Willie Nelson is alive and kicking

Nobody goes to a Willie Nelson concert to hear the guitar solos. Nor do his fans anticipate new songs. Heck, most people don't even expect to hear great singing.

Three months after celebrating his 75th birthday, though, ol' Willie sure did show new signs of life at a sold-out concert Friday night at the Grand Casino Hinckley Amphitheater. His guitaring was alternately fierce and elegant. His handful of new songs were a pleasant kick. And would you believe his voice sounded refined and virtuosic?

Nelson and his otherwise unchanged Family band were hit with guitarist Jody Payne's retirement this year. The 30-year Family veteran was missed in rowdier tunes like the opener "Whiskey River," "Good-Hearted Woman" and the 2002 hit "Beer for My Horses."

As the lone guitarist for the night, though, Willie compensated elsewhere in the show by simply playing the bejesus out of Trigger, his haggard, holy old Martin acoustic guitar. He appeared to be fully recovered and perhaps even better off following 2004 carpal-tunnel surgery as he spiked "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground" with soft, jazzy interludes that would have suited his new album with Wynton Marsalis ("Two Men With the Blues"). Meanwhile, "Bloody Mary Morning" was turned into a hazy, heavy jam that Jerry Garcia might have loved.

Mentioning his surgery, Willie said, "The doctor said I needed to go home and shut up, so I wrote a couple songs."

He ended the concert with a few of those new numbers, including two about his own fallibility, "I Ain't Superman" and "You Don't Think I'm Funny Anymore," the latter of which belied its title. Nelson also threw in a daunting new one he wrote with his daughter Amy, "A Peaceful Solution," which the 5,700 fans (ranging from senior-age casino regulars to tattooed punks and tie-dyed hippies) ate up.

"I don't write too many protest songs, but I did write this one," Nelson warned, going on to sing, "When the war is over and we've done it/Let's remember how we done it so we don't have to do it again."

As for his singing, Willie dug deep and shined like a diamond in the rough during such mellower gems as "Till I Gain Control Again" and the Kris Kristofferson-penned "Moment of Forever." He also did well improvising through "I Gotta Get Over You Again," which he sang as a bluesy dirge, and Hank Williams' "Move It on Over," transformed with jazzy scat vocals.

The only way that Willie did show his age was by ending the show right before the 90-minute mark, when past gigs often went past two hours. Even if he was watching the clock, though, at least he wasn't playing by the numbers.

chrisr@startribunecom • 612-673-4658