Willie Nelson, Richmond Fontaine
Recommended
This event is in the past
Sun., July 24, 6:30 p.m. 2016
sold out
Over the years, I've heard everyone from rural construction workers to crust punks refer to the honey-voiced living legend of classic country as a rebel or a badass. But anyone who's taken even a shallow dip into Willie Nelson's sprawling catalog presumably finds this perception as curious as I do, given that the vast majority of his recordings are either tender-hearted ballads or adorable, cheeseball covers (see "The Rainbow Connection," "Wind Beneath My Wings"). His rebel status seems based more on his collaborations, longevity, and real life run-ins with the law—for things that aren't especially wild or shocking (weed, tax evasion)—than in the bad behavior songs that defined the work of Johnny Cash or Merle Haggard. Nelson's 1962 debut is just as sappy and lounge-y as his 2016 album of Gershwin covers, and even his legendary 1975 cowboy concept album Red-Headed Stranger is more about heartbreak than lawbreaking. It's an unusual but ultimately ideal variety of badass country rebel he's created: an anti-war, bio-fuel company-owning, LBGTQ-supporting octogenarian who's more interested in singing about feelings than guns. JOSHUA JAMES AMBERSON