Let’s hear it for serendipity doo dah. On the previous post, a reader commented she had seen part of the “Willie: Life and Songs Of An American Outlaw” on public TV. I still can’t find it but did stumble upon this video recording of Nelson being honored as recipient of the 2015 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
The all-star tribute to singer and songwriter Willie Nelson, 2015 recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, features performances by Nelson, Edie Brickell, Leon Bridges, Rosanne Cash, Ana Gabriel, Jamey Johnson, Alison Krauss, Raul Malo of The Mavericks, Neil Young, Promise of the Real (Young, Lukas and Micah Nelson), Buckwheat Zydeco (Stanley Dural, Jr.) and past Gershwin Prize honoree Paul Simon.
I had no idea Willie was the recipient of the 2015 Library of Congress Award that “honors the enduring legacy of George and Ira Gershwin and the continuing legacy of this year’s honoree, Willie Nelson.”
http://www.pbs.org/gershwin-prize/shows/gershwin-prize-willie-nelson/
And I had no idea of the award when I wrote the last paragraph,
https://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2019/01/willie-life-and-songs-of-an-american-outlaw-the-setting.html
“Look at the range of songs the man’s written and sung. Willie’s sort of a one-man Rogers and Hammerstein or a singer with the range and sensibility of George Gershwin who wears cowboy boots and a red bandana. With his country lyricism, jazz influenced phrasing, and soulful sensibility, Willie doesn’t even fit into the category of Americana. “One of a kind” sounds about right.
The Gershwin Prize event had the feel of a pre-quel to the January 2019 tribute “Willie: Life and Songs Of An American Outlaw” and definitively connects to a man who has made a Gershwin sized mark on American music. The tribute is more polished but to a way more buttoned up audience than the one in Nashville on January 12, 2019.
~~~
Holy Cow. I spent last few hours watching this 2015 video, taking notes on the fly, and remembering similar moments from the tribute to Nelson on January 12, 2019.
Don Was, the same guy who directed the tribute in Nashville, directs the house band. It showed. Spontaneous notes I banged out while viewing the one hour twenty five minute video appear below…
Oh boy, I warn you if you have any Willie Nelson bones in your body you’re gonna have to put your life on hold, actually you’ll tumble down the Willie Nelson rabbit hole without consent and get in touch with how much of Nelson’s songbook filtered through our music DNA and has a way of making us laugh, cry, comfort us, or nod our heads in absolute agreement with those lyrics of Willie’s.
Another cast of luminaries here, one of whom, Buckwheat Zydeco (Stanley Dural, Jr.), never made it to 2019.
The Library of Congress our nation’s oldest federal cultural institution presents the 2015 Prize for Popular Song with an all-star salute to this year’s recipient Willie Nelson.
1st minute
Promise of The Real, upbeat light-hearted “Stay All Night” Lukas and Micah Nelson and Neil Young, get the show off the ground then host Don Johnson takes over to celebrate the 2015 Gershwin Prize For Popular Music tonight honoring the remarkable American songbook of Willie Nelson,
6 minutes
Leon Bridges "Time Slips Away," soulful take on the song that breathes fresh life into the phrasing and shows how many ways there are to sing a truly classic song. Leon keeps it going with this soulful take with longtime harmonica virtuoso Mickey Raphael’s phrasings, swings sweet evocatively sweet. Orchestration is toned down, lets Bridges take the lead.
10 minutes
Raul Malo of The Mavericks sings “Crazy” backed by the Don Was top-tier band and the soft croons of the female chorus. Funny how these classic songs, all written in one week, repeat, ONE WEEK, are trademark Willie lyrics.
14 minutes
Vignettes of Nelson’s daughter Paula and Amy Nelson-Niccore, photos of growing up and being on stage with their dad, cool that he involved them, that they had no idea how unique it was till they began formal schooling and learned that’s not the way other kids grew up early. Warm, loving.
15 minutes
Annie D’Angelo, current and fourth wife, video tells how they met 23 years ago, two “surprise” sons Lukas and Micah… “him I like,” she says after first meeting Nelson.
16 minutes
Gershwin recipient Paul Simon and Edie Brickell, “Remember Me” from 1975 “Red Headed Stranger” album. Good lord, all these songs, the lyrics, the melodies, and a little totally Willie and Trigger riff by Edie in the middle, not just so listener friendly, but heart friendly. I can’t help thinking that these early songs, maybe certain others, are rooted in Willie’s own history, he was just about 30 years old at the time, had no real prospects for success, but was willing to put it all on the line, and in the grooves of those 45 or 33 rpm records, sort of a diary set to music, of what he was thinking about, of what came to mind as he was living day to day, allowing his thoughts to bubble to his conscious level, spinning his thoughts, dreams, realizations into words and melodies. His songwriting wasn’t a fit for Nashville and his life experience certainly wasn’t conventional, raised by loving grandparents in Abbott TX at the tail end of the depression in 1933, grand parents were music minded, from country to church choir, music was probably what kept him grounded, surrounded him with a comfort zone, and he had the uncommon ability or the uncommon drive, to stay with it, let it stay with him, through his youth way down in Texas, where, actually, people take music pretty seriously.
21 minutes
Rose Ann Cash sings Pancho and Lefty, a Townes Van Zant song someone sent to Willie. The more you get to understand Willie, the more you get an idea why that song appealed to him, get a sense of Willie’s sensibility. What are we talking about? Friendship? Relationships? Loyalty? Taking Risks? Loss? Good Times? Adventure? Longing? Sustaining Love? The mystery fits perfectly.
26 minutes
No one can better describe the way Willie thinks about music than he can in this video. “I was always around music, I cant remember any time when I wasn’t hearing music or trying to play music or trying to write music and it was just a language that i grew up with, I found out through the years that its a universal language, the same music that affected me in my early days in Abbott Texas." Powerful close ups of Willie talking, vintage photos of 1930s Texas, you almost have to brush the dust off your coat after watching.
27 minutes still can't identify the speaker who nails the essence of Willie down to a few paragraphs
“America is an idea and America is one of the few countries on earth that was built around an idea… the singing cowboy was a very important element in the culture….” who is the guy with these great comments at 27 min mark and says that "Willie is a magic messenger who appeals across the spectrum to young and old and he is one of the few who has sustained a long time and appealed to a spectrum young and old and he did it through wandering through the raw poetry of time” wow other great observations too. who is this man? a wonderful video follows this
29 minutes
video, great close ups, Woody Harrelson tells story about being invited by Annie to join the crowd in the bus, through a haze of smoke, Willie shouts “Hey, come on down…”; other guys listening to the story add their own comments they call “Willie-isms”
29:35 minutes
Kris Kristofferson nails how to describe Willie’s songwriting, “I wouldn’t call him country or soul or exclusively anything, he’s had some of the most popular songs that have ever come out of country music…he’s one of a kind.”
31:00 minutes
Don Johnson reads a letter from Jimmy Carter a long time fan, saluting Willie.
32 minutes
Jamie Johnson, “Georgia On My Mind” with backup singers, organ and band, slow, not much electricity, church organ and harmonica solo by Mickey Raphael gains traction in last 32 bars. The song would have fizzed without the vivacious 3 female singers soulful chorusing from the back row of the set.
37 minutes
Michael Feinstein says that " in 1978 Willie recorded an album called Stardust, includint a standard (Feinstein sings a few bars of “Someone T Watch Over Me, ” that album has sold over 5 million copies, so that ain’t hay. In 1985 the US Congress posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to one of America’s most beloved songwriting teams, George and Ira Gershwin, for 'outstanding and invaluable contributions to America music and theater and culture.' In commemoration of the Gershwin brothers, the Library of Congress named its prize for popular song, which is the nations highest honor for popular song, after these two extraordinary and prolific recording artists. Ladies and gentleman please join me in honoring the enduring legacy of George and Ira Gershwin and the continuing legacy of this year’s honoree, Willie Nelson.”
38 minutes
clips of Willie introducing Farm Aid Festivals along the years with other great performers including Johm Mellencamp, Dave Matthews; Willie, wearing his Farm Aid cap running the show, tens of thousands audiences, raises millions for farmers of the USA. The man’s instincts are generous, his heart open. Other than Bono, can you name a world class artist who’s waded in to highlight a humanitarian cause year after year? And those musicians on stage are bringing it for real.
41 minute, first truly show stopping moments
Alison Krauss "Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground" and she kills it just like she did in the Nashville 2019 tribute, great atmospheric pedal steel solo this song burrows into your heart kindling any memory of a lover whose memory clings into your heart this song brought tears to eyes of Willie’s wife Annie and to be honest mine too such a richly evocative in melody and words, a marriage made in heaven for the angel flying too close to the ground oh my
the sweet, high keening, emotionally pitched sound of her voice and perfect timing of her phrasing stirs up memories from some deep place in my heart that I hadn’t realized were there, the words being the conduit into a tender inner space in my heart. This is one song that in the right hands rises like early morning dew into the clouds this is one of those die and go to heaven songs for your playlist. I guarantee you’ll play this song again and again.
46 minutes
Alison Krauss is joined by raspy voiced Jamie Johnson, perfect for this song, for a version of Willie and Ray' Charles “Seven Spanish Angels” a song reminiscent of Marty Robbins' “El Paso” that I had never heard until Horace Trahan and The Ossun Express played it at La Poussiere in Breaux Bridge, LA. Jamie sings the words but Allyson sings them with feeling; the band backup with Mickey Raphael, spare, with great trio chorus a romantic western song story with the greatest title of any western song ever written.
50: 00 minutes
Don Johnson salutes Don Was and the band and ‘the 3 beautiful sisters’ back there in the chorus’
51 minutes
Johnson introduces “I Never Cared For You,” a curious title, mid-60's, one of Willie’s most beloved songs sung by 4 time Grammy nominee, one of the most acclaimed Mexican singers in the history of Mexican popular music, Anna Gabriel. Willie’s neighbors in Abbot, Texas, were Mexican. Willie remembers listening to the music; distinctly Mexican flourishes in his guitar riffs pop up all over the place as he channels memory, culture, and personal history, his fingers deftly finger picking with flourishes instantly recognizable as his own…no one, absolutely no one, including his hero Django Rhinehart, sounds like Willie.
51:51 minutes, another show stopper
Anna Gabriel “I Never Cared For You,” sings in Spanish oh boy this is just the jolt this show needed, the band in overdrive to the passionate singing from the inside out from Anna, powerful passionately driven, animated body language, arms outspread to encompass the whole theater, gets the audience clapping along, Anna is killing it. This song captures the unapologetic romanticism, Spanish rhythms, emotive, country operatic then veers into pounding salsa rhythms that course through your veins then she changes up slows down to finish with a grand operatic flourish. Oh boy. Absolutely lit a fuse. Whoever put the set list together is a genius.
54 minutes
Video clips from Austin City Limits 40th anniversary, Willie was one of the originators of the event! video medley of Willie songs of course leading off with his trademark opener “Whiskey River” with various artists including Lyle Lovett and Emmylou Harris, what company!
55:15 minutes
Graybeard Neil Young and the band Promise of the Real in a vaguely rumba-ish version of ‘Whiskey River,’ a slow rolling train with Lukas Nelson and the band Promise of the Real with other son Micah rocking it along and jamming gleefully with Neil Young, you gotta see this one, two generations voluntarily drowning in Whiskey River with the band in full pursuit, or descent, take your pick. You ain’t gonna see Neil Young rock out as gleefully as this.
Lukas Nelson sings lyrics with entirely fresh phrasing and a voice eerily reminiscent of his dad’s. If Lukas picks up the torch, he’s not going to be afraid to put his own stamp on his old man’s songs. Check out Willie nodding to the timing. That’s one proud daddy.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=who+sings+whiskey+river+with+neil+young+at+gershwin+award+2015&view=detail&mid=30C6D39599761264E0AC30C6D39599761264E0AC&FORM=VIRE
a bunch of other songs from the award program here too
1:00 hour
“Man With The Blues” Paul Simon, Buckwheat Zydeco (Stanley Duran, Jr. RIP), whoa a rumba-ish zydeco mash-up that rocks. The show is lifting off, baby, fasten your seat belt. The un-emotive Paul Simon shows signs of life even if he doesn't seem to pay attention to Dural right beside him. Buckwheat’s accordion is a joyful instrument with his rubboard sidekick recognizable in any Louisiana dance hall. This is the most upbeat song about A man with the blues you’re ever gonna hear. I woulda loved to hear Buckwheat sing this one.
1:02:38 Willie in a nutshell...
Don Johnson recalls the kinship between Ray Charles and Willlie and says, “Ray Charles said it best, “Willie has the sincerity, the soul, the wit, and the wisdom …when I hear Willie, I hear the voice of America."
Don Johnson, with a photo montage rolling on the huge screen, reads…
"Born in 1933 depression years, raised by loving grandparents, nurtured by western swing of Bob Wills and the honky tonk of Ernest Tubbs, he picked cotton, pulled corn. Even as a boy he wrote songs, songs of loneliness, songs of faith, songs of despair, songs of hope. As a young man, he scraped and scrabbled his way across the country, played with whatever band would have him, even worked as a disc jockey in radio station in the far northwest."
"In the 60’s our hillbilly hero drove his broken down Buick to Nashville where his songs like the enduring classics like “Hello Walls” and “Crazy” “Nightlife” and “Funny How Time Slips Away” were covered by superstars yet Willie fell short of becoming a super star. His quirky style did not conform to the Nashville norms."
"Well all that changed in the 70’s when he moved to Austin and embraced the gap between hillbillies and hippies, rednecks, and rascals. His music and his irrepressibly generous spirit embodies all the opposing factions, from then till now he has maintained a zen-like presence as a peace loving music-maker for all generations."
"His surprising 1978 album “ Stardust,“ for example, helped revive interest in the great American songbook and stayed on the pop charts for no less than 10 years. In the mid-80’s his impassioned concern for the lives of marginalized and struggling small farmers led him to help establish Farm Aid. Three decades later with $50 million raised for a great cause is still stronger than ever. Now as he roars into his 80s, Willie is stronger than ever. He continues to live his life as he loves to say, on the road again, playing over 100 one-nighters a year."
"This past year alone (2015) he has cut three new albums. A duet session with Merle Haggard, A tribute to his mentor Ray Price, and in honor of this august occasion an album of the songs of George and Ira Gershwin."
"Willie Nelson has earned his heroic status. In doing so, and this is the beautiful part, he has sustained a spirit of deep humility and common decency. His songs like his singing and guitar playing reflect a simple decency that warms the heart and informs the mind. With 11 Grammy awards, 68 studio albums, more than 40 million records sold in the United States, and for his remarkable contribution to American Music, and to the cultural life of this nation, the Library of Congress is proud to present The 2015 Gershwin prize for popular song to Willie Nelson.”
1:07
Seven congresspeople including Nancy Pelosi appear on stage, Acting Library of Congress Director David Mao presents the award.
Willie’s acceptance thank you speech is short, direct, and that’s all it needed to be. We know we love him and why. He doesn’t need to add a damn thing.
1:08
Willie thanks Don Was and his crack band then settles in to sing “Night Life.”
Perfect. Willie’s spent most of his life on stage at night, “the night life ain’t no good life but it’s my life…” say the lyrics but we know better. It’s the kind of life that’s made ours, at least mine, all the richer for Willie's songs, singing, styles that cover just about every spectrum of the American songbook.
1:10 – 1:14
Willie can still play the blazes out of that battered guitar, appears creatively inspired every time he gets his fingers on it. This is his acceptance speech. His guitar Trigger was his speech writer.
1:14
Willie just cut album of Gershwin songs, invites Cyndy Lauper, flaming pink hair glowing in the spotlight, to the stage and they have spirited fun with “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off” in the midst of which Willie takes a guitar solo that reminds you why he’s here. Have you ever seen two people dueting have any more fun and chemistry with this Gershwin classic? The audience is giddy…this is the way to land the show.
1:17
Willie invites Lukas and Micah, says he wrote this a long time ago, says “I think this is the most appropriate songs we could do in this period in America.”
http://www.songlyrics.com/willie-nelson/living-in-the-promised-land-lyrics/
“Living In The Promised Land” The song hit like a thunderbolt from Austin... Lukas Nelson, the timbre of the voice, the subtle timing and phrasing, that are his alone have the stamp of living and listening to his dad since the boy was in a crib. You’ll be pardoned when your jaw drops in wonder and awe. Then pardoned again when Lukas takes a solo…guess who his licks remind you of. The final licks are fierce. The sisters in the choir charge the song the ways they’ve been adding all night long. That was all back in 2015. Good lord we need those sentiments of that song now more than ever.
1:21
Finale - Willie and sons sing "On The Road Again" what else did you expect... “Feel free to sing along if you want to” says Willie and every one in the audience is on their feet singing and clapping! …. then the whole cast rolls onstage for one big time finale. I am still floating along in Willie Nelson ecstasy...enjoy the ride yourself. https://www.pbs.org/video/gershwin-prize-willie-nelson-library-congress-gershwin-prize-full/
WHOA NELLIE !
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