[Dixielandjazz] Willie Nelson interviewed

[Robert Ringwald]

Willie Nelson Still Rockin’
by Peter Mongillo
Austin American-Statesman, April 27, 2013
Willie Nelson watched snow fall from his bus two weeks ago in Michigan, part of a
tour that would take him to Madison, Cedar Rapids, down to Nashville and then back
to Austin for Sunday's show at the Backyard. From there he is on to Florida, Jazz
Fest in New Orleans, Georgia, Indiana, back to Michigan, Iowa, South Dakota, Atlantic
City, New York, Toronto and a handful of other shows in Canada and back down to Fort
Worth for his annual Fourth of July Picnic at Billy Bob's. And that's only a couple
months of a schedule that already extends through September.
Nelson, who turns 80 on Tuesday, is where he wants to be.
"We take a few days off every now and then to let everybody rest up a little, but
most of us, after we've been off a while we're ready to go back," he said.
Willie joked about his schedule. "I thought I'd speed up. I figure I'd start hurrying
up so I make sure I get everything done," he said. "Seriously, I'm still rockin'
along, doing it one day at a time. We're still drawing good crowds and still enjoy
playing."
While on his endless tour, Nelson finds days off to record and release new music
at twice the pace of people half, or even a quarter his age. The latest, out last
week, is "Let's Face the Music and Dance," a collection of standards, recorded in
Austin with the Family Band and producer Buddy Cannon. Aside from a rerecording of
his song "Is The Better Part Over" (something he did on his last album, "Heroes,"
with song "A Horse Called Music"), the record finds the icon offering up his takes
on works by Irving Berlin, Carl Perkins, Django Reinhardt and others.
Nelson compared the album to his much-loved 1978 album "Stardust." "Sister Bobbie
and I have been playing all these songs for years," he said. "We just started playing
things that we really liked to play."
The exception was the title track, by Irving Berlin, which Nelson said he had not
sung before and was suggested by a friend. He admired versions by Diana Krall and
Frank Sinatra and thought it was something he wanted to try. He also liked what he
called the positive message of the song. "There's a lot of stuff going on, but what
can you do about it except face the music and dance?" he said.
Nelson said it was a difficult song for him to record. "The chord structures, the
arrangement, just everything about it," he said. "It's an Irving Berlin classic.
I don't know what he was smoking when he wrote it, but I'd like to have an ounce
of it."
The new album also includes a cover of "Nuages," by jazz guitarist Reinhardt, who
Nelson said is "the greatest guitar player ever." He was first turned on to Django
via fiddler Johnny Gimble (who played with Bob Wills' Texas Playboys, Nelson, Ray
Price and others) and then again by a taxi driver in either France or Germany, who
introduced Nelson to Reinhardt's later work with an electric guitar, which inspires
the version heard on "Let's Face the Music."
Nelson offered heaps of praise for the guitarist: "The sound that he gets from the
guitar; the notes that he plays, the fact that he was in a fire where his left hand
was burned so badly that he only had the two fingers and his thumb that he played
with. He also had Stéphane Grapelli, the fantastic fiddle or violin player that played
with him, and the Hot Club Band, he was surrounded and surrounded himself with great
musicians."
"Let's Face the Music and Dance" doesn't feature the cast of guest stars that appeared
on the last album (Snoop Dogg, Kris Kristofferson, Sheryl Crow and others), though
Nelson has another duets album in the works for later this year with female vocalists
including Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Barbra Streisand.
Nelson said that recording a song with Streisand is something he's been wanting to
do for the past 20 years. "I guess she heard about it," he said "She had a song written,
and she went in the studio and recorded it with her great band and left me a vocal
track, so now we've got a new song."
Nelson and Streisand weren't in the studio at the same time, but he recalled meeting
the singer and actress on the set of the 1976 film "A Star Is Born." "She liked my
singing, I liked hers, so we sang together for a while. In fact, she came on the
bus and I sang her some songs for a couple hours."
As for his big birthday, Nelson, predictably, isn't making as big a deal out of it
as the rest of the world. "Honestly I'm trying not to think about it that much; as
far as I'm concerned it's just another day," he said. "I have a show on the 28th
at the Backyard, with me and Paula, Luke and Micah and all the kids, that will be
fun, I'm looking forward to that. That'll probably be our family get-together on
that day."
-30-



-Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
916/ 806-9551

Having more money doesn't make you happier. I have 50 million dollars but I'm just
as happy as when I had 48 million. ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger.