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ON MARCH 14, when the tornado hit Atlanta, James Kelly, aka Slim Chance, was at home in Cabbagetown, watching a movie on television. The wood frame house on Pearl Street, where he's lived for more than 15 years, was spared any major damage. But Kelly soon found out that many of his neighbors, including several fellow musicians, weren't so lucky.

"A lot of musicians lost a lot of stuff," Kelly says. "Anna Kramer lost her roof. It was a pretty scary thing. So many of our friends here are musicians, who rent and live hand-to-mouth, and don't have any kind of insurance."

REX C. CURRY/STR (ENLARGE)
The Willie Nelson 75th birthday tribute becomes a fund-raiser for Cabbagetown tornado relief.
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As it turns out, Kelly had already rounded up a bunch of Atlanta musicians to join his band, Slim Chance and the Convicts, for a 75th Birthday Tribute to Willie Nelson at the Star Bar in Little Five Points on April 4.

So he and the co-promoter, Dave Weil of the Blacktop Rockets, quickly decided that the event would be a fitting fund-raiser for the Cabbagetown Tornado Relief Fund.

"I know lots of other neighborhoods need help, too," says Kelly. "But it's a good organization. And I live in Cabbagetown, so that's what I'm going to do."

Though the $8 admission price will go to a serious cause, Kelly promises the show will be big, redneck underground-style fun, and timely, too.

Earlier this week, Columbia/Legacy Records released a four-CD, 100-song box set of Nelson's greatest material, titled "One Hell of a Ride." Like the CD, the songs featured at the Star Bar tribute will be songs Nelson either wrote or recorded. Performers include members of the Convicts, the Blacktop Rockets, and National Grain, with Jon Byrd, Caroline Engel, the Downer Brothers, and some surprise guests.

Kelly says he became a Willie fan early in life, when his father played Nelson's records for him.

"He died in July of last year," Kelly says. "But my dad was a singer and a songwriter. He's the one who taught me how to listen to music and how to love music when I was just a kid. Willie Nelson was his hero. He loved Willie Nelson. And we always shared the joy of a new Willie album coming out."

• THE 411: 75th Birthday Tribute to Willie Nelson. $8. April 4, 10 p.m. Star Bar, 437 Moreland Ave., Atlanta. 404-681-9018, www.starbar.net.