Willie Nelson and Friends
1981-05-19
Austin, TX

"Swingin' Over the Rainbow" Season 6 Austin City Limits Special, Willie Nelson and the Rainbow Band,
Ray Benson and the Rainbow Band with Willie Nelson, and Willie Nelson and the Family Band, May 19th, 1981
[video recording]
A Tribute to Django Reinhardt on the Ray Benson portion.

There are 3 segments, (Willie Nelson and the Rainbow Band, Ray Benson and the Rainbow Band
with Willie Nelson and Willie Nelson and the Family Band) which feel like 3 episodes of Austin City Limits.
(Keep reading for a possible missing portion)

The Rainbow Band is: Freddie Powers (guitar), Paul Buskirk (guitar), Johnny Gimble (fiddle/mandolin), Dean Reynolds (upright bass).

It appears this is a 1987 rebroadcast of the 1981 show. (See below for possible differences)
It is unknown if the May 1981 date is the original broadcast date or the performance date.

Based on notes of an archive recording at the Country Music Hall Of Fame, it seems plausible that there was 1 1/2 hours
of Willie Nelson music on the original broadcast special and it was re-aired with some of Willie's music replaced with the
Ray Benson footage (with Willie) from the same night.
https://digi.countrymusichalloffame.org/digital/collection/movingimage/id/880

There is a TV Guide listing with the VHS tape that names this special as "Swingin' Over The Rainbow,"
which is the same as the 1981 broadcast. It does appear there is a difference in the 1987 and 1981 broadcasts.

The TV Guide listing states: "SWINGIN' OVER THE RAINBOW WITH WILLIE NELSON Country music and jazz classics
of the 1930's and 40's are performed by Willie Nelson, Ray Benson, The Rainbow Band and the Family Band.
(Special 90 min.)

Re-aired version from August 1987.

From an SP VHS. Good sound and video quality for a VHS.

Lineage: SP VHS to AVI with Pinnacle Studio 14 to VIDEO_TS folder.

DVD 1
SET 1: WILLIE NELSON & THE RAINBOW BAND
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow”
"unknown instrumental"
“My Mother’s Eyes”
“Sweet Georgia Brown”
“I’m Confessin' That I Love You”
“Mona Lisa”
“It Wouldn’t Be the Same Without You”
“Little Red Wagon”

SET 2: RAY BENSON & THE RAINBOW BAND WITH WILLIE NELSON
"Swing 42"
"I Just Found A New Baby"
"Air Mail Special"
"Columbus Stockade Blues"
"After You're Gone"

DVD 2
SET 3: WILLIE NELSON & THE FAMILY BAND
“Stay All Night”
“Blue Skies”
“Georgia On My Mind”
“All of Me”
“Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain”
“instrumental”
“Ain’t It Funny How Time Slips Away”/“Crazy”/“Nightlife”

Director Allan Muir
Producer(s) Terry Lickona
Date 1981-05-19

NTSC Video:
Frame Width: 720
Frame Height: 480
Data Rate: 8500kbps
Total bitrate: 8756kbps
Frame rate: 29.97 frames/second

Audio:
Bit rate: 256kbps
Channels: 2(stereo)
Audio sample rate: 48 kHz

Length: about 1 Hour. 20 Mins. on 2 DVDs at 100% rendering.

Uploaded to Dimeadozen.org March 2022

Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

Images for this show: