CONCERT REVIEW
All-American Willie music
by Seth Rogovoy(NORTH ADAMS, Mass., Sept. 12, 1996) -- No one who attended Willie Nelson's awe-inspiring concert at the Night Shift Cafe on Wednesday night will ever call Nelson a country singer again. At least not with a straight face.
Under the stars on a clear, crisp night in the picturesque courtyard of Mass MoCA, Nelson and his band played over 40 songs in a generous two-and-a-half hour show that touched down in nearly every genre of American music and even some non-American styles.
Nelson tried his hand at singing and playing country, pop, jazz, rock, blues, folk, honky-tonk, gospel and reggae. That in itself isn't such a great accomplishment. But that he was able to respect the integrity of each style while putting his unique imprint on it was what made this a transcendent evening of pure Americana, Willie Nelson-style.
As he has done at literally thousands of concerts over the years, Nelson, 63, kicked off the show with "Whiskey River." His six-piece band then barreled through dozens of tunes, covering all the bases of the Nelson's four-decade-long career.
Early on, Nelson's band made clear this wasn't going to be any ordinary hit parade. Using the song "Night Life" as a foundation, Nelson played bits and pieces of some of his best known and most obscure tunes in a kind of psychedelic, genre-bending medley. Wild sounds from sister Bobbie Nelson's organ bumped up against drummer Paul English's rhythms, creating cross-currents that Nelson and fellow guitarist Jody Payne cut through and bounced off. Classic tunes like "Crazy" surfaced and rode the wave and then disappeared, revealing "Night Life" once again under the surface. With its shifting rhythms and internal key changes and sudden directional changes, this medley resembled nothing less than The Band at its funkiest, most ragged best.
Nelson was every bit the warm, Texas icon, with his strawberry braids and his indulgent manner that had him swapping all kinds of headgear -- caps, hats, scarves -- with audience members throughout the concert. He posed for pictures, he waved, he smiled and he played nearly every tune anybody came to hear.
A set including "Help Me Make It Through the Night," "Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)," and an upbeat version of "Me and Bobby McGee" was dedicated to fellow member of the Highwaymen Kris Kristofferson. On "Help Me Make It," Nelson alternately stretched phrases and compressed them with the felicity of a jazz vocalist. Behind him, the droning chords laid down by harmonica virtuoso Mickey Raphael demonstrated why his instrument is often called a mouth organ -- if you closed your eyes, you thought you were hearing a keyboard.
Throughout the evening, Nelson's guitar playing was a revelation. He is well-known for his quirky, literally off-beat style, punching chords and plucking quick fills against the natural rhythms of his songs. But that was just the beginning. Nelson's guitar repertoire comes complete with single-note jazz fills, blistering blues solos, hard-rocking riffing and mellifluous, melodic soloing.
A portion set aside for his well-known versions of standards included a very jazzy rendition of Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies." "Georgia On My Mind" featured some great give-and-take between Raphael and Bobbie Nelson. "All of Me" was swinging, with Nelson doing his best Wes Montgomery.
He acknowledged his movie career with "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" and "Mammas Dont Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," both from the soundtrack to "The Electric Horseman," and a dark "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground," from "Honeysuckle Rose."
Nelson was in fine voice, singing in his characteristic talking style with occasional flights up and down the octaves, but doing most of the work through his uncanny and unreproducible phrasing, which in its spontaneity and natural tension and release made even such overplayed hits as "Always On My Mind" and "On the Road Again" sound fresh. In every number he was able to find nuances and hidden crevices, and through subtle rhythmic shifts wrestle new meanings out of familiar material.
A couple of songs off Nelson's latest album, "Spirit," were greeted enthusiastically by the crowd, which numbered rock musician/artist David Byrne among its members. Likewise, a couple of reggae tunes, including Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come," displayed a whole other aspect -- Willie Nelson as soul singer. In fact, Nelson will be releasing an album of reggae tunes next year, and from the sound of those he played on Wednesday night, it will probably be a hit.
Nelson just kept on playing in one of the longest concerts in memory. "Still Is Still Moving To Me" rocked as hard as ever, "Shotgun Willie" was a playful, raunchy electric blues, "I Saw the Light" injected a note of spirituality into the mix, and "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" even included a funny imitation of Julio Iglesias courtesy of Nelson.
The guy just didn't want to stop, and the encore included a cover of Leon Russell's "Song For You," as well as some more honky-tonk, mariachi and Tex-Mex music. By the end, it was clear that Nelson plays a genre all his own -- Willie music. That over a thousand people got to see this legend at his best right in downtown North Adams is just their darn good luck.
[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Sept. 13, 1996. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1996. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
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