana Krall and Norah Jones, and collaborated with old buddies Asleep at the Wheel on an album celebrating Western swing. (Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel will perform together and separately Sunday at the San Jose Civic Auditorium.)

To Nelson, that versatility reflects what he learned about entertainment in the Texas

honky-tonks where he honed his craft.

“I just don’t believe that you should have to just stick to one thing all your life. I wasn’t brought up doing that,” Nelson says on the phone from a tour stop in Nashville. “I grew up working where I played ‘Stardust’ one song and then somebody would yell and want to hear ‘San Antonio Rose,’ and then they’d want to hear ‘Fraulein,’ and then ‘Moonlight in Vermont.’

“The guys out there drinking and dancing didn’t care what it was or what label you put on it, they just knew they liked the music,” he continues. “So if you were going to live and play and make a living in those beer joints, you had to learn the music the people wanted, and they wanted everything.”

For more than 50 years, Nelson has provided it. With this year’s “Willie and the Wheel” release, though, he’s playing some of the music closest to his heart: the uniquely American blend of hillbilly fiddle tunes, swinging jazz and gutbucket blues that was whipped up by bandleaders like Bob Wills in Southwestern dance halls of the ’30s and ’40s, and that remained a staple of the repertoire when Nelson was coming up on the scene.

The concept of a “Willie & the Wheel” recording came from Jerry Wexler, the legendary producer and Atlantic Records executive behind classic recordings by Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, as well as two pivotal early-’70s Nelson records, but it took decades to actually come together.

Ironically, Wexler turned down the chance to sign Asleep at the Wheel early on.

“He said the guitar player needed to practice — me — and he was right,” says Asleep at the Wheel leader Ray Benson with a laugh, en route to a golf course outside of Austin.

Despite that initial reaction, Benson and Wexler eventually became good friends who bonded over their love for Western swing and other types of American music.

When Benson learned that Wexler had once hand-picked a few dozen tunes he thought would suit Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel, he approached Nelson about the project, and the two whittled the list down to a dozen numbers. The selections basically span the history of Western swing, from its roots in Dixieland and blues to later material more influenced by Hollywood’s singing cowboys.

Willie and the Wheel were able to get seven songs nearly complete in time to ©get Wexler’s nod of approval before his death in 2008, and the long-awaited album finally came out early this year.

The Bay Area jaunt will be a homecoming of sorts for Asleep at the Wheel, which called Berkeley home in the early ’70s. While in Northern California, the young musicians were able to learn licks from the older Western swing masters who had retired to the area, like Bob Wills mandolinist Tiny Moore. Still, making a living as a country band — even a long-haired Western swing band — was anything but easy in these parts.

“We loved the Bay Area, but it was like we had to drive from Gilroy to Sonoma to get jobs,” Benson says with a laugh. “Gas was 50 cents a gallon. It was a tough go for us.”

Nelson, a fellow longhair with a love for Bob Wills, persuaded the boys to relocate to Austin, where the music wasn’t a hippie novelty but rather an intrinsic part of the culture.

The rest is history. Though the band’s commercial standing has gone up and down over the years, Asleep at the Wheel is today the most visible and respected Western swing outfit in the world, and Benson is preparing to celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary next year. Willie Nelson, a cult-favorite country outlaw at the time, went on to become Willie Nelson, beloved global superstar.

Benson’s band has played countless times with Nelson over the years, enough to get a bead on Nelson’s notoriously quirky sense of rhythm, in which he bobs and weaves around the song’s pulse like no one else, lagging way behind the beat before somehow ending up at the right place.

“It’s idiosyncratic and unusual and totally original and unique,” Benson says. “That’s the appeal: You do things the Willie way, or you fall flat on your face.

“But he’s a joy to play with. My drummer said he treats time like an avant-garde jazz musician. I love it. It’s amusing, it’s stimulating, it’s great fun.”

For the San Jose show, Asleep at the Wheel will open the proceedings, with Nelson joining in for five or six songs. Then Nelson will return for a set with his loyal band of fellow road warriors.

In contrast to Nelson’s wildly diverse approach to recordings, a Willie Nelson concert is a familiar ritual. The show is billed as Willie Nelson & Family, and it’s an outfit as tight as any collection of kinfolk, essentially the same band he used on his 1975 breakthrough “Red-Headed Stranger,” including big sister Bobbie on piano and best friend Paul English on drums.

Nelson has played the same guitar, a beat-up Martin N-20 dubbed Trigger, since the late ’60s. Every show kicks off with “Whiskey River,” and you’re certain to hear such Nelson classics as “Crazy,” “Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” and “On the Road Again.”

“I’m probably still writing as much as I ever did,” he says. “I never did write that many songs in volume. Every now and then I’ll come up with one. But I don’t really worry about it when I don’t write. Roger Miller said one time, ‘Sometimes the well goes dry and you’ve got to wait until it fills up again.’ ”

But there’s always plenty going on — political activism, prose, poetry. On this day, he’s excited about an amusingly trippy video for Tom T. Hall’s “Shoeshine Man” that he shot and edited with his computer on his biodiesel tour bus in 90 minutes and posted on YouTube.

At 76, most musicians with his résumé would be looking back at what they accomplished. But Nelson is more excited about what’s to come and eager to work with as many world-class musicians as he can.

“I’m moving too fast to look back. Right now we’re in Nashville, and I’m getting ready to go to the Ryman Auditorium this afternoon and do something that I think is real special,” he says — debut the material from a forthcoming bluegrass record, produced by T Bone Burnett and featuring acoustic all-stars such as Stuart Duncan, Buddy Miller and Ronnie McCoury.

“Why would I want to look back? I mean, things are really so good today.”

Willie Nelson

With: Asleep at the Wheel
When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: San Jose Civic,
135 W. San Carlos St.
San Jose, CA
Tickets: $58-$88,
www.ticketmaster.com

Posted in Interviews, News and Reviews, Pictures | No Comments »

Willie Nelson and Friends; The Great Divide

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

greatdivide

The Great Divide
January 15, 2002

This is one of the greatest albums by Willie Nelson, or by anyone, really. It definitely contains some of Willie Nelson’s greatest duets, and he mixes genres brilliantly like only he can. One of my favorites, is ‘Maria’ written by Rob Thomas, who wrote three of the songs on the album. Bernie Taupin co-wrote three songs. Willie wrote the great “Great Divide”.

Maria (Shut Up And Kiss Me) (Rob Thomas)
Mendocino County Line (Leanne Womack)
Last Stand In Open Country (Kid Rock)
Won’t Catch Me Cryin’
Be There For You (Sheryl Crow)
The Great Divide
Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
This Face
Don’t Fade Away (Brian McNight)
Time After Time
Recollection Phoenix
You Remain (Bonnie Raitt)

Rob Thomas, of Matchbox Twenty, did an interview with Willie Nelson; here’s a little bit of it:

Willie: So Rob, let’s start by telling folks how we met.

Rob: I met up with you at one of your shows. You do these damn three-hour sets. By the time you’re done, I’m drunk. I get on your tour bus and I can’t get anything out of my mouth, except, ‘I love you!’ In my head it’s all coherent, I want to talk about certain records, but instead I keep going, ‘You know the one with you on the cover? You know that song about the girl?’

Rob Thomas also stars in the video made for ‘Maria’, and it was selected as one of CMT’s sexiest videos. Here’s a link to it; Universal Music won’t let their videos be embedded on any other sites; they want you to go to youtube to watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbWp3NTUqlg

Posted in Albums, Interviews, You Tube, Vimeo | No Comments »

Willie Nelson Interview at Farm Aid, with Chuck Leavell

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Chuck Leavell, keyboardist for The Rolling Stones and the cofounder of MNN, interviews Willie Nelson at Farm Aid 2009 about local farmers and his biodiesel plant in Texas.

Posted in Farm Aid, Interviews, You Tube, Vimeo | No Comments »

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