The Texas Troubadours -- Willie Nelson, Leon Rhodes

[MarkOpee1]

incredibly --- bad!

[sankstone]

Ah.....a little faster if you can stand it........Is Leon hot or what ?

[Joann1athena]

love Willie's voice and phrasing- Thanks for posting!

[revolutionroom]

Kinda like stoned guidance counselor Willie better than stoned hippie Willie. Regardless, no contending he is ripped as fuck in this video.

[bzrdhd]

All I know is that the music Willie ended up making was as bad or worse than the music he claimed the folks in Nashville were forcing him to make. I'll take Wynn Stewart any day.

[MrMartindane]

Like him better as a stoned hippie

[fraterlucifer888]

this is too fucking awesome for words

[starboydc]

This is one of the greatest vids out there...WOW! x 100 Smokin' Troubadors an' Wade Ray....most just as importantly a Smokin' Willie on that jazz beat. OMG, does it get any better than this!

[pwea1]

Wow ! Leon just rippin' it up like the stratosphereic player he is .. makes me love the band more and more after all these years .. thx for the post .

[cretinbob]

Obviously the days before he became a pot smoking hippy.

[TIWICI]

Now I know which side of her family my friend Connie gets her eyes-- Definitely the Rhodes side-- Her uncle Leon Rhodes is playing guitar back there on the stool! :)

[cywinstanley]

Anybody know what 'Swanee' refers too? Perhaps a misspelling of the Suwannee River down Georgia way?

[cretinbob]

@cywinstanley do a search for "Swanee River" and listen to the Alma Gluck, Efrem Zimbalist 1915 version. The rest are crap. "The Old Folks at home" is the other name. The Suwanee River is in Florida.

[theshustergroup]

ha ha no that's JACK GREENE on drums - he later became a big country vocalist and is still singing today (2011) and the guitarist is Leon Rhodes, a brilliant player who Ernest had to rein in. "Keep it close to the ground, boys" you could hear Ernest say whenever Leon and steel player Buddy Emmons would start to get too fancy in their playin.' Honestly there was nothing those pickers couldn't do, but working for Ernest they were actively limited to playing very simple riffs again and again.

[jimmyglitch]

Tabs, please! :D (But in all seriousness, I would take them and learn 'em. May not get the same tempo down...EVER...but really like Leon's change on his break right before the 4.)

[TheDarmardar]

fantastic. 

[tombenjammin]

leon rhodes is THE best guitarist of all time, he dosent need distortion

[crayhead]

Think Willie invited the 4 hunnies back to the bus??

[csunrise421]

REMEMEBERING THE BLUEBIRD CAFE FIRE OF 1972 in Montreal, QC Canada

[tricolorpicks]

Leon is awesome.

[styleomatic]

Leon's tone!!!  that is all

[AMEwrestling]

The pre-hippie Willie Nelson. This is something I don't see very often.

[retrogamah]

The guitar player blows up my mind! 

[Mufaso1000]

I swear that guy on the violin looks like Sergeant Carter's brother.

[hogansteel]

Yeah except for No!!!!

[capitalismforever]

I had no idea Jack Greene even played the drums...and he's dam good!!!

[Jaybird1103]

@capitalismforever Jack Greene plays drums as seen in this clip, (Take that Justin Bieber) as well as guitar. He and another Texas Troubadour, Cal Smith, had excellent post-Troubadour careers.

[Mufaso1000]

Gee, ain't it funny how time slips away?

[impala327]

Who does he think he is? Billie Holiday? LOL! Miles Davis loved Willie's phrasing...

[richardcwood]

There's Jack Green on the drums.

[overandout58]

clean cut willie.

[goffbum]

that looks like Jack Green on drums.......

[mysnakeeye]

Wowo, sicerely, Willie looks much gorgeous now :)) also his voice is great too :))

[cronosbray]

Wow.  I've never seen Willie this young. Too cool!

[chumbels]

see... you little punks,,, this rocks... and you dont know why.. do you?....

[beccak5469]

OMG Kyle Busch is playing drums!!!

[jhlville]

@beccak5469  Now that's funny!!!! Kyle must be Jacks long lost love child.....

[steve0308]

@beccak5469 looks just like ole shrub except he's not flipping the middle finger

[apossibleworld]

This is all craziness! They're clearly having a blast. Dig how Leon throws in those "whole tone" riffs and then smiles about it. And I can't even get started on Willie. Brilliant.

[coy0te9]

Love it, Uncle Willie's all over the beat letting his jazz show.

[dgtxdutch]

This was when Willie could sing 'em but could'nt sell 'em! My kind of Willie music-pre '70! Great to see Wade Ray in there. RARE to see fiddle in ET's crew. Straight Western Swing! THANKS for posting!

[BarnacleBillsBastard]

I love Willie's lag. Straight up Tillman influence.

[dgtxdutch]

@BarnacleBillsBastard Bob Wills did the same thing with that meter when he would sing. I figure they learned that from the likes of Bessie Smith!! Only in TEXAS!

[gamoonbat]

Let's join ET and Bon!

[greekflatpicker]

Kind of a kitch video,but Leon Rhodes KISS ASS!

[mikkmikkus]

Fave clip, dig the backup chicks. Go the Willie.

[oscardgrouch1968]

Pure gold!

[KittraKittra]

Good God! Love that Leon Rhodes. (guitarist. Kicks ass!)

[CodyCEngdahl]

Wow! I'm so used to seeing Willie as the long-haired pot-smoking hippie.

[case139]

And this is the Willie before all that. This was the earlier part of his career back in the 1960s, and in that time, he was established as a well-known songwriter, writing so many songs for many artists. Nevertheless, a great piece of history!

[mkwbmh]

So glad that Willie ventured out and gave Nashville the finger...musically this is great, but I really like Willie when he was "Willie."  He's a legend...

[jay08641]

What a treasure! Thank you so much for posting this.

[loubob11]

wow

[JackOpry]

My buddy Leon still tears it up, love to listen to these. :)

[pjtrenthem]

amphetamine guitar

[laslos3]

yes! I think that the Texas Troubadour's were possibly THE best band in the world! The could pull off any country style... This is western swing, but they also did several waltz's with ET... then again, they did just about EVERYTHING with ET... So since I am now just needlessly filling internet space with my ramble I will say one thing...

GREAT VIDEO! POST MORE!!!! ;-)

[songsofwillienelson]

@laslos3 seeing you're a willie nelson and texas swing fan, we're paying tribute to willie and bob wills with a documentary recording called "house of wills", i'd love to hear your thoughts on the project? Just click on my username or to get to our channel

[kg4muc]

Ole "Pug Nose" Wade Ray was laying the bow in there solid !! It's amazing that now days they can't produce a show like that with practice and these were done live to tape for the most part!

Wt

[kencc4791]

kg4muc, These days there ain't this much real C&W talent around. After Leon and Buddy who you gonna get. :-) The 'chicken picken' players only take you so far IMO. Ray Price's band was pretty hot in the '60s. Charlie Harris and Day or Emmons. Price had 3-4 really hot fiddle players during this time. Generally the Troubadours were THE band

[assfax]

God dang Leon is ripping it up here.

[kencc4791]

assfax, Leon was was a Mofo. The "Man" if you will. I was in my twenty's when this stuff was happening