Thank you Willie!
Well, just as you may have suspected, 10-time Grammy Award winner Willie Nelson put on one heck of a show this past Friday night at the Forum (Jan 29th, ‘10). I just love this guy all the way around. Having written and performed some of the most influential and significant songs in American music, (Crazy, Hello Walls, Pretty Paper, Whiskey River, etc.) he could have easily hung it all up and returned to the front porch for a nice retirement. But, that’s not what Willie does. Willie plays. He plays the guitar like no one else on the planet and sings with as much soul as ever. Willie has made his name in country music but his musical ability and compassion stretches beyond multiple genres. His guitar playing skills range far beyond that of classic country and honky tonk, branching out into early raw blues, classical, and even reggae. Most of all, his playing is reminiscent of his favorite guitarist of all time, the legendary gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. To be able to see Willie here in our own backyard was truly something to be thrilled about.
He performed an onslaught of many of his most famous songs like Crazy, Whiskey River, You Were Always on My Mind, Georgia on my Mind, Night Life, Angels Flying Too Close to the Ground, On the Road Again, etc. He also played Good Hearted Woman in honor of Waylon and finished up the show with a medley of Hank Williams songs. It’s pretty much safe to say that everybody loved it. He also brought his son, Lucas Nelson, to play some blues together and that was definitely a treat. So, to put it simply, Thanks Willie!
These photos were contributed by the lovely Amber Butler. Thanks Amber.