Sometimes Lightning does strike!! Musician friend Scott Kettner who is leader of the group Nation Beat was featured on an NPR segment in August about Nation Beat's new CD "Legend's of The Preacher". But I'll let Scott tell this story in his own words...
Willie Nelson + Nation Beat: "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
"The same night that this piece ran I got an email from a stranger with
no subject. The email read something like "Hi...I'm Willie Nelson's
manager. I want to talk to you about the Farm Aid concert in
September. Please call me". I thought it was a prank so I googled the
guys name and sure enough it was Willie's manager. I called him
immediately. He said he had heard the piece on NPR and that he hadn't
heard a band so original in a very long time and that he was now a
Nation Beat fan. He told me that he knew Willie would love us and
would want us to perform at Farm Aid and that Willie would like to sing
2 songs with us. As I tried to keep myself from crapping my pants I
thanked him and told him that we were available for the date.
"Two days later Willie's manager called me again to inform me that
he had just got off the phone with Willie and that he had downloaded
the CD and listened to the whole thing in his tour bus. He said that
Willie loved our CD and would love to have us perform at Farm Aid and
would also love to come sing 2 songs with us! Holy Shit!! That's all
I could say!!
"As you all know...Willie is an American music icon. He has crossed genre's and redefined American Country music for a span of over 40 years. I grew up listening to Willie...."On the Road Again"..."Mamma's don't Let Your Baby's Grow Up to be Cowboys" were theme songs from my youth. Getting the stamp of approval from such a great artist is something that one can only dream of. This band (Nation Beat) has worked soooo hard over the past 6 years. All the guys have dedicated much of their lives and sacrificed so much but for such little monetary return so often. Having this stamp of approval from Willie makes all those hard years more than worth it! This might just be one of the greatest moments in our (my) career thusfar."
As the above video shows The concert happened on September 20th. Check out Nation Beat's Music here
Great story! Being a huge and long-time fan of Brazilian music, it's great to see a band like this making this kind of headway! And not some in some trendy world music hotspot but Farm-Aid, right up there with Steve Earle and Neil Young - who'd a thunk it?
Posted by: Oryx Orange | October 11, 2008 at 05:50 PM