Willie!

Last night we met for dinner, at Olive Garden, with two other couples from church and then went to the Willie Nelson concert at the Expo Center. In honor of the Bell County Expo Center's 30th anniversary, they sold all tickets for only $30 apiece. The tickets went on sale on December 2, and were gone 11 days later. Sadly, Dan and I were too late, and missed out on tickets.

But thank goodness for good friends! Andy and Kay had bought tickets for themselves and two other couples from church, but in the end, one of those couples couldn't make it, so we got to buy their tickets from Andy.

I was really looking forward to it. I wouldn't call myself a huge fan of Willie, but over the years he's done some songs that I really love - Always on My Mind is at the tip of my list. And, as I've said several times, "He's almost 84 years old, and he's a legend who won't be around forever." 

I guess he's already been "killed off" by Facebook and the Internet a number of times over the past few years. Those hoaxes prompted him to write one of the fun songs that he sang last night: "Still Not Dead Again Today.":

I woke up still not dead again today

The internet said I had passed away

Well if I died I wasn't dead to stay

I woke up still not dead again today.

I showed up to the Expo Center with my compact Sony camera, with a fully charged battery and its incredible zoom lens. Willie stepped on stage and I pulled it out to take my first shot . . . and that's when my camera gave me the sad message: "No Memory Card." I had left it at home (not the first time I've pulled this trick). I was so disappointed. Our friend, Andy, overheard me tell Dan that I forgot my memory card, but apparently misinterpreted what he heard. He said, "I think Kay may have one in her purse." Yea! Strange that she'd carry one in her purse, but what a lifeline that would be. Andy leaned over to Kay and whispered to her, and next I saw her digging in her purse. In no time she proudly held up . . . an emery board! I actually started to reach for it, and then burst out laughing. That Emery board just wouldn't fit in my camera's card slot! Ha! It was sort of like playing "gossip."

So, long story made short, all I had to take pictures with was my iPhone. I didn't get any good pictures of Willie, but got a few rather fuzzy ones.

The concert was really good. I had come with fairly low expectations, but he definitely exceeded them. He sang song after song, with almost no break between them. It was over an hour's worth of pure Willy Nelson. He did sing my fav, "Always on My Mind," along with some other old favorites, "Georgia on My Mind," "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," "Funny How Time Slips Away," and, of course, "On the Road Again." I was tickled at how he juxtaposed some great gospel music alongside of "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die." LOL

I'm really glad we got to go. Thank you Bell County for selling such reasonably priced tickets to everyone. And thanks to Willie & Family for a pretty amazing concert.

The Expo Center was filled to capacity. We had pretty good seats, just to the left of the stage.

Our seats were just to the left of the stage. This picture was taken from my seat.