[Songs My Son Should Know] Willie Nelson | Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground / Last Thing I Needed First Thing This Morning

One thing that makes me a bit forlorn is the certainty that Enzo will be missing out on the current generation of aging musical legends -- those who will imminently dissipated in flesh, but not in myth, by the time he is keen enough to appreciate the magnitude of their art.

Most notably, this refers to Texas' favorite son, Willie Nelson. 

Enzo will never take his date -- and later his wife -- to hear the disconsolate preachings and raucous narratives of an old cowboy.  How else should a father teach his son about women and romance?  Learn to country dance.  Know the lyrics of an idyllic song.  And always take her to see Willie.

Enzo has been to a Willie concert -- in Hill Country, even -- but The Redhead Stranger will likely just be an arbitrary figure to him, the way my generation regards Jimi, or Jim, or John, or Janis.  Yes, we love those artists; we've listened to them and praised their work -- but we never truly connected to them the way our parents did because we didn't evolve with them.  They are ghosts whose voices are distant relics.

Willie represents the outlaw in country music; the unlikely, rustic hippie who has been accepted by the widest spectrum of people, cultures, genres, and nationalities.  I think more people in this world dislike oxygen than dislike Willie -- a man of folklore who is both transversal in range and intimate in scope.  By the time Enzo is my age, Willie will be Bunyan-esque in stature, cutting the Grand Canyon itself with his musical refrains.

Two songs that should herald Enzo into his tour of musical discoveries are these ...

... which are 1) my favorite Willie song and 2) his best song.  Ask me on consecutive days to tell you which song belongs to which number, and the answer will invariably change. 

So, I don't expect Enzo to stop exploring here.  I expect him to find his own personal 1) and 2) -- as every Willie fan has.  It is a bug far too infectious to ignore.  Particularly for a Texan.