Pages tagged “willie nelson”

Matthew Houck doesn't play live as Phosphorescent alone anymore. It's a change, but a good one, as 2007's wondrous Pride featured dark-cloud chorales and otherwise lush treatment of Houck's folk tunes—layers that the live show now reflects.

The Democratic National Convention kicked off last night in Denver, Colo. with a tribute to Ted Kennedy and a heartwarming speech from Michelle Obama. All well and good, mind you, but it's the four-day bonanza of musicians set to perform that boggles the mind. While music has been prevalent in campaigns for the last few decades, Barack Obama and the DNC take the cake with a truckload of inspiring and interesting choices for this year's convention.

Septuagenarian and holder of the number 15 spot on Paste's 100 Best Living Songwriters list, Willie Nelson hits the road tomorrow for an end-of-summer tour. He'll cap it all off with a performance at Radio City Music Hall with guest Jakob Dylan and The Gold Mountain Rebels.

For the first time, a Farm Aid concert will be taking place in New England. John Mellencamp will be bringing the annual big-ticket fundraiser to the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Mass. on Sept. 20 this year. Says the man formerly known as Couger: “New England was built on the strength of independent family farmers. We can honor that independent spirit by joining Farm Aid to grow the movement that is changing the way all of America eats.”

Willie Nelson is no stranger to collaborations. A partial list of his working buddies includes Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, Sinéad O'Connor, David Crosby, Kris Kristofferson, Julio Iglesias, Johnny Cash and Ryan Adams.

Wynton Marsalis is also no stranger to collaborations. So it makes sense that these two non-strangers to collaborations have decided to record an album together. Although our preferred title, He’s a Little Bit Country, He’s a Little Bit Jazz and Classical, was sadly eschewed for the more evocative Two Men With The Blues, the album is still an exciting event.

Two Men features songs recorded during the duo’s live performances at Lincoln Center in January 2007 and is set for a July 8 release. Be sure to head to your local record store this summer to see what happens when the Braids and the Trumpet pair up to find “common ground in their love of jazz standards and the blues.”

Related links:
WyntonMarsalis.org
WillieNelson.com
LincolnCenter.org

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.

Willie Nelson is the epitome of a modern-day renaissance man—the singer/songwriter, actor, author, activist, current Grammy nominee, environmentalist and, lately, conspiracy theorist, also has a wide comic streak amidst his legendary bandanna-ed braids.

In that spirit, Comedy Central has announced plans for an early-June roast of the Redheaded Stranger, who turns 75 on April 30 (and who possibly let the parbaked roast news out of the bag a bit ahead of schedule in an interview with Spinner.com). Not that age is anything but a number to Nelson, who released his latest album, Moment of Forever, on Jan. 29, and promptly kicked off a massive tour that will cross the Atlantic and includes a stop at Bonnaroo. (Certainly, it's just a coincidence that the European leg of the tour begins April 21 in Amsterdam.)

If you can't make it out to see Willie this year, consider a brilliantly weird LiveWillie.com USB drive/bracelet pre-loaded with the show of your choice. Conversely, If studio Willie is more your style, Legacy Recordings will release a plethora of aural goodies over the course of the year, starting with a 4-disc, 100-track box set/retrospective entitled One Hell of a Ride.

This Saturday, Feb. 9, MTV will return to playing music videos long enough to debut the star-and-astronaut-studded clip for "You Don't Think I'm Funny Anymore," the second single from Moment of Forever, with cameos from Owen Wilson, Dan Rather, Jessica Simpson, Woody Harrelson and Buddha knows who else. Nelson continues traipsing across TV sets nationwide with a Valentine's Night appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and a Feb. 22 rise-n-shine spot on The Today Show.

Thanks to Pop Candy for the Comedy Central roast tip!

And now, as Hot Chip says, "Half-nelson, full-nelson, Willie Nelson...Willie Nelson":

February
8 - San Luis Obispo, Calif. @ Madonna Inn Expo Center
9 - Reno, Nev. @ Peppermill Casino
10 - Monterey, Calif. @ Golden State Theatre
11 - Santa Rosa, Calif. @ Wells Fargo Center of the Arts
13 - Los Angeles, Calif. @ Nokia Theatre
15 - Indio, Calif. @ Fantasy Springs Casino
16 - Flagstaff, Ariz. @ Ardrey Auditorium
17 - Farmington, N.M. @ McGee Park Convention Center

March
4 - Austin, Texas @ Travis County Expo Center
5 - Dallas, Texas @ Meyerson Symphony Center
6 - Dallas, Texas @ Meyerson Symphony Center
7 - Dodge City, Kan. @ Dodge City Civic Center
8 - Norman, Okla. @ Riverwind Casino
9 - Topeka, Kan. @ Kansas ExpoCentre Landon Arena
11 - Abilene, Texas @ Abilene Civic Center
12 - San Angelo, Texas @ San Angelo Coliseum
13 - Waco, Texas @ Heart of Texas Coliseum Waco
14 - Austin, Texas @ The Backyard
15 - Austin, Texas @ The Backyard
18 - Richmond, Va. @ The National
19 - Norfolk, Va. @ The NorVa Theatre
20 - Cherokee, N.C. @ Harrah's Cherokee Smokey Mount

April
21 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melkweg
23 - Esbjerg, Denmark @ Musikhuset Esbjerg Centre
24 - Randers, Denmark @ Vaerket
25 - Aalborg, Denmark @ Aalborg Kongres & Kulturcenter
27 - Malmo, Sweden @ Baltiska Hallen
28 - Stockholm, Sweden @ Berns Salonger
29 - Copenhagen, Denmark @ Tivolis Concert Hall

May
1 - Oslo, Norway @ Oslo Concert Hall
2 - Hamar, Norway @ Hamar Ol Amfi
3 - Halden, Norway @ Halden Place D Armes
4 - Lyngdal, Norway @ Fibo Trespo Concert Hall
6 - Aberdeen, Scotland @ Music Hall
7 - Dundee, Scotland @ Caird Hall
8 - Glasgow, Scotland @ Clyde Auditorium
9 - Glasgow, Scotland @ Clyde Auditorium
11 - Manchester, England @ Manchester Apollo
13 - London, England @ Hammersmith Apollo
14 - London, England @ Hammersmith Apollo
15 - Antwerp, Belgium @ Queen Elizabeth Hall
16 - Paris, France @ Grand Rex Theatre

June
14 - St. Louis, Mo. @ Fox Theatre
21 - Tama, Iowa @ Meskwaki Bingo & Casino
22 - Wisconsin Dells, Wis. @ Crystal Grand Music Theatre
23 - Oneida, Wis. @ Oneida Ballroom
25 - Milwaukee, Wis. @ Northern Lights Theater
26 - Bayfield, Wis. @ Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua
27 - Council Bluffs, Iowa @ Harrah's Casino

Related links:
WillieNelson.com
Lost Highway: "Gravedigger" video feat. lots and lots of Willies
Youtube: Toby Keith and Willie Nelson's "Beer For My Horses"

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.

For more than 30 years, Willie Nelson has strapped on his red, white and blue bandana every Fourth of July and invited fellow musicians, family and friends to join him as he celebrates our nation's heritage in the form of a good ole-fashioned picnic.

The first of these annual gatherings was held in 1973 in Dripping Springs, Texas, and every year since the event has been held somewhere in the Lonestar State. That's why this year's picnic will make history, as Son Volt, Drive-By Truckers, a recently-reunited Old 97's and Amos Lee will join Willie in a performance-laden picnic at the renowned Gorge Amphitheater, nine times the winner of Pollstar Magazine's award for North American's Best Outdoor Music Venue.

Indeed, what better place than George, Wash., to celebrate America's birthday, and what better company than Willie and friends to celebrate it with.

Tickets go on sale Saturday, May 12 at 9 a.m. at all Ticketmaster outlets, TicketMaster.com or LiveNation.com and are priced at $79, $59, $49 and $35 along with special 4-PACK Lawn Tickets for $99.

Related links:
Willie Nelson’s homepage
Son Volt’s homepage
Drive-By Truckers’ homepage
Old 97s’ homepage

Willie’s crucial transitional works collected in one fine anthology

Willie Nelson only made two albums for Atlantic Records—Shotgun Willie and Phases and Stages—but both were absolutely crucial. It was the early ’70s, and Willie had just capped more than a decade in Nashville penning hits for other artists (“Crazy” for Patsy Cline, “Hello Walls” for Faron Young), and releasing a string of marginally successful Nashville-friendly albums of his own for Liberty, Buddah and RCA. But by 1971, Willie was bucking the Nashville establishment. He was in his late 30s and his slicked-back countrypolitan hairstyle had given way to a shaggier look. He’d just released the best album of his career, a conceptual meditation on aging called Yesterday’s Wine—easily comparable to Frank Sinatra’s great concept work September of My Years—but RCA, Willie’s label at the time, chose to ignore it. He and RCA soon decided the relationship was over.

This is where Willie was when the great Atlantic Records R&B producer Jerry Wexler met him at a party in Nashville. Willie was at work on another concept, Phases and Stages, about a broken relationship, and was trying out some of the songs on the partygoers. Wexler was starting a country-music division at Atlantic and liked what he heard. But their first project together was Shotgun Willie, another milestone for the songwriter and interpreter. That’s the album that kicks off this fine three-disc anthology documenting Willie Nelson’s transition from little-known Nashville maverick to American country-rock icon.

Having moved from Nashville to Austin in his home state of Texas, Willie set out to record a musical autobiography, using a mix of his own songs with material written by others, like Johnny Bush’s “Whiskey River” and Leon Russell’s “You Look Like the Devil,” which Willie made his own. Shotgun Willie begins with the horns-fueled title song, a witty window into the creative process he wrote in a motel on deadline. “Shotgun Willie sits around in his underwear / Biting the bullet and pulling out all of his hair,” he sings over a funky shuffle, and it’s immediately apparent he could never have gotten away with this in Nashville. The first 12 songs on disc one of The Complete Atlantic Recordings comprise the original album in all its glory. You can hear Willie in the process of developing his trademark phrasing on these songs, particularly on his gentle, aching version of another Leon Russell tune, “A Song for You.” You also can see Willie taking ordinary life details and making poetry of them, as he does in the post-breakup weeper “So Much to Do”: “My oatmeal tastes just like confetti / The coffee’s too strong so forget it / The toast is burning, well let it / There’s just so much to do since you’ve gone.”

As powerful as the Shotgun Willie disc is, Phases and Stages, on disc two, is even stronger. Phases, recorded with The Swampers of Muscle Shoals, Ala.—the guys who backed the likes of Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding—documents the devastation of a breakup equally from the points of view of the man and woman. No one who’s ever lost true love could listen to this cycle of songs, particularly the chilling “I Still Can’t Believe You’re Gone,” and not come away traumatized—it’s just that emotionally affecting.

The first five songs come from the woman’s perspective. Willie sensitively enters her psyche, and with his expressive phrasing he once again turns everyday details into poetry: “Washing the shirts and never complaining / Ironing and crying / Crying and ironing.” Phases is perhaps the most sensitive, intelligent set of songs ever written about the demise of a relationship. Simple lines contain complex human challenges (“Sister’s coming home / Mama’s gonna let her sleep the whole day long”). The songs’ focus shifts from her anger (“Pretend I Never Happened”) to his disbelief (“It’s Not Supposed to be That Way”), and finally to wide-eyed resignation (“Sometimes it’s heaven / Sometimes it’s hell / Sometimes I don’t even know”). The extras on disc two are similar versions of most of the songs, but recorded with Willie’s own band rather than the Muscle Shoals studio guys. While each alternate take is strong in its own right, they collectively underscore just how important it was to have this song cycle wrapped in the warm, gentle, bottom-heavy musical molasses of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.

Disc three is just balls-out live Willie Nelson, recorded in 1974 at the Texas Opry House in Austin and produced by Wexler. It’s the template Willie has used in his live performances in the more than 30 years since. He includes his obligatory medley of hits (“Funny How Time Slips Away,” “Crazy” and “Night Life”) as well as now-time-tested crowd pleasers such as “Whiskey River,” “Stay All Night” and “Good Hearted Woman.” The final track is a delightfully spare, woozy, jazzy instrumental studio jam called “Willie’s After Hours,” which clocks in at just under 14 minutes.

Within a year after the release of Phases and Stages, Atlantic would close its country-music division and Willie Nelson would be on Columbia Records, releasing his third concept album in five years, the classic Red Headed Stranger. By then, Willie was already working with Waylon Jennings on their landmark Wanted! The Outlaws collection that fully captured the rock crowd and changed country music forever.

As Coachella-goers melted into the Indio desert, the Greek flung its doors open for an old-fashioned country love-in. The result was a starry, sold-out evening as intimate as a back-porch jam session and quite possibly the largest collection of un-ironically worn cowboy hats south of Bakersfield and west of Abilene.

Tender-hearted tough girl Shelby Lynne laid the groundwork for Nelson’s marathon 30-song set. She focused on tracks from her gritty, confessional new record Suit Yourself. She brought the long, freestyle jam “I Cry Everyday” to life and soaked up the spotlight on the melancholy track “Old Times Sake.” Her set even included special guest/backing vocalist Maxine Waters, a longtime fixture in the blues- and- gospel scenes and frequent member of Lyle Lovett’s Large Band. Shelby’s best move, however, was to usher in one country legend by paying tribute to another. She closed with her sweet ballad “Johnny Met June,” a tribute to the Cashes and one of the best new songs in any genre this year. Small and slender in blue jeans and a Rolling Stones T-shirt, Shelby even cracked a smile—twice.

Much of the mainstream perceives Willie Nelson as a stoned uncle with a trademark beatific smile and long horsehair braids—no doubt typified by his performance as Uncle Jessie in the upcoming Dukes of Hazard movie. Luckily, his birthday celebration had nothing to do with any image. It turned out to be a tribute to one of the most talented American songwriters of the last half-century.

Nelson was greeted by the unfurling of a Texas state flag almost as enormous as the audience’s applause and standing ovation. Accompanied by a 10-piece band, he played classics like “Whiskey River” and effortlessly jumped from jazz to blues, rock and then bluegrass. He even used his facility with multiple genres to reinterpret his most well-known songs, playing a jazzy rendition of “Crazy” and covering “Rainbow Connection” as a heartbreaking torch song.

And then there were the friends and family. Nelson’s little sister Bobbie soloed on piano and his sons Lukas and Micah contributed guitar and drums respectively. Willie even stepped aside for Lukas’ extended performance on "Texas Flood." The kid is a guitar virtuoso, but his young voice sounded a little green crooning the blues.

The band kept swelling with ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's John McEuen joining in to play with the birthday boy. When Shelby Lynne returned to lend vocal support, over a dozen incredible musicians were jamming in perfect harmony. As the music shifted into old gospel tunes “I’ll Fly Away” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” everything seemed right with the world.

But wait, what was that tumbleweed of blonde hair bobbing onto the stage? What could possibly ruin the climax of such a happy occasion? None other than Willie’s Dukes of Hazard co-star, Jessica “Short Shorts” Simpson. Greeting the crowd with a chipper “Howdy, y’all!,” she caterwauled into the middle of “Amazing Grace” and led the Greek Theater crowd in “Happy Birthday.” Surely, a recipient of the Kennedy Center honor deserves better than to be serenaded by the star of The Nick & Jessica Variety Hour. And yes, the Texas-born Simpson has genuine Southern roots, but the consensus in the crowd was that she get off the damn stage.

And get off she did when her pleas for an encore of the Birthday Song were ignored. The specter of bubblegum pop gone, Willie and his Friends played deep into the night, rocking a legend into his 72nd year.

Photographer Elizabeth Burkhead attended this year's Willie Nelson 4th of July Picnic and shares the sights that went with some beautiful sounds.