Whiskey Meyers, Hank Jr., Kenny Chesney at Wharf this month

Whiskey Meyers, Hank Jr., Kenny Chesney at Wharf this month
Willie’s Outlaw Music Fest will make a stop in Orange Beach Oct. 8

Willie Nelson will bring his 2023 Outlaw Music Fest to the Wharf Amphitheater in Orange Beach on Oct. 8, as part of the largest-ever Outlaw tour to date. The tour celebrates Willie’s legendary life and legacy in his milestone 90th birthday year with a lineup venue that will also include The Avett Brothers, Gov’t Mule, Elizabeth Cook, and Particle. Tickets prices range from $50 for upper tier to $240 for VIP Outlaw tickets up front. Buy tickets online at Ticketmaster. com or by visiting The Wharf Box Office.
Whiskey Myers kicks off the Wharf Amphitheater concert season on May 5 at the 10,000-seat Orange Beach open air venue in the heart of Orange Beach. Hank Williams Jr. plays on May 13 and Kenny Chesney on May 27.
The inaugural Outlaw Music Festival debuted in 2016 in Scranton, PA. The sold-out show was so well received that Blackbird and Nelson have developed it into one of North America’s biggest annual touring franchises. Robert Plant, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, ZZ Top, Eric Church, Bonnie Raitt, Luke Combs, Chris Stapleton, Sheryl Crow and Sturgill Simpson have been a part of past tours.
The Oct. 8 show in Orange Beach was one of 16 shows additions added to the fall leg of the tour. Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville and Oak Mountain Amphitheatre in Pelham are other Alabama October tour stops. Bands will vary during the tour, as Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros., Tedeschi Trucks, The String Cheese Incident, Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs and Los Lobos have all performed with Willie in various cities.
Outlaw Country as a genre coincided with Waylon Jennings’ release of Ladies Love Outlaws in 1972. Used to describe artists who opposed the commercial and creative control of Nashville’s music industry, it aptly fit a frustrated Willie Nelson, who packed his bags for home and found acceptance in the Texas capital’s burgeoning hippie music community.
Neil Reshen, who was already managing Jennings, scored Nelson a record deal with Atlantic, and Nelson and Jennings became figureheads for the outlaw country sound that included dashes of country, folk and jazz. Southern rock bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers Band were also part of the scene.
The release of Wanted! The Outlaws, a compilation of songs from Jennings and Nelson, alongside Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser, sold over one million copies and solidified the genre as mainstream, meaning by defintion, it could no longer be outlaw. But the outlaw spirit of Waylon, Willie, Kris Kristofferson and Johnnhy Cash inspired artists such as Guy Clark, Steve Earle and Townes Van Zandt to follow the same themes.