Willie Nelson -- Stardust

December 10, 2023 1:18 PM

Willie Nelson — Stardust

Willie Nelson in concert at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland in June 2000.

In a jazzier take backed by a big band, Willie and Branford Marsalis trade riffs. Subtle and nuanced performances surround while he by no means dials it in but rather dials it up. Willie's singing is in a word, piquant.

Compare and contrast with the sweet spare majesty of the original:

Willie Nelson — Stardust

He is a national treasure and we are so blessed to have him still. But you knew that.

posted by y2karl (17 comments total)

WILLIE NELSON IS FINE.

We should probably mention that. The vague post headline spooked me.
posted by AlSweigart at 1:57 PM on December 10, 2023 [27 favorites]

I put an emdash in the title instead of a double hyphen and it collapsed. I have contacted the authorities and it should read Willie Nelson -- Stardust soon enough.
posted by y2karl at 2:03 PM on December 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

If fine means alive and touring, yeah, Willie's fine. But he's 90 and he has a few problems.
posted by pracowity at 2:09 PM on December 10, 2023

OK whenever an old famous person is mentioned please always use the verb of what they're doing, then the noun.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 2:35 PM on December 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

Well, 90 is past the you don't look a day older than... barrier by some years for the bulk of us olds of means by no means, but, as to how we feel -- by all means ask. Let us tell you about our operations.

Seriously, I think he shares with Bob Dylan the drive to play live concerts for as long as he can stand.
posted by y2karl at 2:42 PM on December 10, 2023 [3 favorites]

‘Tis the season, so here’s your reminder that his 1979 Christmas album Pretty Paper has the same producer (Booker T. Jones) and personnel as the Stardust album and makes a nice seasonal companion to it.

Willie Nelson — White Christmas
posted by non canadian guy at 3:17 PM on December 10, 2023 [5 favorites]

I had that cassette tape album; it's a pleasure to listen to. I am very fond of Willie Nelson; he seems ageless.
posted by theora55 at 3:23 PM on December 10, 2023

I think back on that “We are the World” type TV special after the 9/11 attacks. I guess Willy was supposed to quietly come in to support the closing lines of Clint Eastwood's creepy and overly long war drum speech but instead barged in with the hardest and most insistent notes a nylon string guitar is capable of. Clint looks a bit confused for a second.Willy singing America the Beautiful totally changed the vibe and provided that show's single moment of healing.
posted by brachiopod at 4:12 PM on December 10, 2023 [4 favorites]

Tin Hat Trio - Willow Weep for Me (with Willie Nelson)

Take It to the Limit - Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings
posted by Catblack at 6:08 PM on December 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

I posted about Stardust once before. For all its forest of dead links I add it now as a Previously. Because upon re-examination, it is so link laden that, dead though they most all are, the back story of the song is told in the surrounding text around them. For instance, Mitchell Parish wrote the lyrics.

For another, Postroad told the most charming story. And, for even more, Iconomy commented! I still miss Iconomy. That was a sweet thread.
posted by y2karl at 6:41 PM on December 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

That Stardust fpp and thread was the first ever post I favorited when that feature was introduced May of 2006
posted by wheelieman at 7:44 PM on December 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

I am easily irked by Jay Leno so maybe it's just that, but it rubs me the wrong way that he introduces this as "doing his classic, Stardust," because I'm guessing that even though it's a much-recorded standard, Leno probably didn't know that while Nelson has a long and celebrated association with the song, the music was written by Hoagy Carmichael. (Fewer people can name the lyricist (Mitchell Parish) and I'd be willing to give him a pass on that.)
posted by Nerd of the North at 8:35 PM on December 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

I went to the two day Willie Nelson 90th birthday bash at the Hollywood Bowl this past summer and then saw him again at Forest Hills. (Bob Weir and the Wolf Brothers opened for Willie at Forest Hills). Lots of covers by a wide range of artists at the birthday celebration. Even Keith Richards played (acoustic). Lots of stories about Willie smoking then taking the artists money at poker. "Are you guys high yet? Yes? Good, lets play poker." Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews and several others told similar stories of getting taken by Willie but it was all worth it.

Willie still looks and sound pretty darn good. His sons played with him. Lucas Nelson is touring with his band, The Promise of the Real. Just saw them at the Capital Theater.

Willie is a national treasure. I love me some Willie.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:58 PM on December 10, 2023 [4 favorites]

I assumed Nelson must have died when I saw the original headline too. Don't do that!
posted by Paul Slade at 1:16 AM on December 11, 2023

Ahem
posted by y2karl at 6:33 AM on December 11, 2023

He also wrote the classic standard "Funny How Time Slips Away". A lot of people don't realize what an amazing guitar player he was in his prime. His ability to comp and improvise over a tune while making it look so effortless is sublime.

Here is a version of him playing it in 1997 on the show Ralph Emery's Country Legends.. It is probably the best version of that song ever recorded.
posted by chillmost at 8:04 AM on December 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

His ability to comp and improvise over a tune while making it look so effortless is sublime.

Like a brook rippling over pebbles, bubbles streaming from a wand, leaves falling on a pond.
posted by y2karl at 10:01 AM on December 11, 2023 [2 favorites]