Happy Birthday, Willie, 92: Concert was bittersweet

Walking, talking a little slower these days, but still playing his Martin N-2, nylon-strung classical guitar named Trigger, is there a music critic out there who isn’t going to give Willie Nelson an A plus for any concert he does these days?

Probably, but they’re deaf. Or else they think that a guy who turns 92 on April 29 should still perform like he did when he was 40, or even 70.

On a perfect-weather night in New Braunfels last Saturday, Willie came out with his band — Willie Nelson and Family — at the outdoor Whitewater Amphitheater and performed most of his classics, except for the one so many people love — Pancho and Lefty. Made famous when he cut the song with Merle Haggard back in 1983.

The video of the two of them singing the song live in 2007 is one of the best versions they ever did.

Willie was 74 then, 91 last Saturday, and even though he can’t move and sing like he once could, he can still play his old Martin like he was 40. He just can’t do it for two hours straight, and he can no longer do it standing.

When the IRS went after him in 1990, claiming he owed $16.7 million because he had made investments in a tax shelter later deemed illegal, and they were auctioning off his property, the one thing that worried him the most was losing Trigger.

“They can’t get Trigger.”

So he handed it off to one of his daughters, and she stowed it away.

After cutting a payback deal with the feds, out came the old Martin, and Willie cut a new album: “The IRS Tapes: Who’ll buy my memories?”

The royalties went to the IRS, and he continued to tour to settle the remaining taxes.

By 1994, he was debt free.

Thirty-one years later, he’s still a living legend, loved by many. His two youngest sons now tour with him, to help keep the music alive.

The Harp Player

Last Saturday, he had one of his sons on stage with him, but back there, stage left, was Mickey Raphael, Willie’s harp player since 1973.

Don’t know if it’s from riding on Willie’s bus, the Honeysuckle Rose, for so many years, so many miles, but Mickey doesn’t look 73.

He really started playing with Willie not long after Nelson quit Nashville and moved to Austin at the urging of his good bud, Waylon Jennings.

Raphael would join Willie at gigs and play the harp for free, and then one day, one of Willie’s inner circle said, “Maybe we should start paying the kid something?”

That’s how he became a permanent part of the Willie concert tours, a permanent member of the band, and about 52 years later, there he is, on stage, still blowing a harmonica like few can.

The bittersweet aspect to last Saturday’s concert is knowing that Willie probably only has a few tours left in him. Will this year be his last? Who knows. He still walks pretty well, but you can tell his stamina is maybe a quarter of what it once was.

Of course, Nelson had just performed the previous night at the same venue, so the fact that he can still do back-to-back concerts says, who knows, he may still be touring when he turns 100.

Go, Willie.

Thanks for the memories and a great concert.