The Setlist series of live CDs draw together familiar live material with some rarer, more obscure tunes. Featuring remastered tracks, new liner notes, photos and additional bonus material, the Setlist series, hot on the trail of the Playlist series, might prove a good bet for even the most diehard fan who thinks he or she has every live track their favorite band ever played.
It doesn’t get much better than live Willie Nelson. It’s no surprise that the 12-song Setlist: The Very Best Of Willie Nelson Live is as good as it gets. Starting with some early tunes like the opener “I Gotta Get Drunk” with its walking bass and pedal steel, the medley “Mr. Record Man/Hello Walls/One Day At A Time,” and “Touch Me,” Nelson is is vocally on with what had to be an early incarnation of his road-weary band. We get a soulful 1966 duet of “Good Hearted Woman” with Waylon Jennings from Willie Nelson Live, and a slow “Funny How Time Slips Away” with that wailing, sad harmonic behind the vocals.
Fast-forward a decade or so to a slightly slow swinging “Crazy,” a slightly jazzy “Night Life,” and the trifecta of “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain,” “Georgia On My Mind” and “Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground.” A tweaked “On The Road Again” ends it all, the only live track here really to be sweetened up with a few overdubs and some flubs taken out, as it is from the Honeysuckle Rose soundtrack.
There are five albums represented on this CD: Live Country Music Concert, Willie Nelson Live, Wanted! The Outlaws, Willie And Family Live, and the often forgot, 1980’s Music From The Original Soundtrack: Honeysuckle Rose. Simply put, Willie Nelson live is as good as music gets.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
