Willie Nelson and Alison Krauss, Shakey Graves play Bend
Published 12:00 am Thursday, August 2, 2018
- Alison Krauss (Randee St. Nicholas/Submitted photo)
The last few weeks have forced Bend music fans to make some tough decisions about what concerts to imbibe, and the barrage of shows is not letting up anytime soon. This week, though, there are at least two sell-outs procrastinators can cross off the list.
• First up is outlaw country founding father Willie Nelson, who returns to Les Schwab Amphitheater on Saturday accompanied once again by his family band and bluegrass/country singer and multi-instrumentalist Alison Krauss. Despite illnesses that took Nelson off the road in February and again in May, the singer-songwriter is working harder than ever: “Last Man Standing,” his umpteenth studio album, debuted at No. 3 on Billboard’s Top Country Album chart in April, and his Frank Sinatra tribute set “My Way” is due out in September. Krauss released the covers album “Windy City,” her first without longtime band Union Station since 1999, last year.
• Shakey Graves — AKA actor-turned-singer-songwriter and one-man-band Alejandro Rose-Garcia — played Sisters Folk Festival in 2014, roughly a month before releasing his breakthrough album “And the War Came.” The album’s rootsy sounds earned him attention in folk and indie circles, including a win for Best Emerging Artist at the 2015 Americana Music Awards. In May, after a handful of pieced-together solo releases on Bandcamp, Graves dropped an official follow-up, “Can’t Wake Up,” which adds Beatlesque harmonies, ’60s psychedelia and modern indie-rock crunch to his affable acoustic songs. He will bring this new sound to Oregon Spirit Distillers on Tuesday.