MUSIC REVIEW : Memorable Music From Nelson, Russell

Willie Nelson and Leon Russell are old friends who recorded an album together in 1979 but who only got around to playing their first concert as a duo Monday night at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

They made it a memorable one--a special evening of rich, varied and utterly informal and uncalculating music-making. Perhaps the most heartening and exciting thing to come out of it was that these two beyond-grizzled veterans each offered striking new original material.

Nelson and Russell had taken the gig--two shows on Monday and two more scheduled for Tuesday--on barely a week’s notice, and they played the opening night without benefit of rehearsal. That off-the-cuff approach led to some tentative moments early in their first show, and Russell’s use of a string synthesizer posed an unwelcome intrusion. But the two found common footing with gospel songs, a frequent stylistic call for Russell, who avoided his signature rock and pop hits. They also got some help from Nelson sidekick Mickey Raphael on harmonica and embarked on a fully satisfying sequence of songs that had the in-the-moment and for-the-moment impact of music played just for the feeling and pleasure of it.

Nelson mainly chose his own hits, but they were hardly routine run-throughs. In this unadorned, up-close setting, we saw how exquisitely he can capture a moment’s reverie tinged by powerful emotion--a quality infused as much in two new ballads as in glowing renditions of “Always on My Mind” and “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground.”