Live From the Last of the Breed Tour (2007)

I’m going to focus strictly on tracks 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, and 16. These are the only tracks on which Willie performs. Track 7 is Merle’s “Okie from Muskogee.” Merle starts the song off, but after he sings the line “We don’t smoke Marijuana in Muskogee…we don’t let our hair go long and shaggy like the hippies down in San Francisco do,” the crowd goes crazy, I’m guessing because Willie walks on stage as Merle utters that ironic line. Merle would seem to be singing this song against people like Willie. And yet Willie proudly sings it. Willie is proud to be an Okie from Muskogee, but he is equally at home in San Francisco. The paradoxical cosmic cowboy at his contradictory best. A living contradiction. Emerson would be proud. A genius. Like Ray Charles. Unafraid of contradiction. Frost said the sign of genius was being able to hold contrary ideas in your head at the same time without losing your sanity. Eliot called it negative capability. Whatever you call it, Willie is doing it on this track. Embracing it, basking in it, smiling beatifically, Siddhartha-like. Then Willie opens “Pancho and Lefty” on track 8. Willie sounds good for 2007 and 74 years old. It’s a duet with Merle, but Willie seems to carry the lion share of this song. The guitar work features prominently between verses. Merle’s voice sounds surprisingly strong as well. Track 9 may be one of my favorite versions of “Always on My Mind.” I give it 5 stars. I have a half dozen versions, but this live one is special. It opens with just Willie’s voice and a little understated guitar and piano, then the steel kicks in and the drums and bass and Mickey’s harmonica. The song gathers momentum and rises pleasingly to a crescendo. “Ramblin’ Fever” with Merle on track 11 has a nice, relaxed yet bouncy tempo. Willie “caught this ramblin’ fever long ago.” And “if someone told you I ever gave a damn, they damn sure told you wrong.” Here’s the hakuna matata Willie. He simultaneously cares and doesn’t care at all. And you can’t believe either. And yet it’s hard to get mad at him. He seems to believe both with such gusto. His art and music somehow persuades you that both can be true, at least in his songs, on his albums. Mickey’s harmonica joins the jam toward the end of this 4:53 track. Amazing that Willie is starting to explore these Grateful Dead kind of jams so late in his career. They seem to be more of a young man’s game. Willie then joins Ray Price on track 12 for Floyd Tillman’s “I Gotta Have My Baby Back.” Willie’s gotta get drunk or he’s gotta have his baby back or both. “Alone in a tavern,” Willie is listening to “songs of memories making me blue.” The sax fits the mood of this piece nicely. It’s always good to hear Willie sing with Ray. This is, I think, the 12^th version of “Crazy” I have, and it ranks up there with the best. Ray joins Willie and Mickey’s harmonica. And then a fun version of “On the Road Again.” Willie plays with the phrasing. Mickey’s harmonica seems to be singing back up. Willie lets Merle solo on guitar. A lot of energy in this closing number. I’ve got a half dozen versions of this song, and this one isn’t the best, but it’s strong.