Willie Nelson, 11pm Fri. Free with park admission before 9pm, $10 after 9pm. Lone Star Park, Grand Prairie. 972-263-RACE.

As something of a musical cockroach, Willie Nelson has survived a vast range of musical trends and even a much-publicized relationship with the IRS and seems only to grow stronger with time. Fifty years after he launched his career, the 68-year-old Nelson shows no signs of exhausting his creative resources; in fact, Nelson's latest album, The Great Divide, is arguably one of his best. At the same time, the sometime actor and full-time activist for American farmers now has added "author" to his list of credits with the release of The Facts of Life and Other Dirty Jokes, released last month. The book chronicles his childhood in rural Texas and his journey into the upper echelon of musical society. In it, he reflects on the things that matter to him the most.

For all his many and varied talents, however, it's the music that Nelson lives for, and the unconventional hit-maker has it in a seemingly unlimited supply. Although firmly entrenched in country music history, he also has wandered into pop, jazz, rock, blues, and even children's music territory, continuously broadening his fan base. For The Great Divide, he used Carlos Santana's Supernatural approach of recording songs with eclectic artists, in this case pairing with Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock, Bonnie Raitt, and Lee Ann Womack.

Where Nelson is headed next is anybody's guess, but it's a given that he'll take an eager bunch of listeners along for the ride, and it's doubtful anybody will ask for their money back. Except maybe the IRS.