Stripped-down Willie Nelson set displays the good night life at the Amp

As the sun fell on the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater on Friday, summer-like temperatures dropped to spring-like night, fitting harmony to the stripped-down show to follow.

Newcomer Peytan Porter was backed by a single guitarist and drummer. Drew Holcomb followed with band The Neighbors, featuring longtime members Nathan Duggers on electric, acoustic and steel guitars, and Rich Brinsfield on bass, backed on tour with keyboards and drums, laying out one of the crispest mixes heard in this Amp's history.

The next set change took more down than it brought up, as the man himself, Willie Nelson, sat down with Trigger, his road-battered but still sonically distinct guitar, a bass player, and a drummer tapping on a spare kit hardly bigger than the sticks. Train wails, solos and riffs not hammered out by Willie and Trigger were melded in courtesy of harmonica wizard Mickey Raphael.

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Singer-songwriter Porter, whose first EP will be out in early June, brightened the night with an infectious warmth, glowing soprano voice and eagerness to connect, suggesting shades of Miranda Lambert with the light-heartedness of Dolly Parton.

"Well, my name is Peytan Porter, and I've very excited to be here tonight. It means a lot so many of you got here early to hang out with us," she said, with a sly grin. "I'm sure that's why you're here early."

The too-brief set featured "Therapy," working in classic heartbreak vein, tempered with defiance and recovery. She debuted new single "First Stone," released Friday, connecting the axiom about people in glass houses with a disgust for social media disgraces:

"Might see clearer looking in the mirror/Might be better for the human race/If we took a deep breath and a few steps back/Gave a little less opinion and a lot more grace."

Holcomb has played here before and obviously made fans of folks who called out for cuts such as "Family," "American Beauty" and "Dragons," the latter elegiac ballad serving as the title track to his 2019 album. He came through with those and more, and the promise of a new album they'd been working on this week, up in Asheville, North Carolina.

Holcomb is somewhat enigmatic in his big hat and wide beard, complemented by jeans and camo jacket, looking like a contemporary country cat, but playing in a wider range of tempos, sounds and feels. Some of his songs suggest R&B, with a hint of hip-hop, yet all land within his warm baritone.

The band kicked off with top 40 single "End of the World," a drink-up infectious sing-along, like a 21st-century update of the mid-20th century swing "Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)," but with a broader booming chorus:

"Hey it's the end of the world, now, haven't you heard/So smoke 'em if you got em, boys and girls/Say goodbye to the past, now, raise up your glass and/ revel while it lasts, it's the end of the world."

Many in the nearly-full audience knew the lines and lofted beers on cue. That set the tempo of celebration, his Lyle Lovett-like turn of phrase flavored with a hint of sentimental mortality, showcased in the "Dragons" album, written and recorded after the singer-songwriter suffered a bout with meningitis.

You wouldn't have to read his bio to figure "But I'll Never Forget the Way You Make Me Feel" was inspired by his marriage to fellow singer-songwriter Ellie Holcomb:

"When I'm an old man and can't recognize my own face/And the memories of our youth are hard for me to trace/When death comes to take me, my body to steal/I'll never forget the way you made me feel."

In a perfectly tuned finish, Holcomb closed with "Family," a direct, danceable ditty built around repeated refrains of that simple yet profound noun, followed by lines such as "singing in the kitchen ... running through the yard."

Introducing it, and urging a chant-along, Holcomb said "We've learned a lot from Willie over the years.... One thing I learned is to treat the audience like family. And the family that sings together...."

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The sight of the ambling Texan, moving pretty easily for a guy who'll be 89 next week, brought the crowd to its feet.

Changes were evident from previous Amp shows in 2013 and 2017. His hair's even whiter, though still braided to either side of that smiling face, and the beard's gone, revealing facial fissures from a road well taken. When he spoke, the lung issues he's suffered weren't as obvious, but when he sang, it was clear he was still adjusting melodies, dropping lower, chasing breaths.

No one played piano in place of his sister Bobbie Nelson, who died in March. As he hammered Trigger into an opening "Whiskey River," the guitar runs and trills, spaces where Bobbie might have laid down rippling tones, sounded angry, defiant.

It may be cheap pop psychology, but as this is one of the few shows he's played since her passing, the setup seemed intentionally spare, a throwback, relying on barest possible backing, letting raw emotion burn through.

He's always been an iconoclastic player, as much jazz explorer as country picker, but Friday his rhythms slammed punk-like, playing challenging notes, off the beat. He seemed to be working something out, clearly unconcerned that his three-piece backing would be there, laying down the foundation, whenever Trigger came back around.

His voice rose on "Still is Still Moving to Me," one of the few Willie wrote alone for the 1993 "Across the Borderline" album. The statement drove his vocals higher: "Still is still moving to me/I swim like a fish in the sea all the time/But if that's what it takes to be free I don't mind/Still is still moving to me/Still is still moving to me."

Much as in 2017, he turned three of his most famous songs into a medley, starting with "Funny How Time Slips Away," rolling into "Crazy" (made famous by Patsy Cline, but written by Willie), and capping with "Night Life." More so than five years ago, the combination suggested that still-still spirit: Ain't it surprising how the crazy time slips away, as you listen to the blues play? The nightlife, as lived by Willie, seems like a pretty good life.

Though lung issues have caused him to stop smoking — yes, even cannabis — the bravado lives on, as shown by his rollicking cover of Mac Davis' "It's Hard to Be Humble," which has always sounded like a song Joe Namath should have covered, and the cut recorded with Snoop Dogg, Kris Kristofferson and Jamey Johnson in 2012, "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die."

Porter and Holcomb joined a chorus of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken/I'll Fly Away," the pair clearly loving moments on stage with the guy who's achieved one-name icon status, whose free-wheeling aura speaks loudly as his pantheon of hits.

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Again, the set seemed brief, as he wrapped saying "I think I've played everything I know," clearly a joke, as he'd referenced the upcoming "A Beautiful Time" as his "98th album," to be released April 29, his 89th birthday.

It probably wasn't absent-mindedness that caused him to start in G, then D, muttering, "wrong key," before closing with a repeat of "On the Road Again," recognition of the song that had brought a big response. As a writer, he's got few equals; as a life-loving rebel, who can compare? But at the end of the night, Willie's a player, a crowd-pleaser, throwing hat and bandanas soaked from the sweat of his brow into outstretched hands.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Willie Nelson shines in stripped-down Tuscaloosa Amphitheater concert