Lawrence.com

A sell-out crowd braved the weather event of the season Wednesday night to attend country music legend Willie Nelson's appearance at the Kansas University's Lied Center. Clad in black, with his trademark red braids now graying, the 68-year-old icon entertained an enthusiastic mix of fans of all ages.

Over the course of 2 1/2 hours, Nelson and his versatile six-piece band performed more than 40 songs during a performance that demonstrated not only the breadth of his musical career, but also provided a survey of the history of country music.

Within the first four numbers Nelson began to reveal his varied influence interspersing his own trademark songs, "Whiskey River Don't Run Dry" and "Good Hearted Woman," with old-time war horses like "Stay A Little Longer" and standards such as "Time Slips Away."

Nelson's distinctive, reedy vibrato remains as strong today as when he broke ranks with other Nashville songwriters and relocated to Texas to launch his performing career in the '70s.

While it's as a writer and singer that Nelson is revered, there is real delight in hearing him play the guitar. Not just another singer reflexively strumming along with the band, Nelson is one of the few musicians to separate the nylon string guitar from classical or folk music. His idiosyncratic yet skillful picking is what differentiates the sound of his band from any other collection of journeyman country players.

His band features younger sister Bobbie Nelson on piano, Jody Payne on guitar, Paul English on snare drum, Billy English on percussion, Dan Spears on bass guitar and Mickey Raphael on harmonica.

The best moments came during songs with the common themes of love and longing. During ballads like "Help Me Make It Through The Night" and "Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground," Nelson displays a unique sensitivity to the lyrics, delivering with genuine pathos what might become easily overwrought by a singer given to vocal pyrotechnics.

Another standout number was Nelson's performance of the late Townes Van Zandt's beautiful and riveting story song, "Pancho and Lefty." It's a tale of two aging road partners, one of whom chooses to burn out, the other to fade away.

At times the performance did seem stretched a bit thin. While there's nothing wrong with two-plus hours of Willie Nelson in performance, and no one can underestimate the importance of the songwriters Nelson chooses to cover in concert, songs like Hank William's "My Bucket's Got A Hole In It" over 30 songs into the concert doesn't add a lot of sparkle.