The Outlaw Music Festival celebrating the great Willie Nelson made a stop at Riverbend Music Center on Sunday, Aug. 13 for a rain-free, sunny summer day of music. Summer isn’t the same without a trip to Riverbend, with historic Coney Island next door and the Ohio River just behind the stage, adding an air of timelessness and fun to the experience.
The festival started back in 2016 and tours around every year with a varying cast. This year’s stop included up-and-coming observational country singer-songwriter Myron Elkins; Canadian Americana songstress Kathleen Edwards; Willie’s son Micah Nelson’s solo project Particle Kid; Southern soul jam band Gov’t Mule; Rock & Roll Hall of Famer John Fogerty and Willie Nelson himself along with his longtime band, The Family, which now includes Micah.
“It’s always had this wonderful spirit, which comes from Willie and his life and his personality and his persona, and everybody loves Willie Nelson,” Gov’t Mule frontman Warren Haynes told CityBeat. “The festival itself attracts so many different kinds of music because so many different artists and bands are fans of Willie and wanna be a part of that scene. He transcends boundaries.”
There were a lot of highlights throughout the day and, to be fair, I may have missed some, arriving a little late and making it there during the second set of the day around 4 p.m. as I climbed the steps up to the lawn at the back of the venue. It was a welcomed tone to start the day: Particle Kid performing to an amphitheater only half full with echoes of psychedelic delay sitting center stage with a stuffed squid and single boot on a side table next to him.
Though his set often includes modulated effects with varying intensity that he controls mid-song (the reason for one boot removed), adding a different texture to the sound, it never forgets craft and melody.
Particle Kid is wearing a Sonic Youth t-shirt and it’s one of the first things we talk about backstage as we sit down for our interview after his set. “They’re experimenting with tones and tunings and things, but underneath it all, they have songs,” Micah told CityBeat. On the balance of experimentation and melody, he adds, “I think for something to really connect with people and have some longevity, and I love melody too, so where those things kind of merge, that’s where I like to live.”
Much like his legendary dad, Micah can piece together a song. His solo performance using only acoustic guitar and vocals reveals his well-structured songs and considered lyrics. His dad’s famous timbre and vocal delivery are also sometimes recognizable but stay out of mind as Micah has his own singular voice. Particle Kid is often wildly experimental, incorporating elements of ‘60s psychedelia, punk and Flaming Lips-style acid imagery along with classic singer-songwriter sensibilities, as this set confirms.
In addition to growing up the son of one of the greatest songwriters of all time and in his dad’s band surrounded by some of music’s best, Nelson also often backs the singular Neil Young. “You have to be in the moment with Neil just the same as with my dad. You never know what they’re gonna do. That’s the best thing about live music though, right? It could totally fall apart at any second and it doesn’t.” Micah ends the set with his song “Everything Is Bullshit,” a commentary on modern life and a wall of hard strumming guitar delay, punctuated by high-pitched vocal snaps that echo from the stage across the field, taking chances but never falling apart.
I missed Edwards’ performance as I made my way backstage for the talk with Micah. By the time we’ve wrapped up, the stage is being set for Gov’t Mule. The venue is noticeably fuller as the band starts, with the wind blowing across the crowd in the lawn and pavilion as Gov’t Mule plays on with a string of guests. In talking about collaboration and their new record, Peace…Like A River, Haynes told CityBeat, “I don’t ever like to force collaboration, but if it makes sense, if it feels natural, then it’s nice to include mostly friends that I’ve worked with in the past.” The band’s set backs this statement and only adds to the communal feel of the tour.
The first of Gov’t Mule’s guests is longtime Willie Nelson harmonica player Mickey Raphael and frequent Gov’t Mule guitarist Jackie Greene on the Allman Brothers classic “Melissa,” a band Haynes was a member of earlier in his career. Next, Micah comes back to the stage to tear through a roaring version of Young’s On the Beach classic, “Revolution Blues.” The three guitar players take turns on solos, often taking notes from Young’s raw, uninhibited style. This new high mark of the set was followed by an extended and animated jam on “Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home,” with veteran saxophonist Ron Holloway that touched on ‘70s disco-funk classic “Pick Up The Pieces” briefly, before pouring into Holloway and Haynes trading licks as the band’s keyboard player added some soulful organ backing before the finale of the song, leaving the crowd ready for more.
The opening notes of the Haynes-penned staple “Soulshine,” originally done during the guitarist’s time with the Allman Brothers, capitalized on the energy and brought the crowd to another level and to their feet, closing out their set on a high point.
The crowd is about at capacity and in full swing as rock and roll legend John Fogerty stormed the stage with his sons backing him on guitar, adding to the family affair theme.
Fogerty brought full energy and did not disappoint as they jumped right into a handful of Creedence Clearwater Revival classics. I watched the beginning of this set in the lawn after running into some friends and couldn’t help but notice the charm of hearing “Green River” with the river flowing just behind the stage. Fogerty told the story of getting one of his CCR-era guitars back after 44 years as a surprise from his wife who recently found the lost guitar here in Cincinnati, and gave it to him as a gift. The notoriously plaid-wearing Fogerty said something along the lines of, “you should have seen plaid cry.”
Back down front by mid-set, his enthusiasm is even more noticeable. Fogerty runs to greet the crowd on both sides of the stage between lines with a smile and is often bouncing to the Bayou-inspired rhythm when not on the move. If Fogerty’s energy wasn’t enough, the charged power of his seemingly endless supply of hits would leverage any crowd to his side and Cincinnati was most certainly with him. The crowd singing “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” at full volume and the biting power of “Fortunate Son” are just some of the exceptional number of highlights in the set.
The sun has fully set as the crowd prepares for the star of the show. One of the most recognizable people walking the earth, Willie is on stage with a signature bandana and hair pulled back with his red, white and blue braided guitar strap around his neck and one of the most famous guitars of all time, “Trigger,” sitting on his lap. Nelson is still in command and his charm is all still there, even though he just celebrated his 90th birthday with a two-day concert at the Hollywood Bowl just before the tour.
Of the Hollywood Bowl concerts, Micah tells CityBeat, “It was a lot. It was very exhausting physically, spiritually and emotionally, but also really just an amazing plot point in the universe. It seemed like this surreal, very meaningful thing. It needed to happen, all of these characters and the whole story coming together celebrating this life. These things should happen before people die.”
There are moments both intimate and grand in the set. They’re the most pared down band onstage in hours, positioned closely together on the large Riverbend stage, but maybe the most commanding as they make their way through classics like “On the Road Again” and “You Were Always on My Mind.” Willie announces, “This is a song me and Waylon wrote over in Fort Worth,” before he delivers a slightly revved up take on “Good Hearted Woman” in his inimitable style followed later by a take on “Georgia (On My Mind)” as a tender but effective shuffle.
Micah leads the band in a more traditional arrangement of his song “Everything Is Bullshit,” with his dad backing him on vocals, taking one of his singular solos. On his dad’s freewheeling style of playing, Micah tells CityBeat, “At this point, I just try to be the tree he can always look back and land on because he goes and flies around like a nut and he needs something, especially after Aunt Bobbi [Bobbi Nelson] died, to just be holding it down and also free him up.”
Later in the set, the father and son’s vocals blend perfectly on the ethereal, gospel-feeling “I Thought about You, Lord,” something the younger Nelson calls “intuitive.”
“It's just Jedi training,” Micah says of backing his father. “I wouldn’t trade this time for anything. I’m gonna be there for them any time they ask me as long as they’re here. It’s just the right thing to me. I wouldn’t be here, able to do my thing, without their inspiration and their support. So the fact that they asked me to play with them is, like, ‘Yeah, of course.’”
As tradition, the show comes to a close with a rendition of the standard, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” that goes right into the gospel classic, “I’ll Fly Away” as the troupe of the day’s performers join Nelson and The Family onstage, including Haynes, Edwards, Elkins and others. The group ended the night with the tongue-in-cheek brag, “It’s Hard to Be Humble” with the crowd as enthusiastic as ever, giving as much as the performers on stage before exiting on a new high.
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