Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90

I'm a big fan of Willie Nelson. I've been listening/buying his music for decades. I probably own fifty of his albums. I've read most of his books. I've also seen him live at least ten times. In fact, I'm probably the only guy on Long Island (NY) who drives around with a "Willie Nelson for President" bumper sticker. I'd put my Willie fan loyalty up against anyone's. So don't get down on me for not liking "Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90" so much. It was a heartfelt show, no doubt about it. But it was one version of Willie that meant more to the performer than it did to me after another. And when they shove out on stage a frail looking Kris Kristofferson, I actually got a little annoyed. I don't think it was fair to Kristofferson or the audience. Now when Willie comes out, the show takes off. But I have to be honest, the only thing that stayed with me about the show was Kris Kristofferson. I wish we both skipped this show.

Kick back and take a watch and or a listen to some of the best living current country-folk-rock artists and movie celebrities all coming together for two nights at the Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl in April 2023 to celebrate Willie Nelson's 90th birthday. Some apparently disparate folks play music or introduce artists. Imagine on the same playbill: Helen Mirren, Keith Richards, Warren Haynes. And the Avett Brothers, Bob Weir, Woody Harrelson. And Owen Wilson, Neil Young, Lukas Nelson. And do not forget Snoop Dogg. And many others. Most musicians get just one song and then take a bow. Notable exceptions include Billy Strings and Lukas Nelson. And of course, Willie. I hope my voice is as strong as his when I am 90, but sometimes I could have wished that the sound mix had been a little louder on his voice. Best to catch this in movie theater. No promise yet that it will available for later internet streaming.

A friend got two free tickets so it seemed like a nice way to spend a Sunday evening. We went in unaware of the run time. Oops. Way, way too long. I found myself wanting it to end before even 2 hours had gone by. That would have been plenty. Six stars because maybe about half of the musical performances were okay, to good, to very good. And the theater we were in had a very good sound system. The rest of the music-meh. The direction and editing were generic seen-it-a-hundred-times in other run of the mill concert docs. Very few of the scenes lasted more than 3 seconds before a jump cut, and the cameras were constantly panning and zooming. Panning. Zooming. Panning and more zooming. Why do the employers of these techniques think that making the audience feel like we're in a low hovering drone is a good thing? And after about every five or so of of the jump cuts we'd get the obligatory up close three second audience shots of smiling, happy fans dancing and singing along. Lather rinse repeat. On and on it went, one performance after the other. After two hours of it, I was struggling to stay awake. And the celebrity emcees, Ethan Hawke, Helen Mirren and Woody Harrelson among them, added very little to the proceedings and were pretty lame. You'd think that for such a monumental milestone as a musical icon's 90th birthday, they could have gotten a director with some imagination and creative vision instead of settling for a three hour long, bygone era MTV/VH1 music video. Willie deserved better.

Everyone loves Willie! 90 years old, all smiles! This movie is a gem, very thankful I got to see it on the big screen. I loved seeing local Denverites Nathaniel Rateliff & Wesley Schultz. Loved seeing Willie on stage with so many other musicians. Could have done without Billy Strings, but I get it, everyone needs to push him in our faces 24/7.

My only complaint, no Sturgill Simpson. Sturgill is the greatest musician alive, and hadn't played live for years before this performance. I felt deceived, with Sturgill Simpson on the poster for this movie, but leaving him out of the film, not cool.

If Sturgill was in this movie, I would give it 10 stars.

Saw this one at the Burbank AMC and it was spectacular.

Off the top of my head, the standout performances were Willie's sons Micah and Lukas. Micah delivered his original song "Die When I'm High (Halfway to Heaven)" with a ton of soul. Lukas performed my favorite Willie song "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground" flawlessly.

Dave Matthews killed it on "Funny How Time Slips Away," super sparse and bare bones soul. Beck brought some major vocal mojo with his performance.

Others include Mr Soul aka Neil Young, Sheryl Crow, Norah Jones, Billy Strings, Lyle Lovett, Tom Jones (?!), Rodney Crowell, Booker T, Chris Stapleton, Lumineers, along with many others, and a brief appearance from Emmylou Harris delivering the most goosebumps.

Of course Willie brought it all home at the end. Long May he run.