1. At 82, Willie Nelson remains the consummate professional. You feel like you’re getting everything he has to offer as he flies through a 25-song setlist in 80 minutes and change. Think of him like The Ramones of country music—no matter how long he’s onstage, when he finally exits, he gave you just the right amount.

2. After a lackadaisical crowd showing for the singer’s 2015 House of Blues visit, it’s nice to have an audience revved up for all things Willie. Sure, I don’t get a contact high or even the faintest whiff of marijuana in the air, but that just has me thinking CES attendees are too busy enjoying the music to light up.

3. The setlist hasn’t changed much over the past few years, but hey, it’s really good. The covers are some of Willie’s favorite and best-known: Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia on My Mind,” Brenda Lee’s “Always on My Mind,” the Hank Williams triple shot of “Jambalaya (On the Bayou),” “Hey Good Lookin’” and “Move It on Over,” a nod to outlaw countryman Waylan Jennings with “Good Hearted Woman,” then back to Hank for set-closer and spiritual high “I Saw the Light”.

4. One thing that doesn’t make sense: positioning “Little Sister” Bobbie Nelson’s piano head-on toward the crowd. Most players are stationed perpendicular to spectators, but Bobbie, who is wonderful, is tucked behind the bulky keys, none of which are visible from the floor.

5. It’s incredible how relevant the lyrics to “Living in the Promised Land,” released in 1986, feel in today’s nasty political climate. The poor, the immigrants, those who care about equality would do better with Willie as president than many others: “We are the multitudes/Lend us a helping hand/Is there no love anymore/Living in the promised land?”