Nashville was the Roughest (disc 8)

This disc includes Willie’s July 9th, 1966 concert at Panther Hall in Fort Worth, Texas.  While this concert can also be found on the “Live Country Music Concert” album (which I have already reviewed in a previous blog), the Bear Family has included three songs that did not make the original live album.  Just another reason why serious fans need to own this box set.  According to the liner notes there were some minor overdubs made to enhance the recording, but it remains one of Willie’s best albums.  I first reviewed this album in May 2010, and it stands up to repeated listenings.  The liner notes list the musicians as Wade Ray (bass), Jerry “Chip Young” Stembridge (rhythm guitar), Johnny Bush (drums), and Willie (vocal/leader/electric guitar), and an overdubbed steel guitar.  It’s strange to see Willie in a picture from the concert playing an electric guitar and not his nylon-stringed acoustic companion and soulmate, Trigger.  Willie sings “How Long is Forever” (track 9) the same way he does on his studio album, holding the pause after “how long is forever” unbearably long before he relieves the audience’s anxiety with “this time.”  There is no better example of Willie flirting with time and the audience’s expectations.  These recordings of Leon Payne’s “I Love You Because” (track 13), Willie’s “I’m Still Not Over You” (track 14), and Hank Williams’ “There’ll Be No Teardrops Tonight” (track 15) did not make the original album, but I have no idea why.  They are as good as or better than any of the other tracks, but maybe they are too slow and understated.  Not sure where else you can hear Willie play live with such a quiet back-up band.  At times it’s almost like a Grateful Dead concert during the space/drums portion of their concerts.  It’s a wonderfully jazzy, trippy, experimental version of Hank Williams, if that is even possible.