Posted by: wifiguy14k on 07/07/2004 20:50:32

The Willie Nelson Fourth of July Picnic in Fort Worth was very much a multi-generational “thang.” There were tie-dyed fans old enough to be my parents, and on the other hand, my son was there.

Accordingly, it seemed an entire new batch of outlaw musicians were poised, ready to accept the country/rock/Americana baton – while paying homage to their older mentors.

For example, there is a new “CCR.” It once meant Credence Clearwater Revival, exclusively. Now there is this college country rock phenom … Cross Canadian Ragweed (emphasis seemingly on weed).

And what about that braided look which once belonged to Willie Nelson, Tonto and no one else? Again these Oklahoma CCR guys are in the right place at the right time. The new braids are moving in. Cody Canada, frontman for Weed so-ooo looks the part … Golden braids, motorcycle boy sunglasses and tattoos in all the right places … and a barefoot swagger.

I tend not to get obsessed with performers, more accurately I take note. Whatever “it” is, these guys have it.

And this isn’t just my observation … I watched the crowd for 10 hours and even more acts. No one got the reception I witnessed for CCR – and they played in the hottest part of the day …

On stage CCR, particularly the frontman had this *bleep*y, rock god thing working. But out of the spotlight, backstage in talking with him, Cody is as soft spoken and gentle natured as anyone you can imagine on the brink of country hippie superstardom. Actually, before the CCR set I saw him carrying guitars and stuff on stage. I though he was a roadie – an extremely hip one. After the set, he chatted a bit and scoffed saying the band would “never be too big to carry their own stuff.” We’ll see …

My favorite backstage moment? CCR alternated between talking to fans and venturing back to the comfort of their tour bus. Then when Merle Haggard’s personal bus pulled up, the CCR guys were there quickly. Wanting to meet the legend and get an autograph on Cody’s guitar from – as Pure Prairie League so aptly put it — “The greatest country singer alive.”

“I’ll change your flat tire Merle
Don’t you get your cotton pickin fingers all covered with oil.”

— Pure Prairie League

Other young guns too … Django Walker, son of card-carrying country outlaw Jerry Jeff Walker … (the original “Up Against The Wall Redneck Mother”) played a nice set … barefoot. Willie’s son Lukas also played guitar several times … very reminiscent of a young Stevie Ray Vaughn.

But, obviously, the majority of the 20,000+ crowd turned out to see Willie Nelson. The Redneck nation hung around as long as the concert sponsors would let them. But, by the end of the night, it was a much more subdued crowd. And alas, a more subdued show. Willie – bless his hippie heart – was coming off carpel tunnel syndrome surgery and couldn’t strum a note. Oh but that voice, smooth as Tennessee whiskey.

Sadly, there seemed to be widespread sound problems as Willie and friends played a first set … with everyone taking turns on vocals … as if they were trying to track down a mike that worked. But the band played on.

Toward the end of the night, Willie and Family finished it off. Fireworks filled the sky as the legend delivered … “Whiskey river take my mind …”

And there I sat, stage left, on top of a bank of speakers, loving the show but so disappointed. The only time I will ever be on stage with Willie Nelson I suspect, and he didn’t even have his guitar. I was picturing that faded acoustic guitar, with the extra hole worn into the wood from all those battles with the Red Haired Stranger.

To revisit the earlier braided hair metaphor … I thought it was interesting that Willie came on late in the evening, hair unbraided and free flowing from beneath his bandanna. Then, when Cody of CCR sang a little backup on stage with The Family, he followed Willie’s lead and went unbraided for the first time all day. (Do as the master does, “grasshopper” …)

Speaking of long flowing hair, albeit snow white, earlier in the day Leon Russell delivered quite a set from his keyboard. How many truly unique people/artists can you think of? Russell has played with anyone who matters. His sense of style is somewhere between Dr. John, Screaming Jay Hawkins, and Jimmy Buffet — in a white boy, Oklahoma voodoo kind of way. And his musical stage presence is so out there too … anything from the tribal “Out In The Woods,” to a menagerie of Rolling Stones staples. (Say have you noticed that Starbucks is playing a few cuts off of Leon’s breakthrough LP, “Carney?”)

David Allan Coe had the braided thing working too … with his hair and his beard beaded and braided in dreadneck fashion. Oh my … I have seen him about five times over the years. Each time he is more Dixi-ecclectic … the first time I saw him in the late ’80s at Farm Aid — his thick ponytail braid went down his back and to the tip heels of his cowboy boots.

This rendition of DAC was some stars and bars, aging hybrid of George Clinton and Kid Rock. (David recently toured with Kid Rock.) Coe songs are self-proclaiming, laundry-airing autobiographies that are so clever they work, without seeming arrogant. He ranges from behind-bars ballads to rebel rap.

One of my favorites, Billy Joe Shaver, sweated through his mixture of happy tunes, songs of hurt, and encouragement for when the storms is over …. In the heat of the day … For ever clapping his hands like a kid, or clasping them together like he is about to thank God he is doing the job he loves. For the uninitiated, he penned “Honky Tonk Heroes” and many other classics.

Los Lonely Boys, had probably one of the tightest, smoothest sounds of the day. They swing from a harmonic, pop groove all the way over to scorched earth guitar solos — all from a bunch of guys from San Angelo, Texas. They sound so southern … Southern Cal, that is. I think they may have played the most under-appreciated set of the day … judging by body language and the signals put off by the 20,000+ sweltering souls.

Then there was the Kris Kristofferson dilemma. This guy can’t sing — admittedly so — but he penned a song that revolutionized the bandanna and the harmonica. Actually he is well known as one of the very best songwriters … even if I don’t agree. As he said, “It ain’t Dylan, but it ain’t bad.”

But, he definitely is an elderly statesman to be respected, a Rhodes Scholar and even a leading man. But most of all, he is Willie’s friend and confidante. So, I couldn’t believe it when Kris was booed and heckled by a few, throughout his performance. I was thinking two things “How rude,” and “Don’t upset him, or he may play all night.”

Most of the crowd seemed to scoff at the guy yelling “Communist,” but there also were people pretty skeptical of Kris’ lyrics and leanings.

Oh the times they are a changing. There was a time when a Texan wouldn’t disrespect a guy on stage, no matter how misguided his political opinions spewed out on the stage.

But this was different … there were the afore mentioned tie-dyed ones in the crowd, ready to embrace any word out of an artist’s mouth. Then there was the vast majority … music lovers who just wanted to enjoy music without conflict on this day of freedom.

What an awkward tension in the air, late in the evening on this Independence Day … a symptom of the growing polarity in this country? You’re either Republican or Democrat. “Right” or “wrong.” Your “fer us, er ginst us.” Yes, even among Willie’s followers, people seemed to take offense at the lyrics. Most didn’t shout “Communist” but it obviously got under their skin when the words criticized George Bush’s decisive, strong stance against an Iraqi tyrant. Yet, for the most part, their Texas hospitable nature was embarrassed by the heckling. A very weird, unexpected moment. And certainly no way to treat a friend of the host!

Yes, as they say, no matter how wrong Kris is, I respect his right to say it. It just seems he might have picked a better venue than Fort Worth, Texas on the Fourth of July.

Maybe someday Kris will right a song about the current propaganda film sweeping the nation … How ironic, the liberal left using a page right out of the fascist handbook to throw an election… And my goodness. Why all this division. Has everyone forgotten the hand-holding days immediately after 9-11? George Bush sounded pretty good to everyone when we thought we were about to be rubbed out.

Do we have to experience the next 911 to come back together? Our president just led us through the darkest day in American history — early in his term — and now we question his leadership. How soon we forget.

I digress …

So … this Willie Nelson event … some called it a picnic … but I think I have coined a new phrase. (Get the t-shirt printer ready…) “All Party and No Tailgate!” What a day!

Stay tuned.