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June 01, 2004
Highlights & Lowlifes
If you look up "eclectic" in the dictionary, there'd be a picture of this, which we watched last night. Interesting mix of performances, some more interesting than others.
Excellent:
- "Shotgun Willie", Kid Rock & Willie.
- "Mama Tried", Merle & Toby Keith.
- "Cisco Kid", Los Lonely Boys & Willie.
- "We Had It All", Keith Richards & Willie.
Cringeworthy:
- "You Win Again", Bob Dylan & Willie. Either by themselves would've been great....but their styles just don't mesh. Stop it.
- "Stormy Weather", Shelby Lynne & Willie. Shelby Lynne is a surprisingly good little torch singer....and if the music had been played at normal tempo instead of the trademark Nelson hopped-up-on-crack frenetic beat, this would've been a thing of beauty. Instead, she never got a chance to really open up and belt this song out like it deserves.
- "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", Carole King & Willie. Not the performance, which was adequate, but the song. It's stupid. It should be named "You're Not Going To Call Tomorrow Are You" or as Mike put it, "Respect You In the Morning? Hell, I Don't Respect You Now".
Painful In A Way That Makes You Want To Puncture Your Eardrums With Chopsticks:
- "Comes Love", Ricky Lee Jones & Willie. Sheer butchery of one of my favorite Billie Holliday tunes. Baby-girl voice from what looked like the world's oldest barfly combined with the absolute inability to stay onbeat. Even my dogs were begging for the sweet release of death before this atrocity was finished.
- "Overtime", Lucinda Williams & Willie. Should be used in "This is your voice on drugs" commercials. It was that scary.
- "Still Is Still Moving To Me", Toots Hibbert & Willie. Toots was good. But when Willie joined in, Mike started cracking up laughing & hooting "Warning! White Man Dancing!" If I were kind, I would say that reggae is not Willie Nelson's forte. Actually, it was like watching your 80 yr. old grandmother perform with Public Enemy. Painful, but unintentionally hilarious.
Rating: 3 out of 5 cicadas. Worth watching but not twice.
Posted by Rita at June 1, 2004 08:24 AM
Comments
I was, frankly, disturbed by Willie and Stephen Hawking's CD of nude calypso duets.
Posted by: Steve H. at June 1, 2004 02:03 PM
I loved and hated the same ones you did.
I so wanted to blog about the concert ahead of time because of what I'd read about Willie and Los Lonely Boys (Los Lonely Boys being among my current top 5 bands) but held off because of Memorial Day. Hard to believe that those young men are all early 20's, isn't it?
Posted by: Da Goddess at June 1, 2004 02:58 PM
I find it hard to believe anything disturbs you, Steve. Unless it's someone using Hellman's on a sammich.
Goddess, Mike said he saw them at a local club when they were 15 or 16 and they were great even then.
Posted by: rita at June 1, 2004 06:11 PM
Yup... them boys blew me away. I think they were working under the name of "The Garza Brothers" in 1999.
I was walking past George's Majestic, bent on making it an early night, and heard them tuning up... When they broke into a fine version of Belly Button Window (Hendrix, Cry of Love), I paid the cover, got a seat in front and stayed til the last encore. I sat mesmerized for about four hours listening to them play Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Los Lobos, Clapton... you name it, they played it, note perfect.
That was the only time I've ever heard a bar band play an obscure Hendrix song and get it exactly right. Smooth, round guitar, rockin' rhythm section, great vocals. I've been wondering where they went... now I know.
Posted by: Mike S at June 2, 2004 06:10 AM
Rickie Lee Jones made one of my favorite albums. I love her self-titled album.
And then I saw her perform on Saturday Night Live. She was lit like an arc welder. Seldom have I seen a more incompetent performance.
Posted by: Keith at June 3, 2004 11:42 AM
Rickie ain't done sh*t since Tom Waits kicked her to the curb. She's been sued twice for using other people's songs without permission and without paying royalties.
Posted by: Mike S at June 4, 2004 10:42 PM