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article and photos by: Jeffrey Lowman
Willie Nelson performs with his Family at the Celebrity Theatre o
Watching Willie Nelson, at 81, leading his Family through freewheeling versions of “Good Hearted Woman” and “Funny How Times Slips Away” — which segued straight through “Crazy” into “Nightlife (Ain’t No Good Life)” — it would be hard to imagine him not falling in with the outlaw country movement.
There was nothing Nashville smooth or slick about the legend’s Sunday night performance in Phoenix, which started, in keeping with Nelson tradition, with a trip down “Whiskey River,” Nelson wrangling the first of many mercurial solos out of Trigger, his trusty acoustic guitar with a hole worn through the wood.
Few names are more synonymous with country music, but the man’s approach to phrasing — both his singing and the way he handles Trigger — is closer in spirit to jazz, the way he rushes through key phrases, stretching others out, arriving at the end of each line in his own time, on his own terms. It’s an approach that makes for more expressive presentations of familiar songs while lending a more conversational feel to the lyrics. At Nelson’s Celebrity Theatre show, that approach led to highlights as varied as a naked, emotional take on “Always on My Mind” and a truly hilarious version of “Me and Paul.”
The Paul referred to in that Nelson classic is drummer Paul English, who’s still in the Family, as are Nelson’s “little sister” Bobbie (on piano) and longtime harmonica player Mickey Raphael, who turned in a beautiful solo on a soulful read of “Georgia On My Mind.”
The singer didn’t speak much, but he did interact with the crowd, turning several choruses into a call-and-response with the audience, “Beer For My Horses” and “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” chief among them. He tossed the fans a number of his signature bandanas, some right off his head. And his wry delivery was priceless, introducing “Me and Paul” with “Wrote a song about me and Paul; called it ‘Me and Paul’.” His funniest moment may have been his introduction of “a new gospel song we just wrote called ‘Roll Me Up And Smoke When I Die.'”
As funny as the title and his introduction of that song may be, “Roll Me Up” was given added weight in Sunday’s set by its placement between two existential standards (“Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” and Hank Williams’ “I Saw the Light”) with daughter Amy joining in on vocals. One could argue that he may have put as much thought into bringing the set to a close with those three songs as he put into covering “Shoeshine Man” by Tom T. Hall. But in that moment? Hearing a national treasure, at 81, saying goodnight with two songs about death and a third about salvation is powerful stuff.
Mickey Raphael
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