HOT night in '94 ( I think )

[stoney]

It was the summer of '94 ( I think )
It was a HOT HOT HOT night, in fact I do not recall ever experienceing heat like that ever, It was over a 100 degrees. It was outagamie county Fair time, can you imagine what those barns were like? More about this heat factor later.

I went to the fair this particular night because I wanted to see the main attarction for the night and as far as I was concerned for the fair itself.

What was this main attraction? Well maybe the question should be, Who was the main attarction?

Well, the answer is Willie Nelson.

This was the 1st and only time I have seen him perform live. Now it has been a while so I am not even going to site a set list, but let's say he covered all his well known songs. I would highly suggest seeing him if you have the opportunity.

I do need to prefeace the remainder of these remarks but telling you I have heard only a few of his albums but I did read his book, Thats another story and different thread in itself.

What did I like? Willie blew me away with his performance, he was truely the STAR of the show and displayed his talents as a singer,songwriter,performer and guitar player. His vocals and guitar riffs were right on. Everything he did proved his talent as a performer.

Like his book , his ego was inflated to space he was in at the time. A shrewd performer he works with a back-up band that from what I have been told has been with him since day one.The band maybe good but came across as mediocre, musicians going though the rountine with no particular goal in mind other than getting to the end of the show, it's not like this a stepping stone for them and their future. This was surprising to me at first but then I thought about it and I came to the conclusion that this only makes Willie look better if he is surrounded by mediocre musicians.The better he looks the more attention he will get. He thived on the attention and bandana after bandana was tied using the neck of his guitar as holder, then briefly slipping it over his sweaty brow, he would remove and toss to a crowd of ladies all eager to get a hold of Willies wet bandana. I was very surpised that he only used his Old Martin guitar ( the one with the hole worn in the top) for a few songs as in his book he claimed he used that guitar exclusively.

The show was great and he did have an intermission but the thing that stuck out in me was ,remember the heat?, Well Willie worked up a sweat alright like we all did as it was sooooooooooooooo hot you could not help yourself. Willie sweat more and he actually sweat so much it looked like he had a bladder contorl problem. He did not change clothes at intermission and he did not wear shorts, he had on a pair of BLACK jeans, can you imagine. Then I thought wow, I would be embarassed to be up there like that. NOT Willie he performed like the weather was no factor for him.I think if I was his age and doing that , I would not have survived the night. As it was I crawled back to the car after the show and could hardly wait for the airconditioning!!!!!

To put it in s a nutshell, he is a true performer well worth seeing.