Willie Nelson and Micah Nelson Credit: Photo by Josh Bradley

Willie Nelson made it blatantly clear to a sold-out Florida Strawberry Festival crowd that he would rather flub and ultimately abort new songs in his set than ever solely rely on a teleprompter.

“We gotta have the words to this one, folks,” he admitted, having stopped “Busted” and “Tiger by the Tail” prematurely, both tracks from I Don’t Know a Thing About Love, a Harlan Howard tribute album that released some fifteen hours before the show. “‘Do something you know’ is what Mama said,” he added.

Nelson—pickled in ganja and rapidly approaching his 90th birthday—still managed to tackle over 20 songs in an hour last Friday afternoon. Once onstage with The Family—now down to four members, including his youngest son Micah—Willie, sporting a straw cowboy hat that would soon come off to reveal his trademark red bandana, grabbed good ol’ Trigger, took a seat, and launched into “Whiskey River,” which segued into “Stay a Little Longer.”

Even with the lingering thought that Willie’s sister Bobbie—a founding member of the Family—has been gone for almost a full year, those still in the band remain as tight and hands-on as ever. Drummer Billy English—brother of Paul English, another co-founding Family member who died this decade—spent most of his time looking down and keeping perfect time on a single snare.

Bassist Kevin Smith (no, not Silent Bob, you nerd) just celebrated 10 years playing with the Family, and played a big hand in instrumentation when one of the Nelsons was taking a mid-song pause. And harmonicist Mickey Raphael, the band’s only surviving founding member, was going to town on his mouth harp nonstop, from beginning to end.

Then, there was Micah Nelson, younger brother to Lukas, who is now off playing with his own Promise of the Real project. While Willie was technically playing the role of lead guitar—having strummed and plucked numerous solos on Trigger—Micah’s rhythm acoustic guitar work and backing vocals made the band really come alive, in lieu of someone else replacing his late aunt’s piano position.

He was even given select spots to present his own Particle Kid projects, including attacking social media and cat videos on crowd favorite “Everything Is Bullshit,” and duetting with his dad on “Die When I’m High (Halfway to Heaven),” which the latter technically co-wrote. According to the junior Nelson, during a game of dominos one day, his dad made the random comment about his death, and then challenged his openly intrigued son to write a song about that, which he ran to the garage and did.

Willie Nelson and Family Credit: Photo by Josh Bradley

The Family barely scratches the surface of who Willie has worked with in his life, and he made a point to salute his friends and heroes across every era. He made us think about those who have left us—through death, or anger—on Chris Stapleton and Rodney Crowell’s “I’ll Love You Till the Day I Die,” and stuck it to music executives on “Write Your Own Songs,” which he originally duetted on with fellow Highwayman Waylon Jennings.

Willie even gave an artist significantly younger than him a chance to hit the stage with him. Lzzy Hale of Halestorm—which was set to take the same stage a few hours later—came out from stage left, and sang extra backup vocals on “I’ll Fly Away.” No one could fathom throwing on a leather jacket over a Dio t-shirt on an 86 degree afternoon in March, but priorities, I guess.

It’s obviously not a Willie show without his better-known country anthems sprinkled in, either. The crowd sang the titular part of the chorus to “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” and “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die” probably had a sprinkling of the sprinkling of hippies in the crowd reconsider their funeral plans.

And I’ll bet you anything that when Willie initially penned “On The Road Again”—which was probably his 2020 mantra—he never would have guessed he’d be playing it on a tour that celebrates his impending 90th birthday.

“Check him out on Bandcamp,” Micah joked while introducing “I Thought About You, Lord,” an “old Willie Nelson song, written by an old Willie Nelson.”

Maybe we will. The guy doesn’t use a teleprompter and might get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. How bad can he be?

Setlist:

Whiskey River
Stay a Little Longer
Still is Still Moving to Me
Move It on Over
I Never Cared for You
Die When I’m High (Halfway to Heaven)
Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys
Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground
On the Road Again
You Were Always on My Mind
Everything Is Bullshit
Good Hearted Woman
Georgia (On My Mind)
I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train
I’ll Love You Till the Day I Die
Roll Me Up
Write Your Own Songs
Busted (aborted)
Tiger by the Tail (aborted)
Funny How Time Slips Away/Crazy/Night Life
I Thought About You, Lord
Will the Circle Be Unbroken?
I’ll Fly Away (with Lzzy Hale)
It’s Hard to Be Humble