Bob Dylan & Willie Nelson Unite for Epic ‘Outlaw’ Music Festival with Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) and Alison Krauss joining on the first leg including Jones Beach Saturday June 29 - tix: http://WILLIENELSON.jonesbeach.comIn a statement, Nelson said, “This year’s Summer Outlaw Music Festival Tour promises to be the biggest and best yet with this lineup of legendary artists. I am thrilled to get back on the road again with my family and friends playing the music we love for the fans we love.”
Willie Nelson and Family are set to play the 2024 Summer Outlaw Music Festival Tour with headliners Bob Dylan, Robert Plant, Alison Krauss & Celisse. John Mellencamp, Brittney Spencer and Southern Avenue will be at other shows on the tour. Billy Strings will also join the tour for one show at The Gorge in Seattle. Dylan has previously played a string of shows for this tour but this is the first time he will perform for the entirety of the trek. He also recently announced a handful of solo tour dates slated to begin next month.
Dylan joined up with the Outlaw Festival for a couple of shows in 2017, but this is the first time he’s participated in the entire tour. His friendship with Nelson, however, goes back several decades. They co-wrote the song “Heartland” together in 1993. “[Willie] is like a philosopher poet,” Dylan said that year. “He gets to the heart of it in a quick way. He gets it out and then it’s over. He leaves the listeners to think about it. His guitar playing is pretty phenomenal. I don’t ever see anybody give him credit as a musician. In my book he’s up there at the top. He takes whatever he’s singing and makes it his. There’s not many people who can do that.” - The inaugural Outlaw Music Festival took place in 2016 in Pennsylvania and has since welcomed musicians such as Chris Stapleton, Neil Young, Luke Combs, Van Morrison, ZZ Top, Eric Church, Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Tyler Childers, Sturgill Simpson, the Avett Brothers and more.
In the summer of 2004, Nelson and Dylan played minor league baseball parks together all across America. In 2009, they brought John Mellencamp along for the ride when they repeated the concept. Dylan rarely shares the stage with other performers, but he frequently brought Nelson in 2004 for duets on “I Shall Be Released,” “Heartland,” and “Milk Cow Blues.” They first played together in 1976 when Nelson came out during a Rolling Thunder Revue stop in Houston for “Gotta Travel On.” . Over the past few years, Dylan has largely stuck to intimate theaters when he tours in America. But in the summer of 2013, he hit the summer amphitheater circuit with Wilco and My Morning Jacket. “The whole concept of the tour was supposed to be super collaborative,” My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James told Rolling Stone a few months after it ended. “We were expecting to be sitting around the campfire with Dylan at two a.m. and go, ‘Let’s cover all of Desire tomorrow!’ We had all these pipe dreams.”
James and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy did have the chance to play with Dylan a few times though. They were brought out near the end of his set for the traditional folk song “Twelve Gates to the City,” and the Band’s “The Weight.” “His bass player, Tony [Garnier], did all the communicating with us as far as who was going to sing what verse,” James said. “They’d change keys literally a minute before we went on, like, ‘Bob wants to do it in E flat.’ It was really cool, and something I’ll be able to tell the grandkids about.” . If we’re lucky this summer, we might get to see Dylan, Nelson, Robert Plant, and Alison Krauss team up for a few songs. Plant played “Girl From the North Country” at many shows in the early 2000s. This could be his chance to perform it with the guy that wrote it.