Legends made flesh, magazine covers and album gatefolds come to life… A true who’s who held court and performed at New Jersey’s PNC Bank Arts Center as a part of this year’s Outlaw Music Festival!
The Outlaw Music Festival has hit the road for summer 2024, and the rogues gallery couldn’t be more notorious.
For its first leg, Willie Nelson’s family band – Nelson missed the first few dates for illness but has since recovered – is joined by Celisse, Alison Krauss, Robert Plant and Bob Dylan. Later in the summer, John Mellencamp, Britney Spencer, Billy Strings, and Southern Avenue will join the rotation, swapping out for Celisse, Kraus, and Plant. The former lineup rocked up to the PNC Bank Arts Center on June 30, 2024 under a tempestuous sky for an evening of storied songbooks and, in Dylan’s case, setlist surprises.
Celisse Henderson, musical journeywoman, Broadway touring alum and collaborator with Melissa Etheridge, Phish, and Mariah Carey, opened the evening with a five-song set and a voice that cut through the summer air. Her stage banter set the tenor for the evening as she thanked the crowd for turning up early and shared reminisces of her grandfather, aunts and uncles jammed to Bill Withers at Thanksgiving. Launching into a twelve minute blues rock rendition of “Use Me,” Celisse traded licks with the band and blew the roof (canopy) off the place with her powerhouse vocals. The post-show buzz included several comments to the effect of “I didn’t know Celisse before this but I’m following her now!” Guilty.
Before the second act, the drizzle in Jersey became a torrential downpour. The throng on the lawn weathered the storm with ponchos as some hoped Robert Plant might grace the crowd with a rendition of “Fool in the Rain” (he did not). Protected by the dome over the stage, Plant emerged in a patterned shirt and an unmistakable likeness that seemed hewn from stone. His trademark coils were silver and his voice was lower, but when he hit his mock-rockstar lunges towards the crowd and raised his hands to his head there was no doubt. Plant’s reedy tone was intact and clear over blues, bluegrass, and rockabilly numbers culled from his decades-long collaboration with Alison Krauss. Krauss, in turn, brought a remarkable vocal blend and Grammy-winning fiddle lines. Plant smiled, commending the “combination of spirits here tonight” and commanding “stand back, stand down, turn around and kick ass!”
A buzz coursed through the crowd as the first Zeppelin number of the night, “Rock and Roll,” kicks off. Krauss covered the higher vocal parts in a lower but when Plant sang drawn out “Hoooooos” over T Bone Burnett’s guitar solo, it sure sounded like a grittier, more weathered Zeppelin. Plant struck a pose reminiscent of Neal Preston’s iconic photo of Plant cradling a dove at Kezar Stadium (San Francisco 1973). Modern rock photog Danny Clinch was moving through the crowd during the set, occasionally shaking hands with those who recognized him. Krauss takes the lead fiddle on the Plant-Page collab “Please Read the Letter That I Wrote” as Plant’s ooohs cut through. He defers to Krauss and plays maracas on “Trouble With My Lover.” A young Plant lookalike in a purple flowered hat danced through the whole set, half-there.
As the set wound down, some Gaelic-flavored numbers with enigmatic mandolin accents gave way to band intros. With a folksy carnie affect, Plant introduced the instrumentalists one-by-one, “appearing at no expense to you!” Humbled, Plant gestured to Krauss and said, “How the hell did I get here? This woman changed my life!” The band struck up “When the Levee Breaks” just as the rain cleared to a painterly orange vista. Some Everly Brothers numbers rounded out the set as Plant paid tribute to the acts that started it all for him. Then, with a bow, they were gone.
After a generous respite for booze-and-bathroom-breaks, Bob Dylan emerged in what could be called a dress shirt were it not unbuttoned to his navel. Never one to “play the hits,” Dylan shocked the crowd on opening night in Georgia with a completely new setlist featuring first-time covers of numbers by Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, Hank Williams, and Sanford Clark, mixed largely with material from 2012’s Tempest. The following evening, this set was scrapped again for the running order that remained intact at the PNC. “Dylan Twitter” was having an absolute field-day in real time, including user @TheAlexSylvian, who shared this exchange:
Me: babe, Dylan’s setlist for this new festival is insane! he’s playing songs he hasn’t played in years!
Wife: wow did he finally play any of the songs I know
Me: no
Rolling Stone’s Andy Greene provided a user-friendly guide to the otherwise seemingly baffling running order.
Eschewing mid-song transitions, audience banter and glances towards his band, Bob Dylan powered through his set in good voice and good form on lead piano. The feel was that of a blues jam as the band held it down and went along for the ride. One particular member who bares special mention – Jim Keltner, drummer for Dylan side project Traveling Wilburys and collaborator with the solo ex-Beatles, brought his trademark thunderous tom-tom fills and a rocksteady tempo. Deftly applied machine-gun snare and crash cymbal combos buoy the entire set.
In 1973, George Harrison included a liner note on the Living in the Material World album, as a sendup of McCartney and Wings’ fan club. “Jim Keltner fan club – for all information send a stamped undressed elephant to S112, Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, California.” Blindsided, Keltner pressed, “George, what’s that, man?” George countered, “Well, if I’m going to do a fan club, I’m going to make it about somebody who I’m a big fan of.” They are no longer accepting applications, but they should be; Keltner is the best in the business.
There is a sublime moment as Dylan unsheathes his harmonica under the stars. He graces the audience with one “thank you!” before launching into “Stella Blue,” a highlight of the set. What initially sounds like an address to the crowd – “Everyone in the room! You count so hard but you don’t understand it, something’s happening here but you don’t know what it is” – is the introduction to “Ballad of a Thin Man.” It is captivating to see Dylan shepherd the band through a mixture of surf-rock and blues combos, weaving into the tapestry of classics that Plant trotted out earlier. He addressed the audience one last time, mumbling something to the effect of “thank you, thank you… let us play… you ready?” As the last notes of “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” rang out, Dylan stood, jutted out his right hip and placed his hand upon it in what could only be described as a sassy pose. He looked, and sounded, JUST like Bob f’ing Dylan.
A child in the 200s section cried out, defeated – “I just don’t like his music!” – Willie Nelson’s family band was the last to take the stage. His son Lukas, muscle-bound and known for his guitar work in the Bradley Cooper-Gaga iteration of A Star Is Born, ably filled Willie’s shoes as he recovered.
“Dad says he’s feeling better, he just needs to rest a little longer, meantime we’ll play some of our favorite songs for you.” In a voice that echoed his father’s unmistakable timbre, Nelson sang “Ain’t It Funny How Time Slips Away” highlighted with accordion flourishes. The running order underscored the beauty of the Nelson family legacy, segueing into a medley with “Crazy.” It seemed an almost insurmountable task to win over a crowd almost exclusively clamoring for his Dad, and yet, with his deft guitar playing, he won the crowd over in real time.
Another highlight took hold in the cascading melody of a song the younger Nelson wrote opining for the ‘cedar trees, and morning air, below the Texas sky,’ “Just Outside of Austin.” Teary eyes welled, as they did when Lukas shared the stage with his father at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last November. He shredded Flamenco guitar licks as he sang of standing with Willie, “playing OUR music.” “Georgia on My Mind” was played respectfully, but with an unmistakable flair. Rounding out the set with original material mixed with standards and Willie classics, the younger Nelson more than rose to the occasion.
The rain subsided, and everyone was on the road again.
The Outlaw Music Festival resumed on July 29, 2024 in California.
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© Aidan Moyer
© Aidan Moyer