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| 09-08-2003 | Previous edition: 09-05-2003 |
        
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Printer-friendly version Nelson 'intoxicates' audience with performance
Features Editor Somewhere between Willie Nelson's concert-opening rendition of "Whiskey River" and his twice-sung version of "Beer for my Horses," Friday night's crowd at the Elliott Hall of Music became intoxicated with the 70-year-old country star's music. Nelson and his Family Band performed a two-hour set in front of a nearly sold out crowd that found sport-coated professors and University administrators sitting next to long-haired, leather-clad motorcycle enthusiasts. But if Nelson's crowd was diverse, so was his choice of music. Following "Whiskey River," Nelson slowed the pace slightly with "Good Hearted Woman" before slowing the pace even more for "Crazy" — a song written by Nelson but made famous by Patsy Cline. Throughout the concert, Nelson would excite and mellow the crowd as he played a litany of fast, foot-stomping songs, like "If You Got the Money, I Got the Time," followed by mellower, low-keyed songs, like "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," that gave the first-half of the concert a knee-jerk feeling that failed to capture the atmosphere of Elliott Hall. Besides introducing his band members, Nelson remained distinctly unattached to the crowd, responding to applause with only a "Thank you very much" before starting up the next song. During some songs, like his off-beat rendition of "Me and Bobby McGee," the country outlaw seemed a bit tired, as if age or a hectic touring schedule, which had Nelson playing at Ball State the night before, had finally caught up to him. It wasn't until Nelson launched his midnight black cowboy hat into the crowd and donned his trademark red bandanna that the musician seemed truly at ease with his crowd. With the opening guitar rifts of "Beer for my Horses" — Nelson's latest hit — a groundswell of excitement by concertgoers created a distinct change in the concert's atmosphere. People got up out of their seats, middle-aged women began dancing in the aisle — if you consider bouncing up and down while waving your hands back and forth "dancing" — and Nelson's energy level surged, so much so that he decided to play "Beer for my Horses" a second time. Nelson then broke into a trio of Hank Williams's songs — "Hey, Good Lookin'," "Jambalaya" and "Move It on Over" — before starting the band and the crowd into a resounding country and gospel montage that included "Will the Circle be Unbroken" and "I'll Fly Away." Hands clapping in the air, arms directing the crowd to sing along, Nelson cemented his grandfather-of-country-music image, looking more like a tent-revival song leader than a hard-drinking cowboy. And then, with the crowd on its feet and cheering for more, Nelson sang "Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms," threw his bandanna into the crowd and drifted, like a man who's done this 10,000 times before, off into the night. Printer-friendly version |
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