Old Men In America: On Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Robert Plant & the Outlaw Festival

Even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.

Writers like to magnify meaning in circumstance, in the confluence of events. It’s a useful way to spin an idea, even when the conceit is questionable, a stretch.

But when Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan tour America together, and play a concert at the 1969 Woodstock festival site on Fourth of July weekend in the run up to probably the most consequential U.S. presidential election of our lifetimes, it seems reasonable to consider context for this post about the beautiful, occasionally disturbing, ultimately inspiring concert I attended last Saturday. So bear with me.