16 May 2007 (gig)
03 June 2007
People at work thought that I liked weird music, until just before the Willy Mason gig. For the first time in a very long time, they recognised the band that I was going to see. "Yeah, Willie Nelson, we know him".....until it dawned on them that it was another Willy that I was going to see....Willy Mason. Ok, they still thought it was a bit weird that I would be going to see a country legend in Shepheard's Bush...
Just before Willy arrived on stage, I kept on thinking, who would call themselves Willy? If you called yourself that in England, oh the punishment that you would endure from those around you. It would be endless. It somehow works when you are American and a gifted guitar player... In fact, I couldn't think of a better name that somehow conveys the effortlessly cool Mr Mason's demeanor.
He looks like he's not even trying, before he even plays a note. He's dressed in a lumberjack shirt that suits him even more than it ever did Kurt Cobain. His baggy jeans and messed up hair, continuing the the chilled out theme.
Willy starts playing alone with an accoustic guitar like he once did, before the band filter into their positions and join in. Part of me would have liked to have seen him continue to play solo but the band do fill the room with bass, guitar, drums, violin, and occasional banjo, creating a very polished sound. The violinist/banjo player almost steals the show from poor Willy, her immense talent and stage presence, almost upstaging Willy's..
It's obvious from the outset, that she adds more than her fair share to the night.
Willy even acknowledges this by leaving the stage with the rest of the band, allowing her to play alone, which ends in the audiance giving her rapturous applause!
Not having listened to the second album, I'm sat here listening to songs for the very first time, which usually makes it a diffilcult task for me to do. I'm usually hyper critical, but not tonight. Old favourites from his debut album aare jumbled up with new songs, and they just sound like classic Willy Mason. But there's one song absent, which keeps on getting shouted out between the other songs....and of coarse, it's Oxygen.
And encore follows the main show and still no Oxygen...until the second encore, when he strolls back on stage, saying that he almost forgot to play it. As if!
It's Willy and his accoustic guitar, sounding brilliant together. A great end to a great gig!
