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After 16 years of unforgettable music and memories, The Backyard — Austin’s acclaimed live oak amphitheater — will be closing its doors forever later this year.

And here is your chance to celebrate the final season of The Backyard with Willie Nelson and Friends!

The event date is October 26th, 2008, and the show will begin early and last until the music stops. The first 400 ticket buyers will receive an Early Bird ticket price and a portion of all ticket proceeds will be donated to charity.

About The Backyard

The Backyard is located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country in a natural, open-air setting enveloped in the shade of 400 year old live oaks. Multitiered decks, fish ponds and plaza areas illuminate the magic of the amphitheater’s atmosphere.

This one-of-a-kind amphitheater hosts music as varied and eclectic as the people of Austin. Willie Nelson, David Bowie, Natalie Merchant, the Gypsy Kings, Lyle Lovett, The Neville Brothers, Sheryl Crow, Widespread Panic and Norah Jones have all graced the tree surrounded stage.

But time and new developments in the surrounding area seem to be taking the magic away from this great amphitheater. From Tim O’Connor, President/CEO of Direct Events (owner of The Backyard)

“I built the Backyard to produce events in an atmosphere that signifies Austin. When the venue opened we were in the middle of the Hill Country and it was a true experience. The Shops at The Galleria development that now surrounds the Backyard has taken away from some of the venue’s magic over the last few years.”

So what’s coming next? Again, from Tim O’Connor:

This may be the final season for the Backyard, but Direct Events is not closing the door on this live music staple. Direct Events has proposed a plan to the City of Bee Cave, and is working to secure their approval to develop a new Backyard in a new location that will not compromise the atmosphere of the venue.

If you are a Club Luck Member (Willie Nelson’s fanclub), you can access a limited number of exclusive pre-sale tickets for Willie Nelson and Friends’ show at the final season of The Backyard — starting today, July 19th at 10am CST. Tickets are available while supplies last. Login to the fanclub to access the tickets at: http://clubluck.willienelson.com.

If you aren’t a club luck member, you can join Club Luck and get instant access to these tickets by going to http://clubluck.willienelson.com. Visit Willie Nelson’s website for Willie’s tour schedule and more upcoming pre-sales.

Here is a photo of Willie Nelson performing live at The Backyard:

Hayes Carll, the American singer and songwriter will be performing a handful of free in-stores while on the road this summer.

These free in-store performances are in preparation for a full road tour later in the year.

Tampa, Greenville, Louisville and Houston are the lucky cities for these free, short sets.

So mark your calendars… and bring your family, buddies, special friends and catch a great preview to the full show scheduled later in the evening.

If you’re lucky to be living in one of these cities, here are the dates and the stores where Hayes Carll will be performing:

Saturday, July 19 at 5PM: Vinyl Fever, 4110 Henderson Blvd. Tampa, FL 33629. www.vinylfevertampa.com

Tuesday, July 22 at 4PM: Horizon Records, 2 West Stone Ave. Greenville, SC 29609. blog.horizonrecords.net

Thursday, July 24 at 6PM: ear X-tacy, 1534 Bardstown Rd., Louisville, KY 40205. www.earx-tacy.com

Friday, August 8 at 5PM: Cactus Music, 2110 Portsmouth, Houston, TX 77098. www.cactusmusictx.com.

On the twin-nights of January 12 and 13, 2007, a historic event took place at the Jazz at Lincoln Center: American country music legend Willie Nelson and Pulitzer Prize winning jazz trumpeter Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis — two of the most significant figures in modern-day country and jazz music — shared their mutual love for jazz standards and the blues with the world.

The event was simply billed as “Willie Nelson Sings the Blues,” but even from watching the video (hey, I live in Accra in Ghana!), I’m quite certain it was far more than that.

The old man’s extraordinary strength continues to baffle me. At a time when most people are thinking of retirement, Willie Nelson has never been busier. His profile has been high in recent weeks with his various career retrospective releases and sold out tour and this album can rightly stake it’s place alongside anything else he has done.

Luckily, the tapes were rolling and the results of this unique collaboration now constitute the new Blue Note Records’ album Two Men With The Blues for the rest of the world who couldn’t cram into The Allen Room to watch Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis live.

Featuring great playing from one of the hottest bands around, these 10 classic tracks on this new album, “Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis” — are given new life by the extraordinary dual talents of Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis. From the old man, Willie Nelson, himself:

“These songs, heard this way with this group– that’s never been done before. Whatever I’m doing, if you put Wynton and these guys around it, that brings it up to a different level.”

Here are the ten songs on the new album, Two Men With The Blues:

1. Bright Lights, Big City
2. Night Life
3. Caldonia
4. Stardust
5. Basin Street Blues
6. Georgia on My Mind
7. Rainy Day Blues
8. My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It
9. Ain’t Nobody’s Business
10. That’s All

You can buy digital downloads of the complete album or individual tracks from Amazon (in MP3 format) and the Apple iTunes store. And if you want plain ole’ CD, you can buy that also from Amazon or from Borders — the latter which also gets you two additional Borders-exclusive tracks: “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”.

Country music’s dear old man, Willie Nelson, is still going strong and is on the road again… with performances planned all the way through September.

If you’re looking to join Willie Nelson at one of his live performances, you can find all upcoming events on his official website.

There is also an on-going Pre-Sale for the Casper Events Center performance scheduled for August 24, 2008. The Pre-Sale enables Willie Nelson’s official Fan Club members to reserve their seats of choice, before the sale goes to the general public.

This Pre-Sale will be over today June 26th at 5:00PM MDT, so hurry to get your great seats before they go on-sale to the public!

If you are not a Club Luck member yet, you can join fro the website to get access to this upcoming Pre-Sale and much much more!