willie is christ, sort of
Music: Between Interval: Radio Silence (2007)
Yesterday morning my colleague, Madeline Maxwell, emailed me to say that some seats for a benefit dinner did not sell and that I could have one if I gave as much as I could. The seats were normally $300.00 a pop, obviously above my modest means, but I did, at least, pay for my meal. And what a meal it was: for most of the evening I was less than twenty feet away from Willie Nelson!
Madeline heads up the Conflict Resolution Center, and trains students to mediate conflicts. They're gearing up for a new re-centering, as it were, and with luck, more resources to expand the enterprise. The benefit dinner was part of that fundraising plan, and Willie wanted to help ( I'll never forget the day when Madeline popped in the front office, somewhat dazed, to announce she just got off the phone with Willie Nelson last year; we were, like her, star struck . . . and this just after he had been arrested in Louisiana for having a bunkerload of pot in his bus!).
So the dinner recognized Willie for a career of using his stardom to help mediate conflicts and contribute to peace (Farm Aid, etc.). His children played a few tunes (all very good), and Ray Wilie Hubbard was simply phenomenal, but lo . . . Willie played a few tunes as well. It was stellar, and I must say I was "caught up" in the religious adoration of this man. He sounded good too (all the musicians were top notch). There's just something about him that says "nice guy," a certain sweetness (and a certain sadness) that bespeaks a unique form of "working man" charisma. As we listened to him play last night, I found myself thinking I've only had this sense of charisma around a few other musicians, and the one who immediately came to mind was Jerry Garcia. I've felt that star-struck feeling with Sarah McLaughlin (whose show I worked as an ugrad; she was the NICEST musician I've ever met) and Ali Shaw of the Cranes (who I still have an immense crush on).
In any event, the adoration in the room was so thick if you breathed deeply you'd cough. Little happy coughs. The whole thing was just friggin' awesome.
Here's a gallery of photos, which I had to take without my flash (sorry for the poor quality).