Steve. The first time I saw Willie was at the Horeshoe Tavern in Toronto. He wore a shiny business mens' suit, played a green Baldwin electric guitar (don't remember the model) had shortish greasy hair and sang a lot of Hank Williams. He was fine, but not as exciting as the guy in the previous week: White suit - white Tele - REALLY greasy jet black hair, and a hit country song that used a 1-b7-4-5 chord pattern, and modulated 3(!) times. The song was "Mental Revenge". Do you know who the artist was?

The next time I saw Willie was at the C.N.E. with about 20,000 others. The show was astonishing. Grady Martin, Mickey Raphael, Bobby Nelson, Bea Spears, THE Paul English! Hoo Boy! They kicked off with "Whiskey River" and just tore it to shreds. Oh man, Willie, with his Martin classical, Baldwin ceramic pickup, and Baldwin blue and silver amp(I had one, but couldn't make it sound like that!) just totally kicked ass for two hours.

One footnote to that show: My lady of 5 years,Pam, told me during the third song that she'd fallen in love with a married guy from Winnipeg, and that our relationship was over. We were both in shock, but Willie's music helped ease it. Lesson: if you're gonna split from someone, tell 'em during a Willie show. 12 years later, I still remember it as a great night!!