IT was hard to tell where one song ended and the next began at Willie Nelson’s San Jose Civic performance on Sunday. It was more like a tidal wave of Willieness that washed over the audience. It was even hard to tell if he was going into or out of a medley at one point, the songs just poured out, one after the other. I’m tempted to think this has something to do with his advanced age—he’s still touring at 76—and a desire to get it all out while he still can. Except that I’ve seen Nelson before, and I know this is just how he wants to play it. The man who brought the hippies and the rednecks together has never had much use for boundaries and borders.
There’s something overwhelming, too, about the sheer iconic quality of song after song. “Still Is Still Moving to Me” to “Night Life” to “Crazy” to “If You’ve Got The Money (I’ve Got the Time)” to “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.” And then it ramped up from hits to superhits with “Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” “On the Road Again,” and “Always on My Mind.” It makes you forget this guy has any songs that weren’t hits.
Nelson is looking weathered and scraggly, but then, didn’t he always, kind of? Oddly, no one seems to worry about this being the last Willie Nelson tour, the way they did recently when Leonard Cohen (who’s a year younger) came to town. It’s as if everyone expects this guy to just play until he drops, and considering the way he’s barely willing to pause even to end a song, maybe they’re right.
