Journal photos / Bob Thayer
Willie Nelson leaves Providence after last night's concert at PPAC.

Gonna Catch Tomorrow Now: No Depression is a nice 2004 piece by Joe Nick Patoski.

I had come for my last sit-down with Willie Hugh Nelson. I'd been writing about him since I hit Austin in 1973, a year after he did. I've spent the ensuing years listening, watching, and observing him as he played shows on flatbed trucks, in drive-in movie theaters (with Paul Simon sitting in, no less), in amphitheaters, in performing arts halls, and at too many July Fourth Picnics to count. Somewhere along the way, the television appearances, movie roles, and inductions to various halls of fame added up to Willie achieving some kind of sainthood, with just enough speed-crazed hustlers, soulful used-car salesmen, and honest-to-Sam-Houston characters to keep me engaged.

Like Austin, Willie too has changed along the way. He came to the game as a songwriter. Some say that particular skill fell by the wayside decades ago - that he's sliding by on cruise control, that he hasn't written a memorable song in years. And yet, in the midst of all his albums of cover songs, tribute songs, collaborative affairs with high-profile buddies, television specials, and films, he's still continued to write songs - including an antiwar protest number that briefly stirred up a hornet's nest of controversy late last year. Not to mention enough straight-ahead country tunes to justify a full-blown album that may be his best work in ages (It Will Always Be, due October 26 on Lost Highway).

But even if he hadn't written a line in a quarter-century and decided to follow the path of Fats Domino - who once reasoned he didn't need to write another song because he already had more than enough hits to perform in concert -Willie would justify a visit just because he's Willie. After all, he personifies the outlaw movement that presaged altcountry. He's the one credited for putting Austin and Texas Music on the map. He's a pop culture icon, bandanas, pigtails, running shoes and all, the one Texan more popular than George Bush. He's the gold standard for Texas marijuana: If it's Willie weed, i.e. pot fit for him, it's top-of-the-line bud. And he's just mysterious and mystical enough to keep everyone guessing. You never know what you'll find when you're in Luck.

That said, we're both old enough to be lucky just to be alive...

Yeah, I hold back a bit here. Once upon a time I was offered a fellowship to get a PhD at the University of Texas. Didn't take it. Fear of Texas. JFK. I hate to sweat. Whatever. Didn't do it, took one from Brown instead. I mighta known Janis, and Willie, back then. Didn't do it.