East of Swiftyapolis: A Fossil-Free Festival — Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music 2023.
There were a couple of concerts here this past weekend. The River City apparently swelled to the size of the crowd that invaded Max Yasgur’s farm in upstate New York in August, 1969 at Woodstock to see Crosby, Stills and Nash’s first live performance, Santana, and Country Joe and the Fish—among other acts. As the Taylor Swift shows approached, there were radio stories of internet ticket piracy, sequin queens, hours spent in merch lines, and fans flying in from afar. Jacob Frey renamed the city. With all the hype and hyperbole—I wonder if Madonna felt jealous? Well, it’s just Flyover, USA—so probably not.
Meanwhile, down on the farm, there was another show to the east in Somerset, Wisconsin, where the 2023 Outlaw Music Festival, featuring Willie Nelson and friends, kicked off its summer run before heading to Alpine Valley the next night. This bill, which will add Nathaniel Rateliff, The Avett Brothers and Kathleen Edwards at future, far away events (darn it…) featured Willie, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and Trampled by Turtles, with Willie’s son Micah “Particle Kid” Nelson and Molly Tuttle as opening acts.
Willie Nelson is 90 years old. He was in junior high when World War II ended, at a time when Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald defined popular music. Robert Plant is 75. He first came to the US in the late sixties when his outfit Led Zepplin was SO big that the band turned down the invite to play Yasgur’s farm, not wanting to be “just another band on the bill.” The two of them combined brought well over a century of country, rock, and rhythm and blues to the shores of the Apple River last Friday night at Float -Rite Park.
Yes, ain’t it funny how time slips away….
It is nice to report that both of these guys still have it. Adjusting with age—shorter sets and a little help from their friends (or in Willie’s case, his progeny) they and the others on the card put on a terrific show.
The Float-Rite park venue gets a grade of: B. Satisfactory to Good. It would have been hard to fix the three-mile crawl off Highway 64 to the field, but it was indeed a frustrating crawl. Parking, as one of my friends who was there with her gal pals put it, was a bit of a sh—show, but all things considered, not horrible. Although I haven’t heard yet if she got towed after parking on a side street in town. We bought $35 tickets and sat on the general admission lawn with the dusty masses; but then again, that kind of described a large percentage of the whole crowd. For example, I learned that:
Good to know. Makes sense if you think about it. There were aged hippies, suburban families, multi-generational family groups, and kids in their twenties wearing Waylon and Willie shirts. That’s heartening.
After California-bred roots prodigy Molly Tuttle (her last album, Crooked Tree, was produced by Jerry Douglas and features a who’s who bluegrass lineup including Billy Strings and Dan Tyminski—and she’s played in Buddy Miller’s band) finished up with the title track from Crooked Tree and a spirited version of Townes Van Zandt’s White Freightliner Blues, the Coolest Band at Any Festival, Trampled by Turtles, took the stage.
This is a very cool shirt, but as Macklemore might note….thirty five dollars for a t-shirt? Maybe better to pop that tag at Goodwill later.
TBT ran through a set very similar to the one we saw at the Armory back in November (see the Pulltab archives: “The Weirdest Band at the Festival Comes Home”) complete with several tracks from 2022’s gem Alpenglow including Burlesque Desert Window, All the Good Times are Gone, and Quitting is Hard.
Storm clouds gathered in the west behind us as the flowing locks, flannels and firey strings of these “honorary outlaws” brought the grace of a band totally in its prime to the stage. Alan Sparhawk again joined for the Low cover Days Like These, Wait So Long got some folks bouncing around, and the anthemic Alone closed things out.
Plant and Krauss took the stage about a half hour later—this is Wisconsin, after all, and as Charlie Berens of the Manitowoc Minute says, keep ‘er movin…
Led Zeppelin legend Plant, wearing what looked like a bowling shirt, or something from Hee Haw, still can sing like nobody’s business. His partner, blue grass royalty Allison Krauss (they have referred to themselves as “Mork and Mindy”) in a flowing flowered dress, like a cross between Stevie Nicks and a PTA mom, also can sing like nobody’s business. Sometimes, as John King likes to say, it’s all about the words. But these two were all about the Voices; Krauss’ clear and pure as a spring-fed river in the driftless, and Plant pitch-perfect, hinting at that old Zeppelin scream just now and again.
Plant and Krauss dropped mentos into a bottle of Coca-Cola back in 2007 and cut the amazing record Raising Sand out of nowhere, besting Coldplay and Radiohead for five Grammys. Blues met bluegrass. British rock met traditional americana. Thirty some years apart in age and from nearly opposite ends of the Rock and Roll tree of life, they caught lightning in a bottle.
It took them thirteen years to record the follow up Raise the Roof (Warner 2021), and at Outlaw they tapped both, as well as the Plant/Zeppelin catalog. Highlights included a ripping send up of Rock and Roll, during which lead guitarist J.D. McPherson probably could be heard in Eau Claire, and a rambling version of Can’t Let Go, borrowed from Lucinda Williams and Randy Weeks.
Krauss brought out her fiddle, shoulder high with strings singing, during Please Read the Letter from Sand, and played it for the duration, as the duo gave the crowd High and Lonesome (written with T-Bone Burnett, who produced Raising the Roof) and a prairie-wind rendition of Plant’s Mood, which quickly transitioned into the desperate Scottish Appalachia of Matty Groves.
Plant nodded to Krauss, acknowledging his being “in the presence of genius” (ever the English gentleman) and noting “what a blessing” it was to be there. The Battle of Evermore, and Plant and Krauss’ biggest hit the Everly Brothers’ cover Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On) (which actually came out a little flat—but hey, no worries) ended the set.
When Willie finally took the stage at about 10 pm, seated on a stool in a vest, trademark bandana and braids, the massive stage screen popped a giant American flag as he and the band opened with a funky Whiskey River, then bounced into Stay a Little Longer, Still is Still Moving to Me, and a choppy (but still awesome) Bloody Mary Morning, in rapid succession. I was advised that Willie “plays things fast” live, and this I found to be true. With Mickey Raphael on harp, it was vintage Willie. No frills, and the crowd, although we were in Wisconsin and even in Minnie August 1st has not yet arrived, celebrated with a hazy, skunky roar. As Willie’s kindred THC spirit Peter Tosh once sang: Legalize it. . .and I will ad-ver-tise it.
In short order the Particle Kid, Micah Nelson, joined his father onstage. Willie’s talent has been genetically passed. In addition to Micah, check out Paula Nelson, here doing an outstanding duet with her dad:
The first duet on this night was a song Micah’s father challenged him to write, a tribute to Willie’s enduring spirit and fortitude If I Die When I’m High. This is what we heard, almost verbatim, from the stage:
Traditional Willie favorites followed, Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to Be Cowboys, On the Road Again, and You Were Always on My Mind, and yes, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die (there was no guest appearance by Snoop Dogg, with whom he recorded that one, unfortunately).
As Willie and Micah rode out the show, son carrying the load for father at times, I could not help but think of the Hardcore Troubadour himself, Steve Earle, who lost his son Justin Townes Earle a few years back. Justin, a brilliant and rising artist in his own right, swallowed up by his demons way too soon. Steve with no more chances to play an open-air stage with his son, side by side. RIP, JTE. Steve Earle’s song to his son:
The night was a tribute to aging—or seemingly ageless?—talent, and artists reinventing themselves, side by side with new blood in Tuttle and Micah Nelson (whose stuff is very unique, with a psychedelic Beatle-esque twist invading his family musical roots) and smack in the middle, a band in TBT that plays with complete knowledge of who they are and what they are doing—doing very well.
If you are a music fan, best to try to see the great ones before they are gone. Because ain’t it funny, how time…slips away. Gordon Lightfoot passed a month ago. John Prine is gone, Prince is gone, Petty is gone. (Madonna is still around though—if you’re into that). We got two hall of famers in one night last week, who aren’t gone yet—and still can bring it. Proving age, thank goodness, sometimes is just a state of mind.
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