There was no Willie Nelson, but there were a couple of music legends, and lighting and thunder, at the Outlaw Music Festival Tour show June 30 at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel.
Bob Dylan, and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, performed sets. Nelson's son Lukas took over his dad's slot at the end of the show with the Family Band.
“Dad said he's feeling better, but they said he needs to rest a little longer,” Lukas informed the crowd.
Nelson's social media announced that the 91-year old was not “feeling well” at the onset of the tour two weeks ago and would miss “the next four days.” That's turned into more than a week, and Nelson's reps have not been specific about when's he's returning beyond stating this week.
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“I'm so sad Willie's not doing well — all of our favorite acts are getting older so we have to see them while we can,” said Nancy Fondaco of Red Bank at the show. “I'm hoping maybe he'll just show up.”
“We knew a week ago and it happens at times,” said Nancy's husband Joe Fondaco. “There's other great artists here. I never saw Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and they were fantastic.”
The latest post suggests the return is Tuesday, July 2, at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts, and then the 4th of July Picnic, with the same headliners, on Thursday, July 4, at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden. A request for more information on Nelson's illness was not replied to by a spokesperson.
Lukas, who has the Nelson high tenor, filled in very ably for his dad with covers of the Nelson classics, including, “Always On My Mind,” “Crazy” and “On the Road Again."
He was joined by singer Edie Brickell for a few songs, and closed the show with a solo and poignant “Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground,” a Nelson hit from the early '80s.
How old is Bob Dylan?
During Dylan, it sounded like the 83-year-old was behind a piano. His band was there Sunday, although the darkened stage lighting and lack of tighter shots on the venue video screens lent an air of mystery.
Yet starting his set with “Highway 61 Revisited” framed the picture pretty well.
There were two wild cards in the performance: the Chuck Berry classic “Little Queenie,” and "Mr. Blue," the sweetly sad pop song from the 1950s, originally rendered by the Fleetwoods (from the state of Washington). At PNC, “Mr. Blue” was sparse, beautiful, jazzy, and a little haunting.
Plant, 75, and Krauss performed a set of swampy blues and earthen roots rock that included the Led Zeppelin classic “Rock 'n' Roll” and the Plant solo hit “In The Mood (For A Melody).”
Many of the 14,000+ in the audience who were on the lawn did not get to experience the performance as a downpour hampered the experience.
“No more rain, no more rain!” chanted the crowd under an awning on the south concourse while the music played.
Singer-guitarist Celisse opened the show.
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Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at cjordan@app.com.
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