Willie Nelson Brings Country to the City
Pair two American institutions -- Willie Nelson and Radio City Music Hall -- and any additional frills are an unnecessary and unwanted embellishment. That's why it was such a pleasure to watch Willie and his four-piece band, clustered tightly together in the middle of the New York venue's massive, but barren, stage, focus solely on the music Tuesday night.
Longtime Willie concert goers know that watching his show is more akin to seeing one of the world's greatest jazz players in action than a country artist (not that Willie has ever limited himself to one genre). As a singer, he changed up his inflections and phrasing on the triptych of 'Funny How Time Slips Away,' 'Crazy' and 'Nightlife' to morph the sold-out RCMH into a smoky jazz club as his voice swooped in and around the melody, breathing new life into the old chestnuts.
The stripped-down setting left no hiding room for the players, which included Mickey Raphael on harmonica, Willie's sister Bonnie on piano and Bee Spears on bass. But the spareness also allowed for pristine moments of beauty when Willie would delve into a crystalline guitar solo that resembled the vibrant gypsy style made famous by Django Reinhardt, leading my companion to dub Willie the 'Reinhardt Cowboy.' Radio City's superb acoustics provided the perfect backdrop for his much underrated playing (on his trusty steed guitar, Trigger) where it felt like every improvisational note was so clean that it could cut glass. Spears proved a worthy dueling companion when the two went toe-to-toe during 'Bloody Mary Morning.'
Willie also proved a veritable human jukebox at the end of the show, quickly running through a series of covers that he has long revered including 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken' and 'I'll Fly Away' (straight into 'I Gotta Get Drunk' for the strangest segue of the night), before closing the night with four Hank Williams' tunes: 'Jamabalaya (On The Bayou),' 'Hey Good Looking,' 'Move It On Over,' and show closer, 'I Saw the Light.'
At 77, Willie was as laid back and ever on stage, but never sloppy, even as he quickly rolled through an assembly line of around 30 tunes in less than 90 minutes. Most of the show was comprised of songs he's performed for decades and it would have been nice to hear more material from his new T Bone Burnett-produced set, 'Country Music,' other than the gorgeous, regret-tinged 'Nobody's Fault But Mine,' but that's a small quibble. Willie kept his comments to the crowd to a minimum, but would often point to audience members or smile in appreciation after being rewarded with a long round of applause. He also stayed on stage signing bandanas, CDs and assorted body parts for several minutes at the concert's close, as if he were a brand new artist trying to win over fans. But the truth is, he had us from the first notes of 'Whiskey River.'
Levon Helm and his big band (there were more than a dozen musicians on stage for most of his segment) opened the evening with more than an hour's worth of roots music ranging from ragtime to blues, New Orleans jazz and Americana. Joined by Steely Dan's Donald Fagen on keyboards for the bulk of the set, as well as Willie's harmonica player, Raphael, Helm looked like he was having a blast at the drums, although he relinquished the hosting duties to guitarist Larry Campbell (who got an indulgent, too long guitar solo toward the end of the set as his thanks). Helm's voice is still ragged and weakened from his bout with throat cancer a few years back, so he left most of the singing to the rest of the ensemble (which includes his daughters), although he, thankfully, took the first verse of The Band classic, 'The Weight' all for himself.
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