Concert Review/Photos: Willie Nelson @ The Mann
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Willie Nelson should give heart to old guys everywhere.
Chillin' With Willie
[ 6/13 ] Willie Nelson should give heart to old guys everywhere.
He is, almost unbelievably, 81 years old now, and as we can tell you first hand, he can still keep an audience enthralled for every minute of a two-hour concert. The Mann was rockin' last night.
The old guy must have sung 30 songs — almost all of which everybody knew by heart — without really stopping. Went right from one to the next, no kind of let-me-catch-my-breath patter in between. He only stopped to throw a couple of bandanas into the crowd.
In one way, and a strange way at that, he reminded us of a Diana Ross concert we attended a few years ago. She was in her 60s, and looking amazingly hot as she arrived on stage.
I have a new album, she said. But, she added, she knew what we came to hear, and she launched into the Diana Ross songbook we all knew.
We all knew every note of Willie last night too, although unlike Diana, he didn't look, well, hot. Willie's music was one of the soundtracks of our lives.
He looked like classic Willie, long braids, jeans, cowboy hat or a red bandanna. Just a man doing his thing.
As he opened with "Whiskey River," a huge Texas flag dropped behind him. His voice sounded thin, the honey in the notes was missing. A little frail, we thought, too many notes he couldn't quite touch anymore.
But somehow he gained energy and voice three songs in, and by the time he got to tunes like "Crazy" and "On the Road Again"...well, it was like the years had melted away.
Our favorite for the night was "You Were Always on My Mind," but in truth we loved that tune when Elvis did it too. My wife was stuck on "Georgia on My Mind" because it carried her mind back to a fond memory of a friend's wedding.
We sat last night beside a middle-age woman -- most everybody there was middle-aged and more -- who was absolutely enthralled by every word he sang.
And we sat in front of a couple who confessed they had come to hear Willie because they figured that with him at 81, they might not get the chance again. And we sat beside a dad whose two grown sons gave him the tickets for Father's day.
In a large sense, Willie gave us heart, quite apart from the magic of his tunes.
He's 81, and he stood out there for two hours going through playing his guitar and singing as only he could, and as he has for decades.
Funny how time slips away.
Adapted from Dave Warner's blog, It's Personal.
See more photos by Meredith Kleiber at kleibography.com.
