Willie Picnic Week: Memories

I started attending the Picnics in 1995 and haven't missed one in Texas yet (though I only attended a small portion of the 2003 Picnic).

Here are some of my favorite memories from the Picnics:

EIGHT: Shooter Jennings makes his Picnic debut at Fort Worth in 2006, a decade after his dad's last Picnic performance. His performance of "4th of July" made my hairs stand on end.

SEVEN: David Allan Coe stuns Fort Worth in 2005. The few times I'd seen the Outlaw before, he put on a tired show of medleys, touching on all his hits. As it turns out, before this Picnic, he'd been working with Pantera and Kid Rock and erupted with a Picnic performance that was half metal, half Kid Rock and all attitude. Love it or hate it, it was one hell of a performance.

SIX: Dwight Yoakum makes a surprise appearance at the 1997 Picnic, jamming with Joe Ely for a couple of Buddy Holly songs. I'd only be mildly interested if Dwight were scheduled to play the Picnic, but having a true surprise guest was really cool. The fact that he meshed so well with Ely and that they picked a perfect pair of songs made it kick ass.

FIVE: Arriving at the Picnic in Southpark Meadows in 2000 and finding the San Angelo music community near the front of the stage. I've gone to Picnics by myself, with one friend, with family, with several friends, but only once with a town.

FOUR: Willie comes out and plays "Pancho and Lefty" with my friends Jimmy Lee Jones and the Texas Hill Country Band in Luckenbach in 1996 or thereabouts. That's the scene, above. It was cool because I knew these guys and how much it meant to them to jam on stage with Willie at a Picnic in Luckenbach.

THREE: Robert Earl Keen's 1995 set in Luckenbach ends with a newly-revved-up version of "The Road Goes on Forever" and the crowd erupts, tossing empty beer cans into the air until the scene resembles some sort of giant redneck popcorn popper. If I close my eyes I can still see Keen ducking a half-empty Shiner can spiraling toward the back of the stage.

TWO: In Fort Worth in 2005, Billy Joe Shaver ends his set on one stage and Bob Dylan starts up on the other. Texas' most celebrated living songwriter to America's most celebrated songwriter. You don't see something like that very often.

ONE: Waylon and Willie in Luckenbach in 1996 tops them all. It had been a blisteringly hot day in a summer of drought, dust everywhere, concert-goers in sad shape. But to see Waylon on his first and only visit to Luckenbach sing "Good Hearted Woman" with Willie … that rocked. It might have been the first time in a dozen years that a performance of "Luckenbach, Texas" in Luckenbach, Texas was not a tourist cliche.