James Beaty: OPINION: RAMBLIN' ROUND: Willie and Family shine on 'Willie Nelson Live at Budokan'

Nov. 27—Sometimes I like to reflect on how a musical legend became so legendary in the first place.

What brought on this latest bout of reverie is the new release by Sony Legacy Recordings called "Willie Nelson Live at Budokan."

It's the release of an entire 1984 concert by Willie and his Family Band. Why Columbia/Sony Records left this concert in the vaults for so long is a mystery to me. It's among the best live albums I've ever heard by Willie and Family — or anyone else for that matter.

"Willie Nelson Live at Budokan" finds Willie and his Family Band smoking on all cylinders as they deliver a full concert recorded on Feb. 23, 1984 at the Nippon Budokan arena in Tokyo, Japan — the same arena where another band would record its breakthrough live album, "Cheap Trick at Budokan."

Willie's Family Band at the time included Mickey Raphael on harmonica; his sister Bobbie Nelson on piano; Bee Spears on bass; Jody Payne on electric guitar and his longtime friend Paul English, on drums. This version of the Family Band included a special guest who toured with Willie for several years — Nashville studio ace guitarist Grady Martin.

I guess Grady Martin was my first guitar hero as a kid — although I didn't know who he was at the time. All I knew was that the guy playing the lead Mexican-type guitar on Marty Robbin's timeless recording "El Paso" had to be about the greatest guitar player ever, playing a different melodic lead guitar run after every single line in the song without ever repeating himself.

It wasn't until years later that I learned his name was Grady Martin — the same guitarist playing electric lead guitar on the new album alongside Willie and Payne, the Family Band's usual electric lead guitarist.

I had the then-pending release of "Willie Nelson Live at Budokan" on my radar ever since I first heard it was in the works, but I began anticipating it even more when the first video from the album received an early release. Incredibly, to my ears, the live version of "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground" sounded even better than the already-magnificent 1981 hit recording of the song.

On the video release, one can see the slight smile Willie makes as he sings the lines about "trying to keep your spirits up, and your fever down."

He also tears loose with a jaw-dropping guitar solo on Trigger, the name he's given to his weathered and well-played classic Martin guitar. As Sony records dropped a few more early releases from the live album, including "Good Hearted Woman" and "Stardust," I concluded that "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground" had been no anomaly. It sounded as if the whole album was going to be smoking!

I've now confirmed that conclusion after listening to the entire album, which saw wide release on Nov. 18. I've also learned that PBS will be presenting a telecast of Willie and the Family Band's concert at Budokan, although the telecast date seems to vary roughly from Nov. 28 to Dec. 3. I wasn't able to confirm the airing dates in Oklahoma as this article was being prepared for publication. Watch your local listings folks.

Since this is purported to be the recording of an entire concert — as opposed to the stitching together of several performances which is the case for many live albums — perhaps Sony will release more albums of entire Willie concerts from its vaults, much like has been done with the Grateful Dead's live recordings. I hope that's the case.

"Willie Nelson Live at Budokan" opens with — what else? — Willie's signature concert opener, the Johnny Bush song "Whiskey River." I'm glad to see it's the full version, the one including the bridge where the tempo changes and Willie sings "I'm drowning in a whiskey river" as opposed to the abbreviated version he's mostly played for a number of years now.

It is a little jarring to hear Willie then go into "Mona Lisa." What happened to the three-song run of "Funny How Times Slips Away," "Crazy" and "Night Life." Oh well, maybe Willie figured his Japanese fans wanted to hear his own hits, instead of songs he'd written, but were recorded first as hits by other artists.

"Willie Nelson Live at Budokan" is excellently-recorded, with the album's production overseen by Raphael, Willie's longtime harmonica player. It includes songs from virtually all of Willie's hit albums that followed "Shogun Willie" with a few exceptions. There's nothing from "Phases and Stages," but there's a four song run from "Stardust," including "Blue Skies," "All of Me," "Georgia On My Mind" and "Stardust."

Which brings me to quandary. Like I said, Grady Martin was my first guitar hero, but one of my favorite musical activities is listening to Willie pick lead guitar lines on Trigger. On the live version of "All of Me," Willie indeed picks out the intro on Trigger, but then Martin plays the lead guitar break in the middle of the song on electric guitar. He does the same on the live version of "Stardust."

I guess I'll have to consider it the best of both worlds. I'll listen to "Live at Budokan" for some of Martin's lead guitar and go back to the original hit recordings for more of Willie and Trigger.

Not that Willie doesn't play plenty of dazzling guitar on "Live at Budokan." If anyone's forgotten how smoking hot the Family Band was when playing alongside Willie, the new album should serve as a reminder as well as an introduction to younger music fans who may have wondered what all of the fuss was about in the first place.

"Willie Nelson Live at Budokan" retails at several online outlets for around $29.95 — but if that sounds a bit high, the set includes two compact discs and a DVD — all choked full of musical goodness. The two discs contain a hefty 29 tracks, with 26 performances on the concert DVD.

Hearing "Willie Nelson Live at Budokan: reminded me of how I once faced a difficult decision, musically speaking. The renowned music and rodeo promoter Ken Lance had signed a week's worth of outstanding country music artists to play at his Ken Lance Sports Arena near Stonewall, with the artists performing on consecutive nights.

I faced a dilemma or a blessing, depending on the way one looked at it. My dilemma lay in the fact that I had only enough money to see one of the artists.

However, that could also be considered a blessing, since I did have enough to see at least one of them.

I quickly honed in on the two artists I most to see perform — but after that, it didn't get any easier. They both were artists I had always wanted to see perform live and at that point I'd never got to see either one of them in person before. Who knew If I'd ever get the chance again?

My choice came down to Willie and George Jones — two already legendary performers. For a couple of days I went back and forth, then finally settled on Willie. Once I'd made my decision, I felt good about it.

Sure it was tough missing a chance to see the great George Jones in what promised to be an up-close-and-personal setting, but I'd long liked Willie Nelson's music — even before he hit the stratosphere during that outlaw country era.

I liked a lot of Willie's early recordings of songs dating back to the 1960s, such as "The Party's Over." He'd also had a country radio hit with "Blackjack County Chain" — now that's an outlaw country song for sure.

I'd also learned wrote that Willie had written a number of songs that were hits by others — including "Crazy," recorded by Patsy Cline, "Night Life," by Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys and even a rhythm and blues recording I really liked, "Funny How Time Slips Away" by Joe Hinton.

So I'd already been familiar with Willie's music prior to his breakthrough as a cultural phenomenon, with those Atlantic Records albums such as "Shotgun Willie" and "Phases and Stages."

I think that proved to be one of the reasons for choosing Willie over even as great of an artist as George Jones. I'd get to see the guy who wrote all of those legendary songs.

Willie did not disappoint. Willie and his Family Band took to the stage and played for about four hours! Willie and Paul English obviously considered Ken Lance a close friend.

Since seeing that first Willie's show at the Ken Lance Sports Arena, I went on to later attend so many of his shows I lost count — either at music festivals, at Willie Nelson Picnics, on concert stages and when he played outside on the Southeast Expo Center grounds when McAlester celebrated its centennial in 1999. I even saw Willie play again at the Ken Lance Sports Arena, where Ken always made sure I had a backstage pass.

I never did get to hear George Jones perform live — but I'd make the same choice if I had it to do all over again.

When Willie Nelson and Family were cranking on all cylinders, as far as I'm concerned they were a contender for the title of the best band in the land.

Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com,