Live at Billy Bob's Texas (2007)

My kids don’t like Willie Nelson’s music, but they’ve listened to so much of it in the car this year that even they can tell good Willie from bad Willie. My son Jack pointed out on the ride to school today that these were not very good versions of these songs compared to others we have listened to this year. Willie is talking through many of the passages of these standards rather than singing them. He even farms out the vocals for “Workin’ Man” to sideman Jody Payne. The liner notes say he play for 3 hours when he does Billy Bob’s, so I can understand why a 77 year-old man might get weary during such a set. The remarkable thing about this album is that it’s the same band and the same songs from the 1974 Texas Opry concert 33 years ago. I much prefer the 1974 concert, but still. The family is still rockin’ into their 70s. I’m interested to compare this Funny/Crazy/Night Life medley to others I’ve heard this year. This time around I noticed the lyrics to “Help Me Make It Through the Night.” Kristofferson seems to be asking, “Help me navigate through time, the viscosity of it, the resistance of it. Help me be finite, limited, mortal, human. Help me make it through the night that is life. Help me make it through life as a human, bound by time. Help me face my own humanity and live it out. Help me be fully human.”