If a Mount Rushmore of the greatest American singer-songwriters ever becomes a reality, it’s a safe bet the visages of Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan will be front and center. In the meantime, these legendary troubadours are embarked on the 10th anniversary edition of the Nelson-led Outlaw Music Festival, whose second tour stop Thursday at Chula Vista’s North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre also featured memorable performances by Billy Strings, Sierra Hull and Lily Meola.
Of course, considering that Nelson is 92 and Dylan will turn 84 next week, a casual observer can be forgiven for thinking that — in the autumn of their years — one or both of these storied American music giants might be preparing to go gently into that good night.
Think again.
Dylan’s performance was simply (and complexly) revelatory, while Nelson persevered in the face of an apparent cold on a cool, breezy night. And both these icons have a full schedule ahead.
Thursday’s Chula Vista concert is being followed by 33 more 2025 Outlaw Music Festival dates, all co-headlined by Nelson and Dylan. The first is tonight’s show at the Hollywood Bowl.
Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan returning to San Diego with 10th anniversary Outlaw Music Festival
Dylan performed 78 concerts last year and has already done 22 more this year. He is preparing for the publication of his new memoir, “Chronicles: Volume Two.” A new gallery exhibition of his paintings, “Point Blank,” opened May 9 in London.
Nelson played 64 concerts last year and has done another 18 this year. On Sept. 20, he will perform in Minneapolis at the 40th anniversary edition of Farm Aid, the annual charity fundraising concert for American farmers he co-founded with Neil Young and John Mellencamp. Nelson’s newest album, “Oh What A Beautiful Morning,” came out April 25. It is his 11th album to be released since 2020.
All this activity does not mean Nelson (who now performs seated) and Dylan (who leans against his upright piano as he plays it) are tireless or, magically, not showing their age. But both are road dogs for life and come alive in new ways on concert stages near and far.
On Thursday, Nelson recited his lyrics as often as he sang them, perhaps because of a cold (he coughed and several times blew his nose into a towel). But if Nelson’s performance did not match the consistently stirring quality of his 2024 Outlaw Music Festival performance at this same Chula Vista venue, neither was it a rote, auto-pilot performance — which this sometimes frail musical bard seems congenitally incapable of doing.
Review: Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan provide stellar night at San Diego concert
His elastic vocal phrasing is still a joy and the deep feeling he injected into the line “other eyes smile tenderly” during “Georgia (On My Mind)” was a joy to hear. Ditto Nelson’s gently rhapsodic reading of “Always On My Mind,” his energetic call-and-response vocals with the enthusiastic audience on “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys,” and the palpable glee with which he sang the word “bulls–t” in “Everything Is Bulls–t,” one of several selections that was written and primarily sung at Thursday’s concert by his 35-year-old son, Micah.
Nelson’s guitar playing was alternately sweet and jarringly discordant. His set was carefully constructed to give him a few breathers when he let Micah and fellow guitarist Waylon Payne handle lead vocals.
But when the elder Nelson sang: “If they cut down this tree I’ll show up in a song / I’m the last leaf on the tree” during his wonderfully poignant version of the valedictory “Last Leaf On The Tree” by former San Diegan Tom Waits, he inspired goose bumps.
Dylan’s 17-song performance was nothing less than revelatory throughout. He deftly reinvented old favorites, including a slinky “All Along The Watchtower” (which unexpectedly shifted into major key), a clipped-beat, reggae-ish take on “Love Sick,” and an improbably buoyant “Desolation Row,” which at one point found new drummer Anton Fig playing the snappy drum tattoo from Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue.”
Dylan, who was in excellent voice throughout, also reintroduced songs he hadn’t performed in years. They included a masterful “Blind Willie McTell” and “Lonesome Day Blues” (both of which he last played in 2017) and his first airing of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” since 2019.
More impressive still was his second-ever performance of the Willie Dixon-penned 1968 blues shuffle “Axe And The Wind.” And even more impressive was his first-ever performances of the 1964 Bobby “Blue” Bland gem “Share Your Love With Me” and the 1972 Ricky Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band hit, “Garden Party.”
The latter appears to be the first song Dylan has performed by another songwriter whose lyrics make direct reference to Dylan: “And over in the corner / Much to my surprise / Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan’s shoes / Wearing his disguise.” (The “Mr. Hughes” in question is former Beatle George Harrison, who attended the 1971 rock oldies concert Nelson performed at in Madison Square Garden that inspired “Garden Party.”)
Although written by Nelson, who died in a 1985 air crash, “Garden Party’s” refrain is a vital mission statement for the perpetually uncompromising Dylan and he sang it with relish: “But it’s all right now / I learned my lesson well / You see, you can’t please everyone / So you got to please yourself.”
