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by: Lori Hoffman
Willie Nelson turned 80 years old this past April and he is celebrating that milestone by doing what you’d expect, going on the road again. His tour included a stop at Caesars last night, June 8, where he cranked out a 34-song set with his band The Family that touched on many moments in his prolific career, from his early days as a songwriter for others, to his outlaw country roots, to his pop successes, his forays into the American Songbook and a bunch of covers that reflect his old time country channel on Sirius XM radio, Willie’s Roadhouse.
It isn’t often that a guitar sitting on stage before the show compels dozens of fans to take a picture, but Nelson’s beat-up Martin guitar named Trigger is just about as famous as B.B. King’s Lucille, so his fans waited for the show to start by grabbing their cell phones and walking to the stage for a shot.
Personally, I preferred waiting for the man himself to walk on-stage and sling it around his neck, which he did with his band, kicking off the night with “Whiskey River.”
For the next ninety-plus minutes, Willie Nelson took us on a journey that reminded us not only how many genres of music he has folded into his sound, but that his unique vocals and distinctive phrasing have always been enhanced by guitar pickin’ skills that a musician a third of his age would envy.
In fact this night seemed designed to remind us that he could make Trigger sing the blues, roadhouse rock, Texas swing and even a hint of Spanish guitar when he provided one of the evening’s numerous highlights, the Django Reinhardt instrumental “Nuages,” from Nelson’s current album Let’s Face the Music and Dance.
Another highlight was his version of Carl Perkins’ “Matchbox,” with its honkytonk cadence and some nice boogie woogie piano from Nelson’s little sister Bobbie.
The night was filled with the hits, of course, “Crazy,” “Night Life,” “Funny How Time Slips Away,” “On the Road Again,” his Waylon duet, “Good Hearted Woman,” “Georgia on My Mind,” “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” and “You Were Always on My Mind.”
He paid tribute to Hank Williams with “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” and “Hey Good Lookin’” and took us “Down Mexico Way” then back to the American Songbook with Irving Berlin’s “Let’s Face the Music and Dance.”
For the final songs he went old time gospel (“Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” “I’ll Fly Away” and “I Saw the Light”) and what he claimed was his new gospel song, “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.”
One can only hope that rolling and smoking Willie Nelson is still a ways down the road.
For more pictures from the show go here.