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June 27, 2005

willie dillie

The difference between Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan is day and night. Dylan is the night. "All Willie lacked was the chicken wire," my dad, an old-time Dylan fan, disparaged. My dad remembers back in the early seventies when his army buddies would sometimes drive out to Willie's home town to hear his whiskey-infused honky-tonk.

Bob Dylan rocks it out in Eastlake, Ohio, in a concert with Willie Nelson.

And to think I had wondered before the concert which of these two performers had the bigger star power. My first clue should have been the rotund fellow who came out before Willie to plump for Willie's book, Willie's movie, Willie's four album releases in '05, including Willie's very first reggae album. He then whipped copies of these CD's into the crowd and left the stage.

Whipping things into the crowd is Willie Nelson's schtick these days I guess. He wore two hats and three bandana's on his head during the concert, and four of these lids he tossed to the crowd. Actually he tossed three of them out, the fourth, a bandana, he seemed intent on giving to some young woman to whom he had been winking, waving and making goo-goo eyes during his concert.

My dad and I went to the stand or sit on the ground area in front of the stage at the beginning of the concert. We sat through the delightfully named opening act: The Green Cards are an outstanding rockabilly bluegrass group comprised of four Aussies and one Brit. Nelson played a laid-back set, full of old medley-ized stand-bys. He waved to the crowd an awful lot. There was one bright spot in the concert; for his second to last number he sang a funny new song called Superman.

Willie Nelson, shortly before tossing out hat number two.

It wasn't until after Willie & co. went offstage that I realized how light the crowd had been during Nelson's set. As Dylan's roadies began to buss the stage and setup his gear, the crowed began to flow in around us. Whereas for Nelson, people stood on the blankets they had spread out, with some four to six feet of space between you and your neighbor, we were standing shoulder to shoulder by the time Bob and the Band appeared. I looked around and found that I liked these people better than the ones around for the Nelson set. The Dylan people had shorter hair, looked like they had jobs and smoked less pot. There were more loners too; generally the Nelson crowd was there in groups of two to six.

The sun was setting as Dylan and the Band strode out, unpreambled by any schlocky product pitches. Bob wore a ten gallon stetson; the same hat he would later wear as he walked off stage. Dusk settled down as the footlights rose. The night was here, the tempurature had dropped a couple of degrees, and Bob Dylan, with stage presence rolling off of him, without speaking a single word, launched into the first song of an hour and a half long set of heartfelt gospel, soul, blues and rock. And that's the moment when I really wished Dawn could've been there.

Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan performed in Eastlake, Ohio at Classic Park on June 26th.

Posted by joel at June 27, 2005 01:08 AM

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Posted by: k_sra at June 28, 2005 11:46 AM

Posted by: Dabu Heebly at June 29, 2005 06:00 PM

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