Willie Nelson at the Point

The red headed stranger played the first of two nights at Dublin's Point Theatre last night and I was lucky enough to be there. Due to a mix up with a flight from Oslo, my old mate, The Coff, had to miss out but luckily the Weazel was more than willing to step in although due to his working hours, we didn't get out till eight. This meant that I managed to get in the sum total of TWO pints before Willie took the stage at about 9:15. This stands as some sort of terrible record and is, by quite a long distance, the most sober I have ever been in that barn.

That Willie could fill the Point for two nights at the age of 74 with an all acoustic band is some achievement, that he could get away with charging €70 for about an hour and a half is another story and one I'm not delighted about.

Although is voice is starting to show a bit of wear around the edges, the show was a great one. The Band were stunning, apart from the drummer, playing a single snare, who seemed to get ahead of himself a bit at times, and a frankly superfluous "percussionist" (the drummer's brother as it turns out, jobs for the boys) who looked like he'd wandered in straight from a geography teacher's convention. Special mention goes to "Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground" (which resulted in many a grown man experiencing a "There's something in my eye" moment), "On The Road Again", a fine selection of Hank Williams numbers, Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard covers and a great new song which was called something like "My Heart Has Settled Back To Earth". And when is the last time you saw a show where the artist let the crowd approach the stage towards the end for photos and autographs.

The voting starts here for the headliner for the Midlands Country Festival during the summer. Give Willie a shout.