Nelson, Dylan & Mellencamp Make For A Special Night At Hollywood Bowl

Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and John Mellencamp may have a combined age of 246 years, but they’ve mostly been packed with legendary careers and songs that couldn’t have been fully covered had they taken the taken the Hollywood Bowl stage in Los Angeles, as they did July 31 in this year’s incarnation of Nelson’s “Outlaw Festival,” as individual headliners.

The three Rock & Roll Hall of Famers were joined at the Bowl for the first time on the tour by Brittney Spencer, who brought her own formidable voice and songwriting skills to the fore in an opening set that validated Nelson’s wisdom in inviting her to again join a lineup that might have intimidated most emerging artists. 

One should never pass up an opportunity to see any of these artists, and the sellout of the 17,500-capacity Hollywood Bowl – which was substantially filling up by the show’s midweek, 5 p.m. start time – showed that the Los Angeles market took that advice to heart.

From Spencer’s late-afternoon opening number, “First Car Feeling,” to Nelson’s “It’s Hard To Be Humble” show-closer at about 10:30 p.m., fans were treated to a night of some of popular music’s finest songwriters performing some of the greatest hits of any genre spanning the last six decades. 

The 2024 “Outlaw Festival” tour isn’t the first time that Nelson, Dylan and Mellencamp have joined forces to enthrall audiences, having journeyed the minor-league baseball parks of American on 2019’s “Ballpark Tour.” 

Mellencamp remains a strong and steady performer of a catalog of major hits, including “Small Town,” “Paper In Fire,” “Jack and Diane,” Pink Houses,” “Hurts So Good” and more that have earned the Indiana-born roots rocker a solid place in heartland rock’s pantheon. 

If anything, Dylan and Nelson sounded as good if not better than they have in years. Dylan was in good voice and spent his set mostly on his feet behind a baby grand piano, bringing the house to its feet from the jump with his opener of “Highway 61 Revisited.” 

He brought a mix of originals and covers, including Chuck Berry’s “Little Queenie,” “Early Roman Kings,” “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,” the Grateful Dead’s “Stella Blue,” Fleetwood Mac’s “Mr. Blue,” and a reimagined and ethereal “Simple Twist of Fate,” accompanied on most songs by local legend John Densmore of The Doors on percussion and Mickey Raphael, a stalwart harmonica legend in his own right, from Nelson’s band.

Despite missing seven dates in June because of illness, Nelson seemed no worse for the ordeal with his voice clear and fingers doing fine work running across Trigger’s strings and fretboard. Nelson’s voice, phrasing and especially his guitar playing are singular – there’s no mistaking any of those for anyone else – to watch Nelson’s knotted and weathered hands bringing such sublime music from such a well-worn instrument was poignant as a reminder of the decades of some of America’s most important music being performed by the legend who created it, on the nearly ancient Martin N-20 it was created with.

Nelson opened, as he often does, with a rousing “Whiskey River,” and brought a rapt audience through a 20-song sampler of music that goes back at least to the 1950s, when he was toiling as a Nashville songwriter and penning instant classics, like “Crazy” for Patsy Cline. Son Lukas was MIA this particular night, but his brother Micah brought both tears and laughter with a song written for and performed with his dad, “(If I Die When I’m High) Halfway To Heaven.” 

It’s understandably a disappointment that Nelson’s pal Snoop Dogg was out of town, on another gig doing commentary and being the man-about-Paris during the Summer Olympic Games. But Nelson made do, performing “Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die.” 

Nelson was joined by Maui neighbor and “America’s Got Talent” contestant Lily Meola on “Will You Remember Me,” as well as by fiddler extraordinaire Amanda Shires on the country standard “I’ll Fly Away.” Shires made an earlier appearance during Spencer’s set, for a performance of The Highwomen’s “Crowded Table” – a song near and dear to Spencer’s heart, making for a heartstring-tugging moment. 

Other major crowd-pleasers – well, everything was a crowd-pleaser, but of note, classics like “I Never Cared For You,” Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys,” “Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground,” “On The Road Again,” and a three-song finale of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” “I’ll Fly Away” and the previously mentioned “Hard To Be Humble” either inspired giant singalongs or pin-drop quiet.  

Nelson last played the Bowl in April 2023 for two nights in celebration of his 90th birthday, which was later televised. If his performance at “Outlaw Music Festival” is any indication, we should be prepared to celebrate his 100th with him, too.