His June 29 concert in Missouri was halted early due to a storm. His July 1 stop in Oklahoma was canceled due to damage from that evening’s weather on his equipment. As unrelenting rain pummeled Central Texas last weekend, creating catastrophic flooding that claimed multiple fatalities, Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic seemed unlikely to go on.
The clouds parted – enough – for the annual Independence Day affair to continue, marking its return to Austin at Germania Insurance Amphitheater after a 2024 move to New Jersey. Like last year, the Picnic lineup pulled from Nelson’s ongoing Outlaw Music Festival, a roadshow celebrating musical outsiders past and present. Tourmates Tami Neilson and the Mavericks opened the show alongside Willie’s old friends Asleep at the Wheel, who are not on the tour but who popped up to lend the 1973-launched event some Old Austin authenticity.
Pop-loving bluegrass band the Avett Brothers kicked the mini-festival into high gear with a rollicking set of multi-generational standards, from Townes Van Zandt’s “Loretta” to Toby Keith’s “As Good as I Once Was.” Bounding from the quaint beginning (and lively ending) of original “Laundry Room” into the freewheeling banshee yell of “Talk of Indolence,” titular brothers Scott and Seth led their Concord, North Carolina, septet through a true rock & roll performance. Cellist Joe Kwon even played his instrument standing up, holding it in the air to jam with increased agility.
Despite a worrisome start, Willie seemed sharp.
Dylan stayed electric. Though initially a confounding choice of co-headliner, the indisputable outlaw, who also toured with Nelson last year, matched the curating songwriter’s penchant for honoring and reinterpreting the classics. On piano and harmonica, the Bard played a fairly by-the-book cover of Bo Diddley’s 1962 groove “I Can Tell” and a less true-to-form rendition of “All Along the Watchtower,” dramatized by his keys and bluesy electric guitar by Bob Britt and Doug Lancio. His iconic voice proved the only recognizable feature of “Desolation Row” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” the recorded arrangements of which he of course revised for the stage.
After an intermission for fireworks, the man of the hour wrapped the show. Support from Nelson’s famous Family appeared essential, especially early on; the 92-year-old struggled through a sped-up version of opener “Whiskey River,” then brought a towel to his mouth to hide a cough during “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer).” Given his prolific history of collaboration, it felt like both a totally normal sharing of the spotlight and a needed breather when Nelson passed the baton to his guitarists to sing lead vocals. Son Lukas, who sounds just like his father, won cheers with his composition “Just Outside of Austin,” while Waylon Payne took the reins for Merle Haggard’s “Workin’ Man Blues” and his mother Sammi Smith’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night.”
Despite a worrisome start, Willie seemed sharp, soloing on Trigger – which made it through the Missouri storm unscathed – and warming up his vocal cords along the way. A cover of Tom Waits’ “Last Leaf” felt pointed (“I’m the last leaf on the tree/ The autumn took the rest but it won’t take me“), but the artist’s sense of humor carried into follow-up songs “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die” and “Still Not Dead.”
Clearly, Willie’s never stopping. He told us in “On the Road Again” that “the life I love is making music with my friends,” and on Friday, a line from 2017’s “Still Not Dead” felt like an assurance that the same is true today, in the icon’s famous, irreverent way: “Don’t bury me, I’ve got a show to play.”
Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic
Germania Insurance Amphitheater
July 4
This article appears in July 11 • 2025.
