SAHUARITA — Chances are the guy who was in the front row at Willie Nelson's sold-out show Sunday night will be among the first in line April 2 to snag tickets for Nelson's May 1 encore show.
That guy was a spitting image of Nelson: long, gray hair and beard, tall and lanky. When the singer tossed him a bandanna, the guy slipped it on his head to complete the look. He would easily have won a Willie Nelson look-alike contest.
The announcement that Nelson was coming back came before he set foot on the stage in front of some 2,500 fans. The crowd greeted the news with cheers, high-fives and a few high-pitched whistles. If those same folks turn up on April 2, they will surely tie Nelson's record 1-hour, 53-minute sellout for the Sunday show.
Even if Nelson returns and performs the same set he played Sunday, it will be worth it.
Nelson performed for two hours and was just as energetic at the end as he was when he strolled nonchalantly on stage with little fanfare, lighting effects or bold pronouncements that herald much younger country singers to the stage.
His show was what we have come to expect from the 73-year-old iconic country-bluesman: solid finger-picking on his scarred and worn guitar, and songs that lean more to blues than country. His trademark nasally voice — Nelson doesn't sing a song so much as coax it along — was stronger than you would expect. There were moments, as in the chorus of Hank Williams' classic "Hey Good Lookin'," when Nelson dropped the line, almost as if he forgot the words. But when he sang those classics, such as "On the Road Again," "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," and "Angels Flying Too Close to the Sun," he could've hummed the lyrics and no one would have minded.
Nelson and his Family Band, with sister Bobbie Nelson on piano, mixed new songs between the standards, including the aching ballad "Back to Earth," which was a perfect match for Nelson's vocal style; and the tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating "I Ain't Superman": "Too many pills / Too much pot / Trying to do too many things that I cannot / I ain't Superman."
He tipped his hat to fellow Texan the late Townes Van Zandt when he sang "Poncho & Lefty," then followed it up with the hilarious ditty "You Don't Think I'm Funny Anymore."
The gal in the latter song doesn't think he's funny, but that guy in the front row, wearing Nelson's bandanna, was laughing out loud.
Review
Willie Nelson at Desert Diamond Casino Sunday. Tickets go on sale April 2 for his May 1 concert at the Diamond Center. 321-1000.
