www.stillisstillmoving.com

Thank you Budrock, for sharing photos from the show last night in Bethel Woods Center, in Bethel, NY. What a unique view, and what a confusing lighting console.

Outlaw Music Festival featuring Willie Nelson & Family, ZZ Top, Zach Bryan, Charley Crockett, The War and Treaty, and Particle Kid, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts

Photo: Rob Johnson

Bobbie Lee Nelson was born in Abbott, Texas in 1931. She is an American pianist and singer, sister of Texas Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Willie Nelson and a member of his band, Willie Nelson and Family, touring full time since 1973.

At the age of five, Bobbie’s grandmother started teaching her to play piano on a pump organ, a year later, her grandfather, impressed by her potential talent, bought her a piano for $35. When her brother Willie picked up the guitar, the siblings started trying out popular tunes and gospel favorites together around the house with their grandmother. Soon the Nelsons were performing at Abbott High school functions and at the local Methodist Church.

At the age of 14 Bobbie turned pro and began traveling with evangelists all around the Lone Star State. In 1973, Bobbie and Willie teamed up again to record with Atlantic Records. Taking her first airplane flight, Bobbie met Willie in New York City to play piano on recordings that would later be released on the 1976 album “The Troublemaker”, and also joined her brother on the albums “Shotgun Willie” (1973) and “Phases and Stages” (1974). From then on, Bobbie stayed extremely busy keeping up with Willie’s frequent touring and recording sessions, occasionally playing with other artists (Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and the Supersuckers to name a few).

In 2008, Bobbie Nelson released her solo debut album, “Audiobiography” and seven years later Bobbie and Willie recorded the album December Day, which was inspired by the jam sessions the siblings often enjoyed while on the bus from one show to another.

Read entire article here

www.whiskeyriff.com

Willie Nelson Recalls Patsy Cline’s Husband Waking Her Up In The Middle Of The Night To Listen To His Demo Of “Crazy”

Is there an all-around, better country song that exists than “Crazy”?

You’d be hard-pressed to point to a more classic, meaningful song within the genre of country music other than that one, and it was famously recorded by the great Patsy Cline in the early 60’s.

Of course, it was originally written by the one and only Willie Nelson, but shot to the #2 spot on the country charts in 1962 when Patsy released her iconic version as a single.

And it’s probably one of the most famous country classics of all time… I mean, who doesn’t know and love that song?

Willie actually wrote it in less than an hour (originally titled “Stupid”), but in his 1988 book Willie: An Autobiography, he admitted that it was it was hard to find artists interested in recording it due to its use of several chords, instead of the standard three used for country music compositions at the time.

Patsy’s husband, Charlie Dick, who was a record promotor for Starday Records at the time, had previously brought her Willie’s song “Night Life,” but she hated it and told him not to bring her anymore Willie Nelson songs, because she didn’t want to sing about the vulnerability of topics like love and loss.

Can you even imagine saying something like that? Talk about “crazy…”

But in a 2010 interview with Mass Live, Willie told the whole story about how Charlie ended up getting Patsy to record what would ultimately become her signature song:

“I first met her one night back there in Tootsies Bar, drinking a little beer and her husband Charlie Dick was there and we were talking, listening to some songs that I’d just brought up from Texas.

I had Tootsie put a couple of 45s on her jukebox. One of them had ‘Crazy’ and ‘Night Life.’ And Charlie Dick just really loved ‘Crazy’ and wanted to play it for Patsy.”

I guess Patsy left the famous Nashville bar much earlier than her husband and Willie did, because Charlie wanted her to record it so bad that, eventually, he drove Willie to their house and got his wife out of bed to listen to it.

Though Willie admits they were probably too drunk to be doing all of that in the middle of the night, and probably also thought Charlie had a death wish going and waking his wife up like that, it worked out favorably for all of them in the end:

“We went over to his house and he wanted me to go in and meet Patsy and I wouldn’t do it. I said ‘No it’s late and we’re drinking, I don’t want to wake her up.’

He said ‘Aw she’ll be fine.’ I didn’t go in. He went in and then she came out and got me and made me go in.”

She welcomed him with open arms, making everybody coffee as Willie taught her how to sing the song she was eager to record, and they went on to become great friends, even touring together some at the time:

“She was a wonderful person, fixed us coffee, was just a great gal. I got to know her real well, we toured some together and she was just great.”

He went on to add that he believes she’s the greatest country female vocalist of all time, and knows that no one will ever sing his stunning song quite the way she did:

“Well, she was the greatest female vocalist maybe all around ever, but for sure, for country, that I ever heard. There’s this joke.

After Patsy Cline did ‘Crazy’ and everyone else has tried it, and this joke is really not meant to hurt anybody else’s feelings but when they say ‘How many girl singers does it take to sing ‘Crazy’ and they answered ‘All of them.’

But as Patsy Cline nailed it, who else since then, it’s like Ray Charles singing ‘Georgia.’ I had enough nerve to cover him but I never thought I did as good a job on it as he did.”

I’m convinced that all the great country classic we love so much have a wild story like this behind them.

Though the industry, and the world, has clearly changed a lot since the 1960’s, it’s so cool to hear things like this about mega stars like Willie and his early days trying to make it in country music.

And let’s be really honest… Patsy would’ve been crazy not to record it, and I think she was well-aware of that fact herself:

Willie also recorded his own version of “Crazy” for his 1962 debut album, …And Then I Wrote:

“One year ago, the release of Willie’s and my “Dear Trigger” video from our book, Willie’s Letters to America. Willie’s story, music and words, me narrating. 370,000 views – we musta done sump’n right.”

— Turk Pipkin

Some lucky fans in Tennessee at Dollywood got to see Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton at the park, riding around in a golf cart. Willie sent his band home for break before next leg of the Outlaw Country tour and he went on to Tennessee to join Dolly, who invited him to perform on her holiday movie musical “Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas.”

The film is set in Dollywood and will tell the behind-the-scenes story of making a television special as Parton learns valuable lessons while being visiting by the Three Wise Men, according to the NBC synopsis.

Thanks so much to Carol Sidoran for sharing her great photos from the show in Bethlehem, PA.