toledoblade.com --

Wednesday afternoon, Cliff Smithers was looking out a window at the WKKO-FM office on Arlington Avenue when he saw an older man riding a bike around a hotel parking lot across the street.

"I said, 'Hey, that's Willie,'" the afternoon drive-time DJ said.

Willie, as in Willie Nelson, whose bus was parked at the hotel as the country legend rested up for his show that night at the Stranahan Theater.

"Me and a sales associate went out to the street, and Willie passed us as he was riding back to his bus. We yelled for him, and he waved and said, 'How are you boys doing?'" Smithers recalled, chuckling.

That story isn't a surprise to anyone who saw his show later that night. Nelson lets his music do the talking. His performance is about as simple as it gets.

A typical country show these days begins with the audience seeing the shadows of the band members taking their positions in a darkened arena. The drummer starts a beat, the guitarists join in, then several minutes later the artist appears to the deafening roars of the crowd.

Not Nelson. He was introduced by Smithers and fellow DJ Amy Davis. Willie, walking with his longtime harmonicist Mickey Raphael, passed them as they walked off the stage. He grabbed his guitar and, without saying a word, broke into "Whiskey River."

It shouldn't have been surprising, but it was. Nelson has bucked Nashville trends every chance he's gotten. He was one of the first artists who said, "I'm playing my own music with my own band." He was one of the original outlaws. Wednesday night, he could have waited backstage as his band played, basking in the roar of the crowd as it anticipated his appearance on stage. But he didn't. He walked out with his longtime band - his sister, Bobbie; Raphael; drummer Paul English and his brother, Billy, and Bee Spears.

I have to be honest. I didn't really know what to expect. I've admired Nelson's contributions to country music, but I've never been a huge fan. He made a name for himself long before I started listening to country, and that old-time music just wasn't what interested me 20 years ago when I started listening.

But something was immediately evident in the Stranahan. Nelson has fans from every imaginable background. There was the hippie with the bandana stretched across his head standing next to the older man in a suit. There was a kid wearing a Kid Rock T-shirt.

The word "great" is thrown around too often, but I felt I was in the presence of greatness when Nelson walked on stage. When he opened his mouth, it was that vintage, unmistakable voice.

As he ripped through his hits, including "Bloody Mary Morning," "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," "Georgia on My Mind," "On the Road Again," and "Always on My Mind," I thought of that kid whom everyone knows in high school: the one who doesn't try to act cool, and you don't know why he is cool, but he IS.

That's Willie. Call me a fan.

Brian Dugger's column on country music appears in The Blade the last Saturday of every month.

Contact him at:bdugger@theblade.com.

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