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Willie Nelson's timing

Oddly

Oddly

Jan 17, 2014
6,514
34,825
Dublin, Ireland.
#1
Recently I've been playing along to a few Willie Nelson tunes with a view to doing them in a covers band.
I've never really listened to him while playing.
It may be just me, but he surely has an 'interesting ' approach to timing and phrasing.
The guy's a legend, of course, and I have to say I love how he puts his own spin on everything ...
but I think I'd be terrified to back him...




 
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#8
All I know about Willie Nelson is that he's a POS. Around 1994 I had broken up with my girl. She started dating someone else. I went to her apartment to reconcile one evening, she was willing, but was getting picked up by a guy who was taking her to a Willie Nelson concert.

She was so proud to be able to stick that in my face... extra excited that the guy rang her bell as I was standing there.

Women.

Willie.

Not sure if his timing has anything to do with me and my incident, but karma is a strange and powerful thing.
 
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#9
Oddly said:
but I think I'd be terrified to back him...
Click to expand...

Many would be. I saw an interview with Bee Spears (Willie's late bass player) just before he passed away---he stated that Willie takes the stage with no pre-arranged set list and never tells the band what song is coming next. He also pointed out that Nelson has over 300 tunes committed to memory and that any one of them could come up at any time.

That would definitely scare the s*** outta me.
 
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#10
Joe Nerve said:
All I know about Willie Nelson is that he's a POS. Around 1994 I had broken up with my girl. She started dating someone else. I went to her apartment to reconcile one evening, she was willing, but was getting picked up by a guy who was taking her to a Willie Nelson concert.

She was so proud to be able to stick that in my face... extra excited that the guy rang her bell as I was standing there.

Women.

Willie.

Not sure if his timing has anything to do with me and my incident, but karma is a strange and powerful thing.
Click to expand...

Jeez, Joe.
I don't see how Willie gets blamed for that.
Maybe if you'd offered to bring her to the concert...
 
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#11
One of the BLs I play for is a Willie Nelson impersonator who has over 150 WN songs on tap. This is in addition to all the other classic country that he knows. Bu he keeps everything in very straight meter & time.... Makes for a fun evening.
However, I wouldn't want to back someone with WNs vocal phrasing.... He's too herky jerky for me to try to follow.
 
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#13
Joe Nerve said:
All I know about Willie Nelson is that he's a POS. Around 1994 I had broken up with my girl. She started dating someone else. I went to her apartment to reconcile one evening, she was willing, but was getting picked up by a guy who was taking her to a Willie Nelson concert.

She was so proud to be able to stick that in my face... extra excited that the guy rang her bell as I was standing there.

Women.

Willie.

Not sure if his timing has anything to do with me and my incident, but karma is a strange and powerful thing.
Click to expand...


So, lemme get this straight. Willie is a POS 'cause the guy who was banging your ex over 20 years ago was a fan of his?
 
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#14
Producer and bassist Don Was talked about backing Willie Nelson in the May June 2016 issue of Tape Op magazine*.

"I personally find Willie Nelson to be as expressive as John Coltrane, the way his phrasing is so inventive . . . "
interviewer: I've seen him baffle his band a couple times!
"He'll **** with you too. He'll pull a phrase back so far that it's into the next line, and if you don't know where the 1 is, you're ******."


*subscriptions are free!
 
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#17
Nev375 said:
So, lemme get this straight. Willie is a POS 'cause the guy who was banging your ex over 20 years ago was a fan of his?
Click to expand...

Relax. Have a sense of humor. Joe was just lamenting a past event that still stings a little.....in a funny way. He didn't LITERALLY mean it was Willie's fault. Read it again. It's funny.
 
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#18
I've seen Willie live a few times. His band is always grinning. They love what they do. (OK yes, I admit they're probably high as well.) Seriously though, they all look like there's no place else they would rather be. He's an original. He's doing his thing. I don't love everything he does. But I love that he does everything he does like nobody else.
 
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