Review: Dylan and Willie – American classics … and contrasts
By Elmer Ploetz
Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, what a study in contrasts!
I guess you could say that about their entire careers, although both have wound up as American treasures as songwriters and performers. But it was really on display Friday night (Aug. 8) as 2025 Outlaw Music Festival tour set down at the Darien Lake Amphitheater.
Dylan was, well, Dylan. It took some serious listening for pieces of lyrics to recognize some of the songs. That’s partly because of my ears, partly because of Dylan’s voice and partly because he may change almost everything about the songs except for the words.
For this show, he was seated behind a keyboard, which he held his own with the rest of a stellar band. But there were no bright lights on him, no live edited video cuts, just a reddish lit stage that looked like an infrared video with one static shot. Sitting behind the keyboard (a concession, perhaps, to the fact he’s 84), all that was visible of Dylan at times was his white hat. From this reviewer’s perspective of dead center in Section 401, Row 1, the lights on the keyboard in front of him made him look a little like an Ewok from a “Star Wars” movie.
But when you’re Bob Dylan, you can demand concessions like not having bright lights in your eyes. And, as always, Dylan demands that the audience take him as he is, not as they want him to be. Even songs that the audience knew well were never singalongs.
But there were highlights where the part of the audience seeking the familiar was rewarded with it . The biggest was the stomping boogie version of “Highway 61.” His current version of “All Along the Watchtower” seemed refreshed and amazingly modern, not like something released almost 58 years ago (and almost immediately transformed by Jimi Hendrix). According to setlist.fm, the opener of “Masters of War” was the first time he had played the song since 2016.
Dylan’s band, as always, was ready to roll with whatever he threw at them. I believe the small combo featured his longtime rhythm section of Tony Garnier on bass and Anton Fig on drums, iwth Doug Lancio and Bob Britt on guitars (it was tough to see the players from Section 401, and the video was no help).
Now comes the contrast of Willie Nelson. If Dylan seeks to challenge, Willie aims to please. And at age 92, he still does.
Somehow, despite probably hundreds of hours of listening to Willie Nelson in my life, I had never seen him perform live (and I know, he’s played in Western New York a LOT). So on this first opportunity to see Nelson, the thing that came to mind is that he’s like Bruce Springsteen in how he brings a spiritual uplift to the audience (and would even if he hadn’t included gospel songs “May the Circle Be Unbroken” and “I’ll Fly Away” at the end of the show).
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Following Dylan, Nelson started with a video of “Living in the Promiseland” that seemed all too timely and that brought a message that we’re all in this together … Nelson then helped us party together.
The spotlights were cranked back up as Nelson sat (he is 92!) in front of a full-stage American flag, surrounded by his small-group combo. With his sister, Bobbie, gone since 2022, there was no keyboard player. Drummer Paul English is gone, too, although there was a percussionist. Still, Willie Nelson & Family is a smaller set of kin than in previous decades.
No matter. The band functioned like a well-oiled jazz combo, swinging when it needed, rocking when called for and giving Nelson a breather when guitarist Waylon Payne (who also opened the show with his own set) sang standards such as Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night” and Merle Haggard’s “Working Man Blues.” Plus the great harmonica player Mickey Raphael is still there.
As is frequently true in his songs, Nelson gets straight to the point in his performance. Most of the hits were there, including a medley of ’60s hits he wrote for others (“Crazy,” “Funny How Time Slips Away” and “Nightlife”), his ’70s/’80s hits (“On the Road Again,” “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” “You Were Always on My Mind” and “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground”) and more recent fare such as “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die” from 2012 and Tom Waits’ “Last Leaf” from last year.
It made it easy to sing along, to stomp along and just enjoy that lift from the combination of the inspirational, the emotional and raucous.
With legends like Nelson and Dylan, you never know how long they’re going to be around; none of us are getting any younger. So it was a great chance to see them on the road and still delivering the goods … in their own distinct ways.
***
Waylon Payne (what a great name!) opened the show, but that was at 3:45 p.m. … 3:45? Really? This reviewer missed it.
For details on the other two bands, the Red Clay Strays and the Turnpike Troubadours, HERE is the sidebar.
Elmer Ploetz is editor-in-chief of The Buffalo Hive
3 thoughts on “Review: Dylan and Willie – American classics … and contrasts”
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I think I’ve reached the stage where I would like closed captioning of the songs on screens… Or at least the titles. Especially with Dylan, who I’ve seen many times. Workout a setlist, I would have been list and I was sitting closer than you. The lyrics helped my 16 yo grandson understand what was being sung. Sound was fuzzy.
Dylan was really bad…..Too loud on vocals that no one understood – he mumbled. The fact that he got a standing ovation when he opened and that by song 3 he was no longer getting cheering – people were going to get food and drink and wondering when this obnoxious event would end. He did not say a word to the audience. It was a sad performance – dim lit stage and all kind of rules like no attendee allowed to bring binoculars – no jumbotron, no spotlighting solo’s, no engagement -why – some wondered is if was a fake Dylan just to generate revenue. Unlike Willie Nelson who still has it and rocked the house. Willie engaged the audience and walked off stage as an icon. Meanwhile Dylan open and closed with darkness and was terrible. Turnpike Troubadours and Red Clay Strays were great and engaging – they came out and sang with Willie Nelson s last song. Dylan did not, much to the audiences appreciation.
Just saw the tour in Camden, NJ/Philly last night. Willie and Sheryl Crow were awesome! Bob Dylan was terrible. Unrecognizable songs and he never once even said hello, goodbye or anything at all to the crowd. You could not see him even on the monitors. He hid behind the piano in a hoodie. No idea if he was even there. The worst!