Live from Austin, TX: Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson IS Austin City Limits. He was the first guest on the program way back in 1974, and the aesthetic of the televised show is more or less founded on the values that Nelson cultivated when he relocated from Nashville back to his native Texas in the early '70s. The idea was to be loose, play it true, and always keep the audience close. Those values are at the core of this recording, which documents the master’s ACL appearance on September 6, 1990. The setlist is a celebratory run through what had slowly grown to a vast catalog of signature songs. Willie is backed by “the Family,” his longtime outfit of close friends and musical soulmates: sister Bobbie Nelson on piano, Bee Spears on bass, and the legendary Paul English on drums. The venerable Nashville guitarist Grady Martin is also onboard, bringing soulful flourishes to tunes like “Nightlife.” This band has played these songs, literally, tens of thousands of times, and yet they are not rote—they still allow for new creases and new comforts, like a well-loved rocking chair. Willie himself is always at the center, exuding both Zen calm and a deep sense of fun, two qualities that are fused in his idiosyncratic guitar solos.