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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — Willie Nelson’s bus idled next to Freedom Hall’s backstage entrance last Thursday (April 4).

Nelson stepped down from and out of his bio-diesel fueled bus, Honeysuckle Rose IV, walked through the door and down the hall toward the stage.

A lifetime of songs from his own to those of Hank Williams and Django Reinhardt went with the country music legend. Of the latter, Nelson included a pair on his riveting new album, “Let’s Face the Music and Dance.” The soon-to-be 80-year-old offered 32 songs during a 90-minute set at Freedom Hall; he gives 14 newly recorded tunes on his new album.

Excellence exuded on stage; excellence exudes on the album.

As he has for decades, Nelson opened the show with “Whiskey River.” Accompanied by his band, which he’s long branded as Family (in part because his sister, Bobbie Nelson, plays piano in the band), the native of Abbott, Texas, offered hits with heart amid tunes old and new.

He wrote many of them, such as “On the Road Again.” Some came from the pens of others, including Irving Berlin’s “Let’s Face the Music and Dance.” Yet given the now white-haired Red Headed Stranger’s treatment, each resounded as pure Willie.

So go the makings of musical genius. Brand Willie Nelson country’s pig-tailed troubadour.

What a pro. Nelson paced his show with more ups and downs than a ball of flubber. His four-song, stomp-the-gas-and-go opening that included “Good Hearted Woman,” stoked the crowd like firecrackers popping underfoot. He sang, they danced.

“Go Willie, go!” hollered one fan.

Pacing in mind, he slowed things with a moving medley of “Funny How Time Slips Away,” “Crazy” and “Night Life.” Later on, he revved his far-from-old engine for a cover of Tom T. Hall’s toe-tapping “Shoeshine Man.”

Meanwhile, Nelson inserted four of his new album’s 14 songs into his nuanced set. From the title track to a Latin-tinged “South of the Border,” Nelson’s new tunes fit as if they were longtime friends amid his staples.

One of them, Django Reinhardt’s “Nuages,” provided one of the evening’s highlights. Nelson’s heavily lined fingers held his beautifully battered guitar, Trigger, with absolute love and care. As on the new album, Nelson played the long-dead Gypsy guitarist’s instrumental as if he was one with his prized six-string mistress Trigger.

They are one, Willie Nelson and Trigger, battered through the toll of years and yet they’re everlasting beautiful as makers of music that will live longer than they will.

So it goes on Nelson’s new album. Listen and love to his rollicking cover of Carl Perkins’ “Matchbox.” Swing along to Spade Cooley’s “Shame On You,” pause and reflect to Nelson’s own “Is the Better Part Over” and hope for years more of music through “Twilight Time.”

That’s how Nelson’s show in Johnson City went. Even after 32 songs including Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya” and gospel tunes from the Carter Family’s “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” to a set-closing “I Saw the Light,” hope for more swept those fortunate enough to have heard.

Take one song. Nelson could have played his wink ‘n’ grin autobiographical nod, “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die,” all night and they’d have wanted more. That’s the way love goes between Nelson and his fans. They love him, he loves them and it shows as clearly as the miles that line Nelson’s face.

As with Nelson’s new album, his leave-’em-wanting-more show in Johnson City notched as another classic in a seven-decade-long line of classics. Show over, he eased off stage, down a silent hall, through the backstage door and back onto his idling home on the road.

On the road again, Willie Nelson. Here’s to many more roads to ride.

Tom Netherland is a freelance writer. He may be reached at features@bristolnews.com.