If you don’t know who Willie Nelson is and what he means to the culture of this, our planet … I have no idea where to start (well, “The red-headed stranger from Blue Rock Montana rode into town one day…). And what really blew us away when we first heard about this tour, was that he’d be playing with Phil Lesh & Friends, Alison Krauss, his sons’ bands, and a host of others (Outlaw Music Festival 2019).
They weren’t coming close to Boston, but that’s all relative. They were opening at Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion in Bangor in mid-June (that's my sister's car dealer!). And though that’s 3.5 hours away, when you get there it’s just a hop, skip, and jump from our house in Maine. We signed up as soon as we could and got 7th row seats, though they were disappointingly far left. This meant we were near the beer, bathrooms, and exit. But I’m getting ahead of myself again.
Anyway, the three of us took that Friday off work and were going to drive up that morning, but at the last minute we decided to go up Thursday after work. This meant we drove through a Biblical rain-storm, but we stopped at the BBQ place in Augusta for dinner and had a pretty successful trip up … we’ve done this before.
One thing led quickly to another on Friday morning and before we knew it it was time to leave, armed with sunscreen, bug spray, rain slickers, sweatshirts, sunglasses, food, and all kinds of summer concert stuff. This was Maine after all, and though the mid-June day seemed temperate, the forecast called for scattered showers and lows perhaps dipping into the 40s that night.
Pleasant drive up to Bucksport and up the Penobscot River on 15, and then over to the big city on the 1A bridge and soon we were at the Pickering Square Parking Garage, where we had a late lunch of a few sandwiches while watching the other concert-goers assemble. Then a nice (but windy!) walk down Main Street to the venue.
This was a real mixed crowd. There were a number of older people with flannel shirts and cowboy boots (or the Maine equivalent) there to see Willie, a number of people with flannel shirts over tie-dyed t-shirts there for Phil, a number of people with flannel shirts and a polite demeanor there for Allison, and a number of people with flannel shirts and work boots there for the rock bands. OK, there was a common thread here. It was a beautiful day on the waterfront in Bangor, and we all milled around.
We three detoured to the park at water’s edge and emptied our water bottles in preparation for going in. We had our stuff in clear plastic bags as prescribed, and were prepared for one of *those* concert entry experiences. One woman in front of us did her best to slow down the line, but it was really pretty painless. It was a long slog past the food vendors and the port-a-potties to get in, but when we got to our 7th row seats things were pretty good. The beer tent was 50 feet away, the bathrooms 100 feet, and the stage less than that.
Brief paragraph on Darlings’s Waterside Pavilion, based on our subjective observations that day, including a tour around the environs. Though there were several good things about it, there was a lot that was sub-prime about this place. If you had a seat in the front few sections the sight lines were very good, but the back and lawn seats were pitiful, you might as well stay home and watch it on TV since that’s what you were going to do anyway. I think from most of the lawn seats you physically would not be able to see the stage. The beer was expensive and they ran out of everything except Bud Light halfway through the concert. The bathrooms were just a row of port-a-potties and sometimes had long lines. And they wouldn’t let you bring in any food and then when you were inside you had to wait in line forever to get gruesome, fried fare. Dave waited in line at what should have been a less-busy time but was in line for 40 minutes.
And when we got to our seats we were delighted in some ways, but overwhelmed in others. The first act, Particle Kid (Willie’s son Micah), had started right on time at 3:30 when we were just entering the venue. And at our seats the volume was deafening. I don’t often complain about things being too loud, but this was intense! Particle Kid is a really fun power-rock (with a little bit of indie or emo) trio with Micah shredding it on guitar, and a driving bass and drums. And they had it turned up to 11. We could not hear each other, shouting as we were from one seat to another.
But they were really pretty good and Micah Nelson was being a showman in unlaced work boots, windmilling on his guitar when the mood went from moody to excited, and jumping on the speakers at the front of the stage when he thought people weren’t paying attention. He had a spaceman wandering around stage and had a filter that made his guitar sound like a laser gun. A lot of people did pay attention to him and and we gave him and his act a good reception.
As we asked ourselves (and the friends we met at our seats) about most of the acts that day, how you could not like something like that? They were good musicians laying it down for us and though their genre or song-writing choices might not be to your taste (Particle Kid has a song (and a video) called “Everything Is Bullshit” and the chorus went, “Everything is fucking bullshit,” which was quite the twist!), this was authentic American music with no trace of irony, though it had a lot of angst.
Next up was another of Willie’s sons, Lukas, with his band Promise Of the Real, which has been around since 2008 and is currently Neil Young’s regular backing band. They delivered a very polished set of country rock at a slightly lower volume, though Lukas had his brother Micah on lead guitar and he tried to rip it up. Some of their songs are really well-written and this was quite an enjoyable set, as the afternoon threatened to end sometime. We were shaded by the tent around the stage, but the sun was starting to get pretty brilliant as it got lower in the sky.
It was another one of those experiences when you think that the day will last forever, and suddenly the first two sets were gone. Next up was The Revivalists, a New Orleans-based rock band (on the poppier side) who have a pretty good sound themselves. They’re not really the kind of band that grabs me, being not very funky, not very guitar-driven, and not very anything distinctive. This was just good solid original rock music with feeling and a baritone sax. And the lead singer looked like a rock guy, he was wiry with a lot of hair.
OK, halfway through and the great part was about to start. Dave had waited in the interminable food line and got me a decent hot dog when he got there. The guys were setting up the stage for Alison and this was quite a production. They lowered a backdrop of some attic windows, brought in a gas lamp and a dollhouse(??), and scattered several Ionic pedestals around. I think they were going for a “Windy City” kind of visual atmosphere but it mostly fell flat.
This was especially true for us because we couldn’t really see it. Though we were in the 7th row we were pretty far left. Not far enough so we couldn’t see and enjoy the musicians (there was even another section to our left), but we were at a severe angle to the stage and there was a cameraman in our way, so though we could see the musicians, we couldn’t really see their setup or the cute bits on the stage.
The cameras (one on each side, pretty close to the action) were there to feed the real-time TV screens flanking the stage, which were probably all the people on the lawn could see, as mentioned. You could understand why they were there, though the camera on our side was kind of a pain for us, it was right in the way. As close to the stage as we were, many of the people around us watched the TV screens most of the time anyway. Not me. I glanced at them from time to time to (e.g.) see Willie professionally lit or to see Bobbie Nelson on piano (not at all visible from the audience), but most of the time I was riveted on the stage.
So anyway, Alison came on and what a band she had. We’d been wondering about Phil’s band and there had not been good information about this (see below), but even more lacking was information as to what kind of band Alison would have. She brought the A-team. How’s this: Jeff White(!) on mandolin and vocals, Sidney Cox on dobro and vocals (they were both in a “trio” mike arrangement with her at mid-stage), Matt Rollings on piano, Barry Bales on bass, Ron Block on guitar and banjo, and a lead guitarist and drummer whose names we didn’t catch.
Alison was great, though a jarring juxtaposition to the loud and frantic rock that came before her. As I say, many of the people there were there to see her, and she sure brought the goods, backed up by that incredible band. They opened with a couple of songs from her latest record to set the pace, and then hit most of her big ones:
- River In the Rain
- I Never Cared For You
- Stay
- Forget About It
- Baby Now That I’ve Found You
- Ghost In This House
- Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson
- The Lucky One
- Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us
- It’s Goodbye and So Long To You
- Angel Flying Too Close To the Ground
- Go To Sleep You Little Baby
- Let Me Touch You For Awhile
- Sawing On the Strings
- Down To the River To Pray
- Gentle On My Mind
- When You Say Nothing At All
- When I’ve Done the Best I Can I Want My Crown
Yikes, this was 18 songs and she did them in at most 90 minutes. These were all pretty short renditions, and the stage crew was doing the thing of thrusting the instruments for the next song into the musicians’ hands before they’d really finished the one they were working on. But this pace was great for us and great for the delighted crowd. Though she did nothing approaching a rocker and so may have put some people to sleep, this was music of the highest quality and had me on the edge of my seat. Some highlights were the trio vocals and Alison’s fiddle of course, Block’s guitar work, and just amazing runs from Rollings on piano.
OK, time to get ready for what we were really there for. As mentioned, it was a little mysterious who was going to be on stage with Phil. He had played with Jorma Kaukonen, John Molo, Rob Barraco, and Grahame Lesh earlier in the week in Port Chester, and that band was going to be with him the next day at Mountain Jam. Between those two gigs there was this stop on the Willie tour, and we hoped that that same band would be playing. But we had heard late that Ross James and Alex Koford from his other band were going to be there, so we weren’t sure (I saw Ross and Alex at the beer tent during the first act).
Though we were disappointed that Jorma wasn’t there, Phil ended up playing with the rest of that great band of Molo, Barraco, and Grahame, and also added James, Koford, AND Elliott Peck. Just say “Elliott Peck” to me and I will be happy. So let’s say you’re playing “rock stars trading cards” and you get offered the chance to trade your Jorma Kaukonen card for three others: Ross James, Alex Koford, and Elliott Peck. Would you do it?
Whatever, this band hit the floor running and turned in a neat 90-minute set that had us in ecstasy. Molo reinforced his nickname of “White Cloud” right before they started, and I tried to emulate him. Here’s the list:
- New Minglewood Blues (RJ)
- Jack Straw (RJ, GL)
- Box Of Rain (PL)
- Ramble On Rose (AK)
- The Music Never Stopped (RJ)
- The Wheel (all)
- Help On the Way (RB)
- Slipknot!
- I Know You Rider (all)
- Brokedown Palace (EP)
This was just excellent, excellent stuff, a whole evening of Phil Lesh music compressed into a short set. Ross started it off with a breathtakingly funky take on Minglewood, including growling over the Maine phillies. The intro to Jack Straw was pure Furthur. I hope Phil is singing Box Of Rain when I die, or if and when he dies. Ramble On Rose did not really take off but had Elliott on vocal and her style is enough to knock the wind out of you. Then what I thought it was an exceptional Music … until Elliott stepped up and sang those parts and it went from great to epic…
There was a woman dancing in front of us, in ecstasy at hearing and being so close to Phil. Elliott stepped up to the mike and the woman grabbed herself and shouted, “She’s singing the Donna parts!!!” Yes she was, and she got them down.
The Wheel was done with all the trimmings, and then it seemed like the second set had started when we calmed down from that and Rob got us right back up with an excellent vocal on Help and the band went full tilt into a shortened Slipknot! Then we all realized it was time to end the shortened Dead show when they wound it down with Rider. But what would be the “encore?” Elliott’s turn to shine again and she knocked out a fantastic Brokedown that left not a dry eye in the house.
But what was I doing during all of this? Watching Phil of course. Rob was really on that night and Grahame unexpectedly chimed in with some fantastic leads. Koford is a surprisingly tasteful rhythm guitar player and the interplay between the three guitarists was great (Ross switched to pedal steel for The Wheel and made it sound like first Garcia). And Molo was great, though I couldn’t really see him. But as ever, the player of the night was … Phil! I could just listen to his bass pounding and soaring and coloring my world for a long time. We were pretty close to the stage, and there were a lot of people and things between me and him, and we were outside in the middle of a huge crowd. But I was watching him and he was right there, somehow becoming more vivid to me as I watched. I was looking through a perceptual tunnel and realized what a wonderful time he was having, doing what he likes to do best. He was ageless and so was I.
I had thought we might get an abbreviated donor rap, but they had a schedule to meet. They all bowed at center stage like a proper P&F band, and then Phil’s only remarks were to get ready for Willie! So we did.
Oh boy, were we really nearing the end of the night? They took forever setting up the stage for Willie, and teased us with a couple of his music videos on the big screen, which didn’t seem to hurry him up at all. Finally he came on at about 10:20 and treated us to an hour set.
With Willie was his sister Bobbie on tinkling piano of course, a bass player, son Micah on traps, a percussionist, Mickey Raphael on harmonica, and son Lukas on electric guitar. I have to say that their set was not great, though seeing Willie is an electric thrill. His tempos were as oddball as ever but this is his style, and when he would take over a song on his beat-up old guitar, which he did not hesitate to do, he was enthralling.
The played very much a “greatest hits” set for the Maine country crowd, opening with Whiskey River and cruising through such stuff as Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys, On the Road Again, Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground (though Alison had covered it earlier that evening), Always On My Mind, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me, It’s All Gone To Pot, etc. Dave was amazed when he’d be singing a verse, suddenly point his mike to the crowd, and we’d finish it for him. This was a crowd of Willie freaks, though a lot of people left in the middle of it to try to beat the traffic.
Willie at one point whipped off his hat and threw it into the crowd, and later got a bunch of bandannas that he tossed hither and yon. This wasn’t a really inspired performance, but what do you expect of an 86-year old musician on the first night of a tour? Also, it was getting kind of cold by that point. There had been a few sprinkles of rain, one almost approaching a steady drizzle, and the temperature had dropped. This was Maine though, and we were all prepared … everyone got out their rain slicker and/or sweatshirt.
And then sooner than expected, it was over! I’d been thinking we’d go until midnight but apparently there’s an 11:30 curfew for music acts in Bangor and they stopped even before that … must have been 11:20. I was afraid it would take us forever to get out of the amphitheater but it actually went pretty well, and though it was a long walk back to the car that went well also.
Of course, once we were in the parking garage we realized it would take a while to get out of there. As anticipated, we were starving and this was a great time to chill out and have a sandwich. Sooner or later the backup started moving and we joined the end of it. The drive back to Sedgwick was not too painful and then we were back in our house in the woods, having seen a great concert nearby. Bed at just about exactly 1AM.
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