{"id":6038,"date":"2019-03-23T11:14:08","date_gmt":"2019-03-23T11:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/?p=6038"},"modified":"2019-03-30T11:15:44","modified_gmt":"2019-03-30T11:15:44","slug":"outlaws-legends-music-festival-abilene-texas-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/2019\/03\/23\/outlaws-legends-music-festival-abilene-texas-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Outlaws & Legends Music Festival \u2013 Abilene, Texas – Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Dave Clements<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>My wife and I were invited by Mark Powell, organizer of the Outlaws and Legends Music Festival to come up as his guests and enjoy the festival. This festival is held annually in Abilene Texas, about 100 miles west of Fort Worth and about a five hour drive from the Houston area.<\/p>\n

We decided to drive up this past Saturday and get there in time to see Texan Trent Willmon take the stage just as afternoon was turning into evening. Trent is a terrific entertainer who lives in Nashville and wears a variety of other hats in the country music scene. He has even been on the big screen in the move Palo Pinto Gold starring Roy Clark and Mel Tillis.\u00a0 I had seen Trent at Dosey Doe in The Woodlands some years ago and I thought he was really good.\u00a0\u00a0 Come to find out if you put him in front of 11,000 people in beautiful weather with a great sound system he can become a real rock star.\u00a0 What a treat!\u00a0 Nicely done Trent!<\/p>\n

Next up was Shooter Jennings, son of the famous Country Outlaw Waylon Jennings. Some of my most disappointing \u2018misses\u2019 as a photographer was to miss photographing Dan Fogelberg. Harry Chapin and yes Waylon Jennings. And then too you might as well throw in Johnny Cash, George Jones and I\u2019d be lying if I didn\u2019t add Elvis. But easy enough to move on regarding my \u2018disappointments\u2019 when I had this opportunity to watch Shooter kick some Texas butt. No disappointment there!<\/p>\n

Shooter started on his keyboard for a couple of tunes and then was up on his feet, guitar strapped on, to show what he\u2019s really all about. I was impressed with his passion and the way he just put it all out there.\u00a0 And he did exactly that for the entire one hour set.+<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Kevin Flower was next to perform and he did exactly what Kevin Fowler does and that is incite the crowd to get off their asses and stand up, pop another beer and get the party started in a totally Texan sort of way. He shared that his mother thought his song \u2018Don\u2019t Touch My Willie\u2019 was nasty and he was reluctant to play it when she was around. \u2019Can you all say the word NASTY?!!!\u2019 he asked his fans. To the delight of the crowd Fowler announced that Mamma Fowler was no place near. The crowd erupted with so much enthusiasm when he starting singing \u2019She showed up at my house half past nine a low cut dress and a bottle of wine\u2019, Kevin\u2019s voice temporarily got lost in the cheers!\u00a0 Fowler is just a natural beer drinking crazy fun loving \u2018non crooner who can be one\u2019.\u00a0 And besides that he is fun to photograph, a really good guy, and three years ago agreed to be in Volume One of my book Raising A Hand sight unseen.\u00a0 He is a generous performer and the real deal.\u00a0 Thanks Kevin for \u2018raising a hand\u2019 for the girls with Rett syndrome.<\/p>\n

Next up was the festival organizer Mark Powell who wears a lot of hats and wears them well. He performed a terrific show on stage, equal to or greater than the amazing feat of pulling together this very successful large scale music festival!\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t see this Country Singer you owe it to yourself to do so.\u00a0 This guy has major energy on stage and a voice to match. Plus having been to a few music festivals over the years he does \u2018festivals\u2019 very well. Go to your calendar and hold March 27th<\/sup> & 28th for 2020.\u00a0 Take a road trip to Abilene and we will see you there. You can camp on the grounds or stay nearby in one of the many reasonably priced hotels.<\/p>\n

And if you are staying in Abilene after either night of great music you don\u2019t have to worry about drinking and driving as Mark has both Uber and Lyft available with their own entrance for a fast trip back to wherever you\u2019re staying\u2026safely!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The \u2018Legend\u2019 headliner this year was Kris Kristofferson, an amazingly talented human being with a long history of singing, acting, serving his country, being a Rhodes Scholar but most importantly an incredible prolific songwriter.\u00a0 His song credits are too numerous to list here however there are not many better in this reviewers opinion. And if I haven\u2019t already mentioned he brought The Strangers to back him up.\u00a0 The Strangers are the late great Merle Haggard\u2019s band that includes two of Hag\u2019s sons\u2026Ben and Noel. Both of them were given the opportunity to play their Dad\u2019s hits, Okie From Muskogee, Sing Me Back Home and The Fightin\u2019 Side Of Me.\u00a0 I must share that it was hard seeing the Strangers again with NO MERLE at the front mic however if Kris <\/strong>steps in for good friend Hag, <\/strong>how can one complain?!.<\/p>\n

Thanks Mark for inviting us to your top of the line, terrific festival. A huge thanks also for agreeing to be in Volume Two of Raising A Hand along with Trent, Shooter, Benny and Noel\u2026you guys rock!<\/p>\n

Until next time please go see a live show so we can continue to have them around for our kids to enjoy too!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

dwc<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Dave Clements My wife and I were invited by Mark Powell, organizer of the Outlaws and Legends Music Festival to come up as his guests and enjoy the festival. This festival is held annually in Abilene Texas, about 100 miles west of Fort Worth and about a five hour drive from the Houston… <\/p>\n

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