"CRAZY" instrumental

Here's a live version of Willie Nelson's "Crazy," with my band Chicken Fried Swing. This was the first gig, in baking heat outside at a Del Ray festival in 2008. Matt Tebo is on drums, Jerry Del Rosso is on bass, and Ira Gitlin plays some tasteful lines on a Gretsch.
http://www.karlstraubmusic.com/Crazy.mp3

and an August 08 version with Honky Tonk Heart at JV's.
www.karlstraubmusic.com/crazyjvaug08.mp3
Howard Parker played a tasteful western swing solo with a lot of chord stuff, and Bob Adamcik was on rhythm guitar, Jimmy Gapinski on drums, stretching out a little more than usual. Ira Gitlin showed up, straight from another gig, and sat in. He played some nice stuff here, including some chromatic double stop ideas that I'll have to steal when I get a chance. I think we played better than usual because we wanted to impress Ira. I'm in a "Django with slapback" mode (does that make it a Les Paul mode?) with a little Roy Buchanan on the second break.

I've been working on this tune for a while, playing it initially with Honky Tonk Heart, then with my Karl Straub Combo. The Chicken Fried Swing version here is my favorite of the ones that got recorded-- it's still not everything I'm trying to do with the tune, but it's getting there. I take the first break, in a trashy Django/western swing mode, with a Roy Buchanan harmonic thing here and there. Ira takes the middle chorus, very nice; then I come back in for the "crazy" chorus. Here's where I crank up the raunch. I like what I'm doing here, but I hope to get better at integrating jazz and trash for a more interesting blend. Stay tuned! If you come a live gig of any of the above-mentioned bands, you can watch me developing this approach.
The Honky Tonk Heart version I put up here after writing my comments above-- I thought it had some interesting different approaches, so it should be heard. Maybe for the fanatics I'll keep putting more versions up-- we'll see.