Robbie Robertson, All Star Lineup Celebrate Thanksgiving At 'Last Waltz Nashville'

– Last Waltz Nashville

Nashville has a lot to celebrate this Thanksgiving, with the announcement that Robbie Robertson will make a rare appearance at Bridgestone Arena Nov. 23 as part of “The Last Waltz Nashville: An All-Star Celebration of the Band’s Historic Farewell.”

It’s particularly fitting as the original Last Waltz concert was staged on Thanksgiving 1976, including dinner with fixings for all, by the late Bill Graham at San Francisco’s Winterland – an event that would be the swan song for both The Band and the venue.

Blackbird Presents is bringing The Last Waltz to stages as a tour, but “The Last Waltz Nashville” is a separate event, and it’s being billed as “this inaugural holiday event” that features Robertson and a slew of music royalty including Darius Rucker, Michael McDonald, Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, Nathaniel Rateliff, Warren Haynes, Jamey Johnson, Lukas Nelson, Margo Price, Don Was, John Medeski, Cyril Neville, Dave Malone, Bob Margolin, Terence Higgins and Mark Mullins & The Levee Horns.

A spokeswoman for the event tells Pollstar it will be the first of annual “Last Waltz” concerts that will have a charity component.

Tickets go on sale Saturday, October 12, 2019 at 10 AM CT throughTicketmaster. Citi cardmembers will have access to purchase pre-sale tickets beginning today, Tuesday, October 8 at 10 AM CT through Citi’s Private Pass program and will be available until Friday, October 11 at 10 PM CT. VIP packages, including great seats and exclusive event merchandise, will be available. “The Last Waltz Nashville: An All-Star Celebration of The Band’s Historic Farewell Concert “will cap off the November run of 2019’s “Last Waltz Tour,” currently on sale now at the tour website.

A portion of proceeds will directly to important charities, including Farm Aid; Nashville-based Thistle Farms, which helps survivors of sex trafficking, prostitution and addition; and the event will include a donation drive to Second Harvest, which works to solve hunger issues in Middle Tennessee.

“It is such an honor that the musical celebration of The Last Waltz and The Band carries on today. Blackbird Presents and this extraordinary lineup of talent makes me proud to be a part of this ongoing and wonderful tradition,” says Robbie Robertson in a statement.

“These songs are so deeply entrenched in our hearts that they have become a part of who we are as humans,” said Keith Wortman, founder of Blackbird Presents. “I am honored to present this show, with these artists, in our beloved Nashville and I’m especially proud to support Farm Aid, Thistle Farms and Second Harvest during this holiday season.”

“The Last Waltz Tour: An All-Star Celebration of The Band’s Historic Farewell Concert” is an extension of Blackbird Present’s November “Last Waltz Tour” and the acclaimed 2016 two-night, sold-out concert event, “The Last Waltz New Orleans” and 2017’s “The Last Waltz 40th Anniversary Tour” which was praised by audiences and critics across the country.

The 2017 outing performed to theaters and performing arts centers across the country including sellouts at the Orpheum Theater in Boston (2,682 tickets sold, $205,191 gross); and Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, N.J. (1,568; $179,912) of shows reported to Pollstar.

But this time out, Blackbird and the Last Waltz tour have the cooperation and assistance of Robertson, who led The Band through a historic career as not only a stand alone unit but as backing band for Bob Dylan. The tour includes many of the same artists that will appear on the Nashville bill, and begins Nov. 5 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y., and will subsequently hit smaller locales, like Toyota Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, Conn., and major markets such as the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia. The dates wrap up on Nov. 21 at the Chicago Theatre.

“It is such an honor that the musical celebration of The Last Waltz and The Band carries on today,” Robertson said in a statement. “Blackbird Presents and this extraordinary lineup of talent makes me proud to be a part of this ongoing and wonderful tradition.”

The tour’s announcement came as Robertson prepared to release his first album in eight years, Sinematic, on Sept. 20.