I was buying tickets to Willie Nelson’s March show in LA yesterday morning when I popped over to willienelson.com to see all his tour dates and learned Bee Spears had passed away over the weekend. Bee had been playing with Willie and the Family for something like 40 years. He’s obviously the only bass player I’d ever known with Willie. He was an amazingly solid rhythm player. As I’ve seen Willie only in recent years, I’ve always been impressed by how the rhythm section has just been Bee on bass and Paul or Billy English on a snare drum. So little instrumentation keeps that band pumping. I can’t imagine who could fill his shoes. Rest in peace, Bee. I’ll miss you.