ABOVE: Willie Nelson, with his guitar Trigger, performs his standard show opener, Whiskey River, at the sold-out Palace Theatre in Stamford.
4/14/2009
Working as a photojournalist at the Advocate, you end up shooting quite a few concerts at the Palace Theatre, but I generally don’t get too worked up.
It’s editors John Breunig and Mark Conrad, both possessing an encyclopedic knowledge of all things 70s, who generally get much more excited about whatever baby-boomer pop/rock act is taking the stage that night. Needless to say, their enthusiasm seldom rubs off on me.
But Willie Nelson, now he is a different story. At 76-years-old, the man is a living legend.
For me, having the outlaw country icon make a stop in Stamford is huge, but it’s my friend Lexey, who hails from Bakersfield, who puts it best: “I love me some Willie.”
I couldn’t agree more.
–CP
POST SCRIPT: Billy Bob Thornton & The Boxmasters (and later Ray Price) opened for Willie. Minutes before the start of the show, representatives of Mr. Thornton’s band called the newspaper to tell us we would not be able to photograph the Boxmasters as previously arranged.
Presumably this has something to do with the recent flap which resulted in the cancellation of the band’s Canadian tour as the Stamford show was their first performance since the tour was called off in the Great White North.
“It sure feels good to be back in the United States of America,” said Thornton to the audience as he chain-smoked through his set.
For what it’s worth, they were pretty good.
BELOW: Ray Price, 83, rocks the graying house with some western swing. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’m sure I was the only 20-something in the theater who could sing along to his opening song, San Antonio Rose…I guess I’ve got my old man and his Bob Wills records to thank for that.
