Willie Nelson: on the road again

the vindicator

Willie Nelson is about to get on the road again, and his first stop is Youngstown. The weatherbeaten country music icon will begin a five-month, 53-show tour Friday at Covelli Centre.

The traveling troubadour and famous proponent of biodiesel fuel, family-run farms and the legalization of marijuana turned 76 last month, but he obviously hasn’t run out of gas (or biodiesel).

His summer schedule includes some much-anticipated stops at high-profile festivals. They include the Rothbury Festival in upstate Michigan (with Bob Dylan, the Black Crowes and dozens more) on July 5; and Farm Aid (with John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, Kenny Chesney, The Pretenders, moe., Arlo Guthrie, Jerry Lee Lewis, Steve Earle and more) on Sept. 20 at Comcast Center in Mansfield, Mass.

Nelson will also team up with Bob Dylan and John Mellencamp for a series of concerts at minor league baseball stadium in July and August. That tour will make stops at Classic Park in Eastlake on July 11, and Consol Energy Park in Washington, Pa., on July 13.

Nelson last played Youngstown in July of 2006, when he headlined a show at Powers Auditorium that drew 1,700 people.

His concert Friday at Covelli Centre will be in the half-house formation. Nelson will perform with his backing group, the Willie Nelson Family. Tickets range from $37.50 to $47.50 and are available via Ticketmaster or the arena box office. The show starts at 8 p.m.

Friday’s concert will be the first for Nelson since the death of Randall “Poodie” Locke, his long-time right-hand man. Locke died May 6 of a heart attack at age 56.

Locke toured with Nelson for more than 30 years. The Texan is described on Nelson’s official Web site as “Willie’s longtime stage manager, friend and golf partner.”

Locke had worked as a roadie for singer-songwriter B.W. Stevenson before becoming Nelson’s stage manager around the time Nelson released his 1975 album “Red Headed Stranger,” according to CMT News. He appeared in Nelson’s 1980 film “Honeysuckle Rose.”

After opening Poodie’s Hilltop Bar and Grill in Spicewood, Texas, in 2002, the bar became a favorite stop for musicians.