Today I’m preveiwing a concert I’ve never seen. I’ve been blessed to see Willie Nelson several times. He’s an absolute artist of the highest caliber. The depth of his catalog would take me a month to write about. He returns to Pittsburgh a year after his 12 song set closed Farm Aid last year. He ended with Still Not Dead followed by I’ve Seen the Light. Provided he is still not dead and hasn’t seen the light yet, he will surely thrill everyone who attends The Outlaw Music Festival at KeyBank Pavilion (Star Lake) on Friday September 7.
But that is not who I am excited to see. The lineup is chock full of heavy hitters: Sturgill Simpson, Brandi Carlile, Luka Nelson & Promise of the Real, and local heroes The Commonheart (yay!)
But that’s no who I’m excited to see.
For the first time since his July 10, 1973 appearance at the dear departed Syria Mosque, Van Morrison is playing Pittsburgh. As I was just shy of my fourth birthday, my parents did not allow me to attend that last show. This is a show I have literally (and I mean literally as the definition of literally not its new definition – figuratively) waited for my entire life.
I figured last year when I missed Van on this same tour in Hershey that I had blown my last chance to ever cross him from my bucket list to see live. When I saw that he played Moondance and Gloria, I nearly had a stroke. Now I and hopefully you get to see what we have waited 2 generations for – the brilliance, passion, beauty and majesty of Van.
Remarkably – there are thousands of tickets remaining for the show. Lawn seats are a mere 25 dollars. At 72 years old, Morrison’s voice is still powerful as ever. He brings a crack band and a catalog of 42 studio records. Cross him off the list with me!!