Global Courant 2023-04-30 16:06:15
LOS ANGELES (AP) – “Are there any more real cowboys?” Neil Young sang Saturday night at the Hollywood Bowl on a rare night when he was neither the headliner nor, at age 77, even close to being the oldest performer on the bill.
answer immediately, Willy Nelsondressed in a cowboy hat and a red, white, and blue guitar strap, slowly walked onto the stage on his 90th birthday, raising the crowd of more than 17,000.
Sitting in a chair—one of the few onstage concessions he’s made to get older—Nelson joined Young for the remainder of their 1985 duet, “Are There Any More Real Cowboys?”
“I want to thank all the artists who came tonight to help celebrate what we’re celebrating,” Nelson said, as if senile and laughing.
The moment came three hours into the first of one party of two nights of the country legend at Los Angeles’ outdoor amphitheater where generations of stars sang his songs in tribute.
“As a kid growing up in Texas, it seemed like there was nothing bigger than Willie Nelson,” said Owen Wilson, one of the evening’s emcees along with Helen Mirren, Ethan Hawke, and Jennifer Garner. “And when I look out at the Hollywood Bowl tonight, it still feels like there’s nothing bigger than Willie Nelson.”
After Young, Nelson released George Streeta next-generation country superstar, for their self-referential duet, “Sing One With Willie,” followed by Willie’s perennial, “Pancho and Lefty,” with Strait singing the part once played by the late Merle Haggard.
Nelson then yelled, “Come out and roll one with me Snoop!”
Getting out came faster Snoop Doggsitting next to Nelson as they launched into their stoner song, “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.” Perhaps they both seemed to forget the words at times. The two friends seemed too happy to care.
“Somebody Make Some Noise for the Legend Mr. Willie Nelson!” shouted Snoop halfway through the song.
The parade of partners illustrated one of the evening’s themes: Willie brings people together.
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“Suddenly it didn’t matter if you were a hillbilly or a hippie, everyone was a Willie Nelson fan,” Wilson said of Nelson’s belated rise as a singing superstar when he left Nashville, Tennessee and returned to his native Texas in the 1970s. “Even the Dalai Lama is a fan of Willie Nelson. It’s true.”
The crowd, which ranged from small children to seniors, illustrated the point. The stands were littered with cowboy hats as hippies danced down the aisles and weed smoke billowed into the air.
Miranda Lambert thrilled them with a smashing, sing-along version of “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” Nelson’s 1978 hit with Waylon Jennings. The chicks rampaged through 1970s “Bloody Mary Morning” at the same breakneck pace that Willie and his Family Band played it live in their prime.
Nelson has outlived almost every member of that band, who toured and recorded him constantly for decades. His little sister and pianist, Bobby Nelson, passed away last year. She got her own tribute from Norah Jones, who hit the keys through the younger Nelson’s saloon-esque solo song, “Down Yonder,” from Willie Nelson’s definitive 1975 album, “Red Headed Stranger.”
While many of the women who took the stage played rousing rockers, most of the men went for quiet emotion.
Chris Stapleton kept his guitar at his side through a soft, reflective rendition of “Always on My Mind”, Nelson’s biggest solo hit of the 1980s. Nelson’s son Lukas sang “Angel Flying Too Close to The Ground” alone with his acoustic guitar, his voice a dead ringer to his father’s.
Another surviving member of the Family Band, harmonica master Mickey Raphael, was part of the weekend’s house band, led by Don Was, supporting nearly everyone.
Nelson also outlived most of his classical associates. But one essential, his 86-year-old Highwaymen bandmate Kris Kristofferson, made it to the stage to join Rosanne Cash, the daughter of another Highwayman: Johnny Cash.
Rosanne Cash was singing Nelson’s “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)” when Kristofferson, who wrote the song, came out and harmonized with her on the choruses.
Nelson’s musical diversity was another evening theme.
“He mixes and bends genres,” Mirren said from the stage. “His timing and categories are his own.”
Leon Bridges’ “Night Life” showed Nelson’s affinity for the blues, as did Jones’ jazzy trip through 1961’s “Funny How Time Slips Away,” when Nelson was best known as a songwriter of hits for others.
Ziggy Marley sang “Still Is Still Moving To Me”, which Nelson recorded in 1993 and later sang with Toots and the Maytals on one of his occasional forays into reggae. Marley yelled “Wee-lay!” in his Jamaican accent during the song.
The Sunday night show will feature a very different range of acts, including Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris.
Young first took the stage with his early collaborator Stephen Stills. The pair performed a polished version of “For What It’s Worth”, swapping guitar solos on the classic hit they made as members of Buffalo Springfield in 1966.
Nelson brought out all of the night’s performers to join him in performing the 1935 Carter Family song, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” an old live favorite of his and the classic closing number for all country music.
It was clearly meant to be the end, when Hawke took the mic and started thanking everyone for coming.
But the 90-year-old wasn’t ready to quit. He interrupted and broke into Mac Davis’s “It’s Hard to Be Humble,” which Nelson and his sons recorded in 2019.
It was an amusing choice for a closing song, but the chorus was a perfect comedic coda for a man drowned in worship all night:
“To know me is to love me, I must be a great man. Oh lord, it’s hard to be humble. But I do what I can.”
