08/30 @ SPAC

“It’s always an honor to watch Willie Nelson play and sing his timeless stories and confessions.”

On August 30, Willie Nelson and his invited friends and family brought the final stop of the 10th Anniversary of the Outlaw Music Festival to SPAC.

Particle Kid blew the roof off with experimental textures and jams in the early afternoon. The trio of Micah Nelson (guitar and Karl the percussion suitcase), Curtis James (fiddle and guitar), and Ayron Day (bass and bells on his shoes) played mostly unreleased songs off of their upcoming release Evil Weirdness. Mickey Raphael joined for a song.

I believe when you play a cover song well, you call on the energy and spirit so that if the audience closes their eyes they can feel like the original writers are on stage playing the song alongside you. SPAC has a long history of being a summer destination for the Dead and Deadheads and it was a beautiful moment to watch Don Was and the Pan Detroit Ensemble bring the songbook back to this stage again, proving the songs will live on. The ensemble played live improvised versions of songs from their debut album, Groove in the Face of Adversity, like “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But Time”, and Grateful Dead songs like “Franklin’s Tower”, “Help on the Way”, “Slipknot”, “The Music Never Stopped” and Raphael returned for “Shakedown Street”.

These covers were done well because the group featured some of the most talented session musicians in the world, but it was especially great because they carried the energy and the spirit of the music with them, not just the notes. Most importantly, they mix in their own energy into this sound as I discussed with Don Was in our interview ahead of the show. I finally truly understood what he meant after feeling the impact of this band’s music live.

These two opening acts gave the crowd the energy they needed to last the next eight hours of the festival. I’ve seen some openers hold back, maybe out of respect or for not wanting to be too bold before the headliner. But every opener played their set as if they were a headliner and that is something the Outlaw Festival embraces more so than other shows. On the last stop on the tour, every act pulled out all the stops.

After the passing of Dolly Parton the week before the festival, her legacy of the power of kindness had been on my mind. I saw many Dolly t-shirts in the crowd and the sense that she was on everyone’s mind as well. No explicit tribute was made, but the bands carried on playing music, and letting their souls shine with the spirit of kindness that Parton worked her whole life to uphold through her music, philanthropy, and just her way of making a life.

Another impressive moment from the night was during Robert Randolph’s set. Randolph broke a string, but that didn’t really matter because he had nine more. But then his guitar player, Tash Neal, broke two during “Can’t Find My Way Home”. No roadie came to the rescue and the band kept playing, finishing their set with “Foxy Lady”. Neal still found a way to take a lead on this without an A or high E string.

Stephen Wilson Jr. surprised me the most. Playing a classical guitar with a pick, inspired by Willie Nelson, through three Fender twins created a vibe of dystopian desert heavy country rock.

Wilson ran through the audience, even into the lawn and the balcony, playing for nine minutes all while the band kept the groove going on stage.

Sheryl Crow and her band performed hits across her career like “My Favorite Mistake”, “Strong Enough”, “All I Wanna Do” and “Everyday Is a Winding Road”. Before playing a new song written earlier this summer, “Freedom Bus”, she asked every military member in the audience to stand up for a round of applause and thanks for their service in protecting Americans’ freedoms. The song is more of a direct protest song than her others, and is an anthem for respectful dialogue and the ability to agree to disagree. Waylon Payne joined her on backup vocals on this.

It’s always an honor to watch Willie Nelson play and sing his timeless stories and confessions. I’ve seen him play a few times and it’s more or less the same setlist, but these songs never get old. I pray that when I’m 93 I can walk, sing, talk, laugh, and play guitar as well as he can.

Seeing Nelson and his son Micah play the song Micah wrote for his Dad, “Die When I’m High” made me cry. I was at the show with my Dad, and it inspired us to get up the next morning to play guitar and learn a new Willie Nelson song together.

It’s about family. May the music never stop.