Willie Nelson at Mystic Lake Casino

(A fucking badass, that's Billy English's head in the background)

Willie Nelson: Singer, songwriter, author, actor, philanthropist (Farm Aid), and a dam fine picker for being 77 years young, is an American treasure. He is the fucking man; period. I have been fan of Mr. Nelson since I was around 12 or 13, largely thanks to my father, and I gotta say Friday night at Mystic Lake Casino, the legend did no disappoint me for one second.

I go to quite a few shows each year, and being the young concert veteran I am, I try not to disappoint myself. So when I go to see an older artist like Willie Nelson, who's most famous work was made three or more decades ago, I cut the man some slack. I tell myself, "Self, Willie is an old man now. Don't expect his voice to be top notch. Don't expect a long set. Don't expect Willie to be the driving force behind the Family Band. Just enjoy the chance to see a weathered veteran, still out on the road." Often giving yourself a realistic look at a concert can prevent later disappointment, this can also apply to setlists(maybe they don't play your favorite song...or any of your favorite songs) or performing (maybe each song is turned into a jam doubling or tripling the songs lenght). With Willie, no pre-concert precaution was needed or validated, he rocked everyone's face off in that showroom.


(Wearing a random hat a chick threw onstage. This happened a couple of times, Willie also threw several bandannas he wore into the crowd.)

I still can not fathom how good his show was last night. I'm just on an incredible Willie high right now and don't know when I'll come down (never!). I mean, I fucking love Willie Nelson, the man can do no wrong in my book(going on the Alex Jones Show was just a strike), but after that concert...man...I must have doubled or tripled my love for this old Texan. Everything was so fucking good. His voice sounded great. He played an amazing setlist (including all four of my favorite Willie songs). The band sounded great....I just don't even know where to begin. Willie blew me away, and I was wanting it, and hoping for it, but still a little cautious to avoid disappointment, and he fucking delivered on all cilendars. Thank you Willie. What a great, great show. I'm just gonna ramble now, fuck structure and formulated forms of transcibing ones thoughts/feelings/aspirations/opinions into a concise and formulated manner so another can interpret and digest it with the highest clarity and understanding of what the author is trying to get across, I'm still drunk off the Whiskey River.

Willie walked out onstage and I was the first motherfucker on my feet giving him a standing ovation (the rest of the audience of course followed my lead). He he turned around right than and didn't play a single fucking note, it would have been earned, the fucking hundreds and hundreds of amazing musically moments this man has bestowed on my life. He of course opened with "Whiskey River", rocking a black cowboy hat, and man, from that first note, though it wasn't nearly as punchy or intense as the amazing recorded version, I knew we were gonna be ok. Willie's voice sounded top notch and it didn't let up all evening. From there it was wham bam thank you ma'am, a slew of quick hits, barely a moment in between, "Still is still moving" "Beer for my Horses". Now here is were the only bone to pick from the evening comes from. The lazy-ass, senile crowd. When Willie raises his arm it means to fucking sing along. God fucking dammit, are you so stupid you can't say "Beer for my Horses". This happened several times, Willie tried to get the crowd singing, raising his arm, cupping his ear, turning the mike to the crowd, and saying "everybody sing this one" or "strong finish now" and he fell on deaf fucking ears. It's not like it was hard shit to sing. Even if you didn't know the lyrics he sang them multiple times, or you could fucking fake your way through it, goddammit man. This is fucking singing with Willie fucking Nelson, get your head out of your ass. I of course belted out the words whenever Willie asked, and though I got a few slanted looks from a handful of old farts, I could fucking care less. Willie says sing, I fucking sing. Oh, but what really amazed me was his guitar playing. Fuck. I thought Willie would have at least one other guitar player onstage, you know, handling the leads, so Willie could just pick along and focus on singing. Oh hell no. Willie was the only guitar, and Jesus-A-Christ-on-a-fucking-stick did he make old Trigger sing. I just marvelled at how good he could move his fingers around that six string. He played hard, fast, and did technical blues, folk, Spanish, and honky tonk riffs. The family band was also pretty fucking tight, right with Willie where ever he went. His younger sister Bobbie on the piano cranked out some wonderful western swing, at one point transporting the entire audience to the fun quick key dance of a gambling Old West saloon. Willie's awesome drummer Paul English is still recovering from a stroke he had earlier this year so he only drummed on "Crazy" and "Nightlife". His younger brother Billy handled percussion duties otherwise, and I fucked loved that after "Nightlife" was over Paul stood up to leave the stage obviously not feeling well, and his brother gave him a hug. Awesome, that's why it's called the Family Band. I should also give a shout out to Bee Spears on bass, and the extra extraordinary Mickey Raphael killing the crowd over and over again with is incredible harmonica playing. So fucking good.


As far as a setlist goes, Willie played a lot of hits (besides the songs I've already mentioned) "Good Hearted Woman" "Angel Flying to Close to the Ground" "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" "Always on my Mind" "City of New Orleans"(love this song) "Healing Hands of Time" "On the Road Again" "Funny How Time Slips Away". Even without Waylon or Tobey, Willie handled the duets wonderfully singing both parts (he even did a shout out to Waylon). Willie also played a few covers; a pair of Kris Kristofferson tunes "Help me Make It Through the Night" "Me and Bobbie McGee", and three Hank William songs including "Move on Over" "Hey Good Lookin" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." He mixed a few sing-along old gospel tunes "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" "I'll Fly Away". Than to keep it fresh, Willie also played his own recent compositions "Shoeshine Man" "Superman" and "You Don't Find Me Funny Anymore." The crowd loved the new songs, especially the last two which had everyone laughing out loud. There were also a couple instrumental numbers mixed in for good measure, and Oh my fucking God the best song of the night was Willie's old fucking masterpiece (so often overlooked) "I Never Cared For You." He had this awesome 2 or 3 minute Spanish guitar solo leading in, and than fucking killed that song. The band jumped in after the first verse, and lordy it was so so so good. Better than any recorded version I've hear (there are several). Yes yes yes. Loved that shit.

The magic of Willie Nelson in concert did not end when the wandering troubadour set down his guitar and goodbye to the crowd, Ooh no. As his band kept playing, Willie walked down the stage shaking hands with every fan that had come down to line the stage (prompting more fans to line the stage). They have him flowers, hats, a jacket, and eagerly waited to shake the legend's hand. When he reached the curtain, having already gone down a long line, Willie easily could have slipped away like every other artist does. Instead, he turned around and went right back down the line, this time autographing whatever fans would hand up to him. What a class act, for at least 15-20 minutes, after playing a 85 minute show, Willie gave his fans the time of day. You better believe I went down to the fucking stage (I waited much to long, still in awe of his musicianship and great generosity) and though I did not get to shake Willie's hand before he retired backstage, just seeing him up close spending time with his fans was gift enough. Once Willie exited the band stopped, and than sweet ole Paul English came back onstage to help Willie's sister Bobbie pick up where Willie had left off; signing and shacking hands.
While I had no interest in shacking Bobbie's hand, I fucking complemented and than shook hands with the Texas legend Paul English. Now whenever I listen to "Me and Paul" I'll think of that magical moment. An amazing end to an amazing concert.


So in summary, best concert of the year; Period.


*Update* The Star Tribune wrote a nice review of the concert, plus a fun article the day before, but the really nice thing is on Jon Bream's blog he did list a full setlist of the show. Nice. It's funny, my girlfriends was taking down the setlist (I was telling her the name of the songs) but it was her phone was just too bright and annoying, we didn't want to annoy the Willie fans amongst us, so after the third song I was all like, "Don't worry about it. The fucking guy from the Star Tribune will get it, it's his fucking job." And he did. Kudos Jon, and kudos to myself because I did a pretty good job remembering the setlist just on the fly.

Whiskey River/ Still Is Still Moving to Me/ Beer for Our Horses/ Shoeshine Man/ Funny How Time Slips Away >Crazy > Nightlife/ Down Yonder (piano instrumental featuring Bobbie Nelson)/ Help Me Make It Through the Night/ Me & Bobby McGee/Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain/ Good Hearted Woman/ Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground/ On the Road Again/ Always on My Mind/ Will the Circle Be Unbroken> I’ll Fly Away/ Nuage (Django Reinhardt instrumental)/ Jambalaya/ Hey Good Lookin/ Move It on Over/ Georgia on My Mind/ Superman/ You Don’t Think I’m Funny Anymore/ These Healing Hands of Time/ City of New Orleans/ Nobody’ s Fault But Mine/Rainy Day Blues/ I Never Cared for You/ I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry/ I Saw the Light