Outlaws and Angels (2004)

This is Willie live with friends in LA in 2004. He opens with a rousing rendition of Billy Joe Shaver’s “Georgia on a Fast Train.” “On a rainy, windy mornin’ on the day that I was born in my old sharecroppin’, one-room country shack. They say my mamie left me the day before she had me. Said she hit the road and never once looked back. I’d just like to mention that my grandma’s old-age pension is the reason why I’m standin’ here today. I got all my country learnin’ milkin’ and a churnin’, pickin’ cotton, raisin’ hell, and balin’ hay.” Though Billy Joe wrote it, it clearly describes Willie’s life. His mama left him early in his life, and his grandmother raised him. Joe Walsh and Toby Keith accompany Willie on this opening tune. Clearly this song fits into the “on the road” nature and theme of Willie’s life and music. It also shows the blending of sinner and saint, outlaw and bodhisattva, that runs through Willie’s life and work. “I got a good Christian raisin’ and an eighth grade education.” Of course someone born to a mother with a wild streak and raised by a good Christian grandmother would be a hybrid of both. Willie’s life and work strive to reconcile these twin extremes. Merle Haggard then joins them for Merle’s “Ramblin’ Fever,” another quintessential “on the road” song. Gotta keep moving so you don’t bog down. “Ain’t no kind of cure for my disease.” Can’t let “no woman tie me down.” It’s like a fever that Willie can’t fight or control or outgrow. It afflicts him like a disease. He is the passive victim of forces outside his control (like his mother leaving him). This version of “Shotgun Willie” with Kid Rock is not my favorite, but I admire Willie’s audacity in giving it a shot (pun intended). Not sure why they keep chanting “Shotgun Bobbie.” Are they referring to his sister, or is Kid Rock’s real name Bobby? Kid Rock is clearly the outlaw today, so he is a fitting partner in that sense. I like the funk of this version. Not sure who the woman on back-ups is (liner notes list three possible women), but she belts it out with Kid Rock. The harmonica must be Mickey Raphael. The liner notes simply say that the house band and the family band are both there and help out on different songs (though it does mention that Mickey is in both bands). And then, of course, a gospel song with Al Green. Right after Fast Train and Ramblin’ Fever. The yin and yang of Willie’s life. “Rainin’ in My Heart.” We will see on this album the themes of rain, storm, and midnight. “My love for you is an eternal one.” And yet it rains. “Why can’t it be like it used to be…Somebody ought to stop the rain…Lookin’ at the Sun, it’s rainin’ in my heart.” “It seems like only yesterday we were so in love. We were lookin’ at the sun but somehow it keeps rainin’ in my heart.” It’s “Funny How Time Slips Away” all over again. Why can’t love be true and last forever. Rain and the storm and midnight and the fallen world of autumn and seasons and change and time ruins perfect love, and yet leads to such beautiful emotions and songs. Why does pain yield great art? Why do we suffer into beauty, suffer into truth? “Stormy Weather” with Shelby Lynne is a five. Her voice is angelic. “Just can’t get my poor self together.” “Since you went away the blues walked in and met me.” I just pray that the lord will let me sit in the sun once more. “Doesn’t he have the prettiest hair you ever seen?” Shelby asks the crowd. I saw the video of this performance on YouTube, and Shelby is flirting big time with this 70 year-old man. I love Carole King, and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” fits perfectly with this theme of “Why can’t love last forever” songs. “Tonight you love me completely” (ah, but what about tomorrow? Will it last? I think not, though I hope so.) “BUT…will you still love me tomorrow?” “Is this a lasting treasure, or just a moment’s pleasure?” This applies to Willie’s view of love, but also to his overall view of life. Is there more to life than just the physical pleasures of the here and now? This is the existential question that lies behind all of Willie’s music. Is this all there is? Or do we see glimpses of more? Glimpses of eternity? Glimpses of deeper, more lasting joy? “Can I believe the magic of your sighs?” “Tonight with words unspoken, you’ll say that I’m the only one.” But then time will slip away, and you’ll find another faster than you can blink an eye. “I’d like to know that your love, is a love I can be sure of.” Wouldn’t we all like to be sure of an eternal love? And this leads to the gospel music that follows and that Willie ends the show with (“I’ll Fly Away”). And it’s back to Augustine’s “Our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.” But Carole, like so many others, steals the song from Willie and won’t give him space to sing. Shelby let him sing, but Carole blasts him off the stage. And after a few gospel tunes and a woeful folk ballad, of course Willie has to return to his “on the road” theme with “Still is Still Moving to Me.” This is not one of my favorite Willie tunes, but I like this reggae version with Toots Hibbert better than the straight up versions. And it’s great to hear Willie perform with rock stars (Joe Walsh and Keith Richards), gospel stars (Al Green and The Holmes Brothers), folk stars (Carole King), and Country stars old and new (Merle and Toby). He moves easily between and among them all. He is not of them and yet he is at home with them all. Gregg Allman’s “Midnight Rider” continues the “on the road” theme. Al Green, Carole King, Kid Rock, and Toots all have to scream to achieve the emotional impact that Willie achieves with a whisper. Ironic. Willie performs musical ju-jitsu. Somehow he uses the listener’s own emotional momentum against them. Like a vocal slingshot he swings their own yearnings back upon them. His voice merely re-directs their own desires. This version with Ben Harper has more of a soul/gospel/blues feel with a back-up chorus and an electric lap slide guitar solo (and, of course, Mickey’s harmonica). “Ain’t gonna let ‘em catch me, no.” Just keep runnin’ and outrun the blues. “Pressure Drop” with Toots and Ben Harper doesn’t do much for me (possibly because I don’t understand the lyrics). “Pressure’s gonna drop on you.” Is this a revenge song? “I’ll Never Be Free” is an ironic song for Willie to sing. Someone who lived his life so free and recklessly yet admits that he has been a slave in so many ways. A slave to freedom. Freedom can be a tyrant. It’s not as good as “Stormy Weather,” but Lee Ann Womack tries. “No one can satisfy this longing in me.” “How can I be free when I still remember.” Memory enslaves us. “Just like a chain bound to my heart. Your love remains when we’re apart. Each kiss I gave to you…made me a slave to you.” Reminds me of Luther’s “Bondage of the Will” and the notion that within bondage comes true freedom. “Opportunity to Cry” may be my favorite Willie song, and this is not one of my top five versions of this song, but I love the audacity of this version with the Holmes Brothers that Willie claims is a “blend of blues, funk, and soul.” It sounds like Otis Redding singing Willie. Just as Ray Charles turned soul into R & B., Willie turns traditional honky tonk cheatin’ songs back into gospel tunes. So Willie started out singing in church, then he went country and Hank Williams, but then he comes back to gospel. Same with Johnny Cash. He comes full circle in so many ways. He broke free from Nashville, but then he goes back to recording with the very studios that he fought to escape. But this time he does it of his own volition, as in Wordsworth’s “Nuns Fret Not Their Convent’s Narrow Room.” Los Lonely Boys’ “Cisco Kid” doesn’t do much for me. Again, not sure what the lyrics mean, and Willie sits this one out. Then Merle and Toby join Willie for “Pancho and Lefty.” Toby can’t hang with his heroes, but it’s touching that he tries. It isn’t one of my top five versions of this song, but it’s worth owning. “Overtime” with Lucinda Williams is a five for sure, but I’ve already reviewed this song in an earlier blog. Again, I’d like to hear a whole album of duets with Willie and Lucinda. Merle’s “Mama Tried” is another song written by someone else seemingly about Willie’s life. Mama (or grandmother) tried to raise Willie right, tried to reign in the ramblin’ impulse. Be even Mama couldn’t keep him true. Mama and God are like the bass line, the melody, from which Willie’s life and vocals deviate, always behind or ahead of the beat, but then resolving for brief moments, always coming home, if only for a short while. Always coming or going, always just passing through. Always wishing he could stay, but only half-heartedly. He teases us vocally and morally. He lies musically. He seems to promise one thing, then delivers another. This song is another version of “Georgia on a Fast Train.” Here, though, he accepts the blame. He doesn’t excuse it as a “fever.” “I turned twenty-one in prison doing life without parole.” “That leaves only me to blame ‘cause mama tried.” I think the dead do this song. Rickie Lee Jones may be the only person with a stranger vocal delivery than Willie. She and Willie tackle “Comes Love” along with a jazzy combo of bass, trumpet, and piano. When it comes to love, “Nothin’ can be done.” We know how to face and bear up under any other form of adversity, but love baffles and defeats us every time. We are powerless, helpless in its presence. Nothing can be done about time, love, and the fallen human condition. This track gets better with each listen. It might be a five, too. I didn’t want to like “We Had it All” with Keith Richards, but it turns out Keith is on acoustic, and this is a tender ballad. And Richards sings better than I thought he would. “You are the best I can recall…I know we can never live those times again.” Everything was perfect in the past, till time slipped away. If only we could get it back. If only it wasn’t so slippery and elusive and fleeting. Reminds me of Adam and Eve. They had it all in the garden, but they wanted freedom, the open road, and they regretted it forever. “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On” is a ramblin’ wreck of a song with Jerry Lee Lewis, Kid Rock, Keith Richards, and Merle. Willie seems to be saying, heck, we had it all, it’s sad we lost if forever, but let’s rock and make the best of it. The pendulum swings from despair to hope to “screw it all” and then back to despair and hope, etc. Of course, it all has to end with the gospel. “I’ll Fly Away” combines the hope of redemption with the road. Except this road is not a road away from God and family but the road to glory, the adventurous, perilous, exhilarating road to heaven. A different road. The glory road. The road home. This song reconciles Willie’s desire for freedom and belonging. Willie refers to Bobbie as “little sister,” but of course she is two years older. The family band’s solos, except for Mickey’s, pale a bit in comparison to the house band. Nevertheless, this album’s a keeper.