The Outlaw Festival rolled in Holmdel, NJ—less than an hour away from NYC. The line-up for this installment’ of Willie Nelson’s festival included Particle, Greensky Bluegrass, Lukas Nelson and the Promise of the Real, Sturgill Simpson, Tedeschi Trucks Band and of course, Willie himself.
While Willie is the leader of the festival, he packs these line-ups with plenty of firepower before he even hits the stage. I arrived at the show in time to catch a short but fiery Lukas Nelson and the Promise of the Real set. Next up was Sturgill Simpson, an unexpected treat for sure. Sturgill scored a Grammy for best country album, but it would be hard to recognize his hard-driving jams as country music.
Tedeschi Trucks Band filled the spot right before Willie and stole the show. The highlight of show came at the end of their set with a rendition of Joe Cocker’s “Space Captain.” The cover featured TTB trombonist Elizabeth Lea and Derek Trucks squaring off in a battle.
A huge shoutout to Sean Roche for the video footage and I finally got to meet last night! Check out and subscribe to his channel for tons of great footage from Lukas Nelson, Sturgill Simpson, TTB and Willie Nelson’s set last night!
Photo credit: blackbird_presents