Rebellious country music icon Willie Nelson, who has played thousands of shows in hundreds of cities around the world during his never-ending concert tour, brought his act to Cooperstown for the first time ever last Friday. Despite being hampered by painful hand problems which have rendered him almost unable to play the guitar, the lively Nelson entertained the 11,500 fans at Doubleday Field with a laid-back 75-minute show that included many of his signature tunes.

Taking the stage to the familiar strains of "Whiskey River" and the backdrop of a huge Texas flag, Nelson and his band (the aptly-named Willie Nelson and Family, which includes his sister Bobbie on piano and two of his sons, 15-year-old Lukas and 14-year-old Micah, on guitars) performed 20 songs before calling it a night. The family atmosphere extended to the audience, too, as the mellow crowd contained people of all ages and descriptions, including many toddlers bouncing on their parents' shoulders. (Many years ago I was one of those youngsters; my earliest musical memory is of attending a Willie Nelson show with my parents when I was five years old.)

In May, the 71-year-old Nelson was forced to cancel most of his summer concerts after being diagnosed with a serious case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome caused by decades of continuous guitar playing. This was bad news for Cooperstown fans, since the highlight of Nelson's shows is usually his stylish guitar picking and extended jams on many of the songs. He remains unable to seriously play the guitar, being limited to intermittent strumming. "I've been having some trouble with my hands," he told the audience, "so I brought in a couple of ringers," referring to his sons.

But unfortunately, instead of ceding the long guitar parts to another player, Nelson unwisely chose to shorten many of his songs to remove the guitar intros and solos. The result was a concert full of truncated songs that lost much of their power and poignancy. That problem was further exacerbated by a sound system that was not nearly loud enough during Nelson's show. (The sound quality noticeably changed between Nelson's show and Bob Dylan's; the amplification for Dylan's show was superb.)

Still, the Cooperstown fans seemed to believe that a wounded poet is better than none at all, and it was clear that Nelson has lost none of his rapport with the audience. He delighted fans by tossing his cowboy hat into the crowd soon after the concert began, and he also accepted a homemade sign handed to him by a fan, proudly displaying it on stage. (It read "Willie and Bob, Welcome to Cooperstown.")

The outspoken Nelson, who has attracted attention in his controversial role as a spokesman for the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws, notably refrained from making any political statements at the concert, even declining to sing his most recent composition, a song critical of the war in Iraq titled "Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth."

With his second song of the night, "Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer)," Nelson seemed to be sending a message to the audience that a long night of musical enjoyment was in store. That was followed in short order by two classics written by Nelson's good friend Kris Kristofferson, "Help Me Make It Through the Night" and "Me and Bobby McGee." The last time Nelson played in Otsego County, in April 2000 at SUNY-Oneonta's Dewar Arena, he turned in a virtuoso performance of the latter song which lasted 15 minutes or more. This time, limited by Nelson's hand problems, the shortened song seemed over before it began.

Nelson continued with a spirited performance of "Me and Paul," a nostalgic look back at his musical travels with longtime drummer Paul English, including the signature lyric: "We received our education/ In the cities of the nation/ Me and Paul." After that came "If You've Got the Money (I've Got the Time)," the Lefty Frizzell classic which Nelson has made his own, and "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," Nelson's Grammy-winning ode to a long-lost love.

As storm clouds threatened to put a damper on the show near the midway point, Nelson seemed to keep the rain at bay by performing "Blue Skies," including the wishful-thinking lyric "Nothing but blue skies do I see." That was followed by rote performances of two more fan favorites, "Georgia On My Mind" and "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," the latter of which includes the most autobiographically introspective line Nelson has ever sung: "They'll never stay home and they're always alone/ Even with someone they love."

One of the high points of the show was Nelson's somber performance of his best song, "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground." However, the crowd seemed to connect better with "On the Road Again," Nelson's crossover hit from the 1980 film Honeysuckle Rose. Nelson exhorted the crowd to sing along with the song's catchy chorus, and the audience cheerfully obliged. They were then rewarded with a superb performance of "Always on My Mind," the last Nelson-penned song of the night.

For the concert's final two songs, Nelson lent his nasal voice to two standards: The traditional gospel hymn "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," and "Texas Flood," the scorching blues song made famous by Steve Ray Vaughan. On the latter number Nelson's sons Lucas and Micah were given extended time on the guitar, and their playing, heretofore underutilized, lent a weight to the song that had been missing from many of the other tunes.

In all, it was a representative Willie Nelson setlist, containing well-chosen cover songs as well as plenty of tunes from his own catalogue of more than 2,500 published songs spanning 40-plus years. By far the night's biggest disappointment was that Dylan and Nelson did not perform together. (The pair are good friends and have often sung duets in the past, including a superb live recording of Townes Van Zandt's "Pancho and Lefty.")

Hampered by injury, Nelson's performance did not come close to matching the power and energy of the masterful Bob Dylan set that followed. But the crowd clearly enjoyed his singing, and taken as a whole, the Dylan-Nelson concert was a smashing success so much so that one hopes it's the first in a long line of future big-name concerts at Doubleday Field.