[Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel playing “Going Away Party”] John Spong: When we were listening together just now, we both were kind of geeking out over the lyrics, because for me, there’s these . . . It goes back to Cindy Walker’s art—there’s these great internal rhymes...
” and “The Drunkard’s Doom” at Shank, showing that, like Dylan before him, he can perform and mine folk songs not only to immerse himself in tradition but to feel his the syllables of tradition forming on the vocal chords that create the sounds of his own songs....