January 27, 2006

Willie Nelson @ The Fillmore

SAN FRANCISCO--"Tryin' to do more than you can/and it got a little outta hand/you ain't Superman."

So sang Willie Nelson Tuesday night at The Fillmore in San Francisco, belting out the lyrics for a new song he wrote, "Superman," about his own limitations.

Oh, Willie, do we beg to differ.

The 72-year-old legend blazed through a 31-song set Tuesday night, showing a splendid blend of virtuosity, versatility, and, well--by squeezing it all into 90 minutes--efficiency.

Willie has built a remarkable career out of showing his fans just how close country music is to so many other genres, and it was all on display at The Fillmore: jazz, blues, folk, rock, ragtime, honkytonk, boogie woogie. Heck, he even threw in a cover of Jimmy Cliff's "Harder They Come" Tuesday night, with a nod and a wink to skeptics of his 2005 reggae album, Countryman.

In addition to his own astonishing songbook ("Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," "On The Road Again," "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground"), Nelson ripped through songs from a motley crew of artists as diverse as Cliff, Janis Joplin, George Thorogood, Frank Sinatra, and Merle Haggard.

read the whole story here

Posted by fountainhead at 1:51 AM

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