The Return of the Redheaded Stranger...

Willie Nelson returned to Abilene for another concert recently. With a distinct lack of nationally-known acts coming through town it's always cool to get a decent concert to come through town. Outside of Kansas just recently, I can't remember big concert here since the last time Willie came through town. This time, however, he had an opening act. His son, Lukas, opened up for him. It was a lot different from Willie. Lukas can rock out on the guitar. And if I were there for the concert I'd have probably enjoyed it a lot more. But, having been up against a deadline I spent most of my time staring at my watch hoping he'd be finishing up soon, so I could get a few different shots. Luckily it got over with enough time for me to get shots from up close and a few wide shots in the back and still get back in time to make deadline.

Willie

I've never been a huge fan of Willie Nelson, it's not that I didn't like his music, just more of an indifference thing, until just recently when I shot his concert. When I went down to pick up my passes from the promoter (Abilene isn't all the big and the Abilene Civic Center is 4 blocks from my office) , I asked him how many songs I had to shoot., so I could be prepared. This is when the shock set it. The promoter told me "Willie doesn't like song limits, his only rule is that you don't block a paying customer, so you can shoot the first two songs up from after that make yourself at home and just don't block anyone with a ticket."

Wow!! Even the most washed up of bands that have anything close to a hit put a song limit on their concerts. Hell, Foghat made me quit shooting after three songs! And they haven't had a hit since, what? The 70's? And Willie, who's been around forever and doesn't even need the publicity lets a photographer hang around for the whole concert! They even let me shoot from backstage.

And I must say, it was great to hear Willie sing "Georgia on my Mind." Not to mention the childhood memories I have of when my family would go to the laser show at Stone Mountain and all the rednecks would get up and cheer and toast their beers at the end of the show when they played Willie's rendition of the song.