Review: Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan deliver the last — and most momentous — doubleheader of the summer

SOMERSET, Wis. — It’s been the summer of concert twofers — Green Day and Smashing Pumpkins, Def Leppard and Journey, Metallica and Pantera, Earth Wind & Fire and Chicago, Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie.

None of those doubleheaders can compare to Friday’s Outlaw Music Festival, aka Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan, here at Somerset Amphitheater. Two American musical treasures, Mount Rushmorian giants who have recorded for decades, veteran road warriors with so much gravitas that Rock & Roll Hall of Famer John Mellencamp was relegated to an opening act.

Age is just a number for Willie, 91, and Dylan, 83. Their freewheeling phrasing, their commanding presence without much patter and their wizened readings of their familiar songs made for an evening that felt both momentous and valedictory even though neither shows signs of stopping to tour.

While both longtimers worked with stripped-down quartets, their work and impact weren’t diminished. The fans seemed equally divided between those wearing Dylan and Willie T-shirts and hoodies. Dylan kept all but the faithful guessing about what song he was singing, and Willie sent the nearly 18,000 folks home humming a few favorites.

It was the second consecutive summer that Willie brought the Outlaw fest to Somerset; last year Robert Plant & Alison Krauss were in the Dylan slot. The Hibbing-reared bard hasn’t performed in the Twin Cities area since 2017 at Xcel Energy Center. He last appeared in his home state in 2019 in Mankato, but he hadn’t teamed with Willie in the area since 2005 at the old Midway Stadium in St. Paul.

As he has done all summer, Dylan threw in some covers of popular songs, including Chuck Berry’s “Little Queenie” and the Fleetwoods’ “Mr. Blue,” during his 75-minute set. He also dusted off a handful of his classics, including “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” and a large helping of 20th century material such as “Love Sick” and “Simple Twist of Fate” from 1975′s made-in-Minneapolis “Blood on the Tracks.” Surprisingly, there was nothing from 2020′s excellent “Rough and Rowdy Ways.”

As always, Dylan, playing piano and harmonica, reimagined his material, with “Hard Rain” becoming a sparse hymn and “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” starting as a drawn-out ballad and bursting into a rocker. His voice sounded softer, but it still had bite, with his spitting out lyrics to the lazy blues shuffle “Early Roman Kings” and on the intense, stinging finale “Ballad of a Thin Man.”

“Little Queenie” was more of a shuffle than a rocker, with the usually laconic Dylan uttering “thank you, Chuck” at song’s end. He also mentioned that “Shooting Star” was about a “friend of mine.” He introduced harmonica player Mickey Raphael from Willie’s band, who added eloquence to “Simple Twist of Fate,” but Dylan never introduced his four sidemen.

Willie’s hourlong set was similar to the one he performed in May in Duluth, except he added the new “Last Leaf on a Tree,” an instant crowd winner that will be the title cut of his Nov. 1 album. In recent years, he has recorded several songs dealing with mortality, but the emphasis Friday was on old favorites.

His acoustic guitar work — at turns jazzy, twangy, bluesy and elegant — was as expressive as his voice. His ballads, especially the lovely “Always on My Mind” and “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” warmed the crowd on a cool, late-summer night while the thigh-slapping “Bloody Mary Morning” and “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” had the fans heartily singing along.

“Hope you had a good night,” Willie said as he got up from his chair. “I’ll come back and see ya.”

Mellencamp, a relative youngster at age 72, performed for a quick hour, punctuated with his bluesy snarl, sing-along hits and the sun staring him in the eyes. In introducing one of his nonhits, “Longest Days,” he cited advice from his 100-year-old grandma. At the end of the song, he added a spoken-word coda, “Let’s try to be nice and kind to each other again.” It was a message that complemented his other tunes like “Pink Houses.”

Southern Avenue, a Memphis soul band, opened the nearly six-hour program at the amphitheater that has presented Luke Bryan, Hootie & the Blowfish and Limp Bizkit this summer.