Just Don't Ask Them Why

In a 24 hour period beginning Saturday night, Julie and I went from hearing the last twangs of Willie Nelson’s birthday concert in Bee Caves, spending the night in downtown Austin, then returning to our home in Fort Worth and watching streaming video from the Al Jazeera web site announcing Bin Laden’s death. Somewhere in there, Julie worked four or five hours by remote access.

So the answer to the questions, “What were you doing when you heard about 9/11” and “What were you doing when you heard about Bin Laden” are checking phone messages at a doggie day spa and writing down the set list from a Willie Nelson concert.

When I was working in Dallas, one of the first things you did was check messages to see if any dog owners had made inquiries since close of business the day before. Because the radio station had mentioned a plane hitting one of the towers in New York, I turned on the tv normally reserved for showing a VHS about our kennel facilities. At the time, I had seen Willie Nelson perform twice. Both times were in Austin.

In the ten years hence, I had only seen Willie twice before last weekend. I don’t think the set list has changed all that much. I remember one show in Grand Prairie where he sang a lot of newer stuff, including some IRS tune, Stardust and Goodnight, Irene. And there was a song swap in Austin with Merle. That show was recorded. I know because one of the cameras was on a track directly behind our row of seats. I’ve always meant to find that, because that night, they said it was the first time they had performed Pancho and Lefty live together.

Other than that, I don’t think anyone that has seen Willie will be surprised by this list:
Whiskey River (Johnny Bush)
Still is Still Moving to Me
Beer for My Horses
Shoeshine Man (Tom T. Hall)
Good Hearted Woman
Funny How Time Slips Away (Billy Walker)
Crazy
Nightlife Ain’t no Good Life
Down Yonder (solo by Bobbie)
Me and Paul (with Paul actually on the snare drum)
If You’ve Got the Money (I've Got the Time) (Lefty Frizzell)
Georgia (Hoagy Carmichael)
City of New Orleans (Steve Goodman)
To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before
Help Me Make it Through the Night (Kris Kristofferson)
(solo)
Me and Bobby McGee (Kris Kristofferson)
Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys (Ed Bruce)
Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground
On the Road Again
Always on My Mind (James/Christopher/Thompson)
Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By) (Carter Family)
Nobody's Fault but Mine (Blind Willie Johnson)
Superman
You Don’t Think I’m Funny Anymore
Phases and Stages (Walkin’)
Bloody Mary Morning
I Gotta Get Drunk
Jambalaya (On the Bayou) (Hank)
Hey, Good Lookin’ (Hank)
Move it on Over (Hank)
I Saw the Light (Hank)

31 songs. 30 performed by Willie. On 14 of these, he has songwriting credit. Two others, Whiskey River and Funny How Time Slips Away, he has made his own. You might make an argument for Mammas, but I think that is Waylon’s song. Georgia may have been a number one hit for Willie, but that song belongs to Ray Charles. And Always on My Mind had been done before, but I will always remember Elvis recording it after the breakup from Priscilla.

Of the other 14, two are by Kristofferson and four are by Hank Williams. Needless to say, those four bring down the curtain. I once told my dad after a show that Willie has the unique ability to make 3000 drunk people sing I Saw the Light. He received a similar response with Amazing Grace at another show in Austin.

Like any of the old timers with too many hits to keep track of, you are sure to miss a few. I have only heard Seven Spanish Angels live once, and would have lost money if you had told me that I wasn’t going to hear Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain. No Pancho and Lefty. No Stardust. And I’ve heard him sing Luckenbach after Waylon died, so I can’t complain. The old man still puts on a good show.

The venue and crowd helped. By that I mean that the Backyard has a great feel and wonderful sound. Being outdoors, we were worried when we saw the Austin forecast of 95 degrees. But towards the hill country, it probably never got above 90. And as the sin went down, it was below 80 with a wonderful persistent breeze. The sightlines have the occasional obstruction of a tree in front of you, but that should be expected. What the Backyard gets wrong is a crazy parking facility that has no lines, no markers identifying where you parked your car, and no lane definition so that exiting resembled a slow, non impact demolition derby.

And what was the deal with the seated general admission? I have no problem with the idea of a seated area being first come first serve, but the set up was unrealistic. When we showed up, it was still daylight, and the show had not started yet. There is no satisfactory way that we should see that the row of seats behind ours is full of people with their knees already pressed against the back of the fold out chairs, and the chairs themselves pressed right up against the row of chairs in front of them. Julie pointed out, thumbs up for being green and low impact, thumbs down on being non-ADA compliant.

The only reason this system worked is because of people just removing chairs and moving them out of the way.

You probably expect that any show in Austin is going to have their share of pot smokers. Just as you expect any Willie show to be well represented by the NORML crowd.
But a Willie show in Austin is something special. You don’t see the 20 somethings sharing their stash with their parents much, but in Austin? Sure!
It was beautiful, really. I imagine the parents were sticking with their California Sensimilla while the kids were more devotees of OG Kush.
And what it made it all the more meaningful were the four kids between six and nine years old behind us getting their first contact high. I can’t imagine the Goldfish boxes in that minivan were empty when they got home. But when you think that they have lived their entire lives with the United States at war, maybe they were heading down the protest path anyway.

They probably will never hear much about Pol Pot or Mao Zedong, but they will know people that hated Bin Laden. They will know what a big deal it was and hopefully, it will be just a subject covered in history class. And if yesterday’s actions made their world safer, maybe they’ll be taking their kids to Willie’s 100th birthday celebration.