Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Outlaw Music Festival is back with Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and talented newcomers

Willie Nelson performs July 4 at Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden, N.J.  (Elizabeth Robertson/Philadelphia Inquirer)
From staff reports

The Outlaw Music Festival is back, and this time the country and folk artists on the ticket have 26 Grammys combined.

The venerable Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan are the headliners for the May 22 festival at One Spokane Stadium, but the fresh talent on the ticket – Billy Strings, Sierra Hull and Lily Meola – also will be a major draw for Americana fans.

General admission tickets, starting at $59.50, go on sale 10 a.m. Friday at TicketsWest.com.

At age 91, Nelson’s list of classics is a long one, but a few favorites include “On the Road Again,” “Always On My Mind” and “Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain.” He is a 14-time Grammy award-winner.

Dylan, 83, whose lyricism shaped the folk movement of the 1960s and ’70s, has all-time classics such as “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” “Lay, Lady, Lay” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” He is a 10-time Grammy award-winner, not to mention the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize and a Nobel Prize. The biopic on Dylan’s rise to fame playing in theaters, “A Complete Unknown,” has earned eight Academy Award nominations.

Strings won his second Grammy on Sunday for Best Bluegrass Album for “Live Vol. 1.”

Hull is considered a virtuoso mandolinist, and her debut vocal album, “Secrets,” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Bluegrass Albums chart. While she has yet to earn a Grammy, she has been nominated twice.

And Meola showcased her singing talent on Season 17 of “America’s Got Talent.” Her performance of “Daydream” garnered her the Golden Buzzer. The official lyric video of the same song has nearly 10 million views on YouTube. Maybe a Grammy is in her future.

Festival presale tickets for Citi cardholders and VIP packages go on sale 10 a.m. Tuesday, also at TicketsWest.com.