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Bandanas at the ready
Pete Clark, Evening Standard

Stetsons off to Willie, if you please. The grand old man of C&W has just turned 75 and he doesn’t look a day older than when he first became world-weary. Willie takes the stage dressed in black and wearing a hat. This would feel like some kind of apostacy, were it not for the fact that the more fervent elements of the audience are similarly betopped, not to mention half of his band.

You know what you’re going to get with Willie, and he doesn’t disappoint. This is a greatest hits set — his and others — and the Lone Star flag at the back of the stage lets us know that we are all Texans for the evening. He engagingly trundles through such classics as Crazy, Whatever Gets You Through The Night, Me & Bobby McGee and Always On My Mind.

While it would take a churl to be unmoved by these, what is remarkable is the old-timers proficiency on an amplified acoustic guitar. If Clapton is God, Nelson is Zeus. Also, there is that voice: equal parts spliff, magic mushroom and tax problems.

The backing band is immaculate, the stars being a drummer who kicks up a storm on a snare drum with two brushes, and a harmonica man who sounds like he is playing in the bar next door (and all the better for it). Finally, Willie whips off his hat to reveal the trademark bandana.

As the concert enters its climactic moments, the bandana goes, too. For Willie, this tantamount to a striptease. Hats off.