FESTIVAL RECAP: Outlaws & Legends Fest’s 13th year in Abilene full of great tunes and great community vibe

Sometime in early 2022, I was either driving home or driving to Fort Worth and along Highway 84 when a billboard caught my eye.

It was for a music festival. Two days, one stage, and from what I could see, a pretty killer lineup. I remember Robert Earl Keen, Brent Cobb, Sammy Kershaw, and Jack Ingram’s names immediately sticking out to me. Whenever I got to where I was going, I looked up the festival and was blown away by this lineup. Sammy Kershaw’s set was a duo set with Aaron Tippin, also on the bill was Kevin Fowler, The Steel Woods, Kendell Marvell, Band of Heathens, The Wilder Blue, and so many other fantastic bands all crammed into two days.

I tried my best but I couldn’t feasibly make it out to Abilene in 2022 so I planned on making it out in 2023 and was greeted with another insane lineup. That year’s fest was headlined by Willie Nelson & Family and Carly Pearce. Kevin Fowler returned and rounding out the bill was Roger Creager, Stoney Larue, Gary P. Nunn, Cody Canada and the Departed, William Beckmann, and Tanner Usrey to name a few that I was excited for. I sent in an email, I got approved for a photo pass, I was so stoked to finally make it out. Then without thinking, I signed up to take the LSAT…on the same weekend. Yes, I know, how dare I put my future ahead of festivals. So, once again, I put the fest on the back burner and prayed I’d get another great lineup in 2024. Thankfully, I did.

2024’s fest was headlined by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Shane Smith & the Saints. Also on the bill this year were The Red Clay Strays, Uncle Lucius, The Great Divide, Jon Wolfe, Jake Worthington, Bri Bagwell, Jesse Daniel, and a handful of other fantastic artists. Once again, I sent in the email, got approved, and just prayed that all the stars would align. Luckily, they did. Texas Tech’s men’s basketball team got knocked out of the tournament in the first round so a trip to Dallas for the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 was canceled; a hotel in Abilene was surprisingly pretty cheap; also, I didn’t have any Easter plans for the first time in a while so I was finally in the clear…until I remembered that I had a story due for one of my Journalism classes and that I also had graduation photos scheduled for that Friday. Looking at the schedule again, the bulk of the artists I loved played on Saturday anyway so early that morning, I loaded up and headed for Abilene.

First Impressions:

Outlaws & Legends is a pretty small festival, at least smaller than I imagined it would be for a fest that pulls in the talent they do year after year. I also didn’t realize just how close to the stage they let people set up campsites and RVs but that actually did make for a super cool vibe. While it’s not something I want to harp on for too long, mostly because it was a privilege to be able to be in it, the VIP area behind the stage was fantastic. There were multiple bars, both on the ground level and on the second story, and free meals served twice throughout the day. There was also a booth selling custom cowboy hats, a vineyard offering samples of their wine, there was even a masseuse station on hand. It was an entirely different party behind the stage than in front of it.

The actual venue was sick. I love how built up it was around the stage, making it feel like you were in a completely different city as opposed to a ranch right off the highway. The staff and crew all over the venue were incredibly friendly and helpful and definitely enhanced my experience, the same can be said about the attendees I was able to talk to. Merch lines were never too long and it wasn’t crazy expensive either which is always a good thing.

The only critiques I had off the jump and still do kinda have are pretty minimal in the grand scheme of things. First, since I’m an annoying young adult and I’m probably not mature enough to understand it, I was not happy to see the chair army out in full force but I will say it was awesome to see attendees make their own line to allow those that wanted to stand up close to do so. Also, it did kind of bum me out that the only food options for GA were just carnival food. I would’ve loved for a couple of local food trucks or something of that sort to be there instead but again, relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.

The Music:

Alright enough babbling, let’s get into the whole reason why I came to this festival: the music.

I started my day with Jessie Daniel who makes “my type of country music.” It’s very much a throwback to the sounds of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens but I think that’s why I like it so much. He has great swagger and a really unique vibe and I understand the hype I’ve seen on social media around him.

Bri Bagwell took the stage after him and set the energy level high. Her set was the first time I had gotten to see her since I was in middle school and it definitely made up for lost time. She was so much fun and she’s been doing this long enough to know how to command a stage. Her songs were all great, her covers of George Strait and Selena were both great and her set made it feel like the party had really gotten started.

That’s why I couldn’t help but feel slightly underwhelmed by Jake Worthington’s set right after her. I love Worthington’s music and I was really excited to see him but it was just okay at best. The songs all sounded great, Worthington sounded great, that’s about where the buck stopped though. Worthington was very much a “stand there and sing” performer but if I’m being honest, I don’t know what I really expected. His music doesn’t really lend itself to anything more than that but I still recommend everyone check him out because he’s making some damn good tunes.

I took a quick break in the action after Worthington’s set to go check into my hotel and charge my phone for a little bit but I made it back in about halfway through The Great Divide’s set. I want to take a moment real quick to say that I’ve never been a huge fan of the band. Not because I don’t like their music or anything, I’ve just never really listened to them. I do really respect them and frontman Mike McClure and realize their place as the founders of Red Dirt music as a whole, but I just never felt the urge to listen to them. That changed as I walked in and heard them ripping through a new song, Set It All Down. Their set, for me at least, cemented their status as our red dirt forefathers. Their set surprisingly rocked pretty hard. Yesterday’s Road and Nowhere Woman absolutely ripped and Dragon’s Heart was another rager in the back half of their set. They had the crowd in the palm of their hand and I would love to catch them again sometime very soon.

The final run of the day was the one that made me even want to attend and made being able to attend all worth it. It was kicked off with Uncle Lucius, an Austin group that’s always been the band not afraid of getting weird. At times they feel like a jam band with the way they can throw so much stuff at the wall and have it all stick somehow. That was evident through a lot of extended versions of songs like Taking in the View and All The Angelenos which were both fantastic. The latter was taken to a whole other level thanks to Jonathan Grossman’s keyboard solos. The whole band just has such insane chemistry and bounce off of one another so well. The chemistry oozes into the music and into the performances and into the crowd who eat all of it up. It was a longer set than my first being able to see them at Troubadour Fest in College Station, it was also a better set than that show and I need to see a headline show soon because I would love to see how much longer they could go for when there’s no one after them.

But, this was a festival after all. So of course, there were people after them and those two bands after them absolutely destroyed the playing field.

First to burn the stage down were The Red Clay Strays, who I’m just now realizing I’ve never written about at length. Hailing from Alabama, The Red Clay Strays have absolutely exploded within the past year with their blend of Southern Rock and Southern Soul along with singer Brandon Coleman’s killer voice. There are shades of Elvis, Johnny Cash, and the legendary voices of Sun Records. Their set at Outlaws & Legends happened about a year after I had seen them play at Blue Light to about 100 people and there’s a handful of differences I noticed from that Blue Light show to now.

For starters, I seriously could not believe how much better the band had gotten live. Not that The Blue Light show was bad, this one was just seriously on another level. Performances of songs like Doin’ Time and Stone’s Throw were some of the best displays of raw rock and roll I’ve seen all year, Sunshine and Forgive let Coleman’s vocals shine, and I still get goosebumps thinking about how incredible their performances of Don’t Care and especially Ghosts were. Ghosts genuinely may be in the running for the best live performance of any song I’ve seen this year. Second: while for a lot of bands, it’s a drag to fill half of your set with unreleased material, The Red Clay Strays pulled it off flawlessly and the crowd was just as engaged for brand-new songs as they were for the hits. Songs like Devil in My Ear, Disaster, and Ramblin’ all fit into the set like a glove. Of the unreleased stuff, I personally cannot wait for the songs I’m Still Fine and Just Wanna Be Loved to be released.

But above all else, their set put into perspective just how big of a moment they’re having right now. A broken clock is still right twice a day and while the band blowing up due to TikTok might not make them seem appealing to a lot of folks, this is a case where that broken clock was right. Devil in My Ear and Wondering Why blowing up on the platform has grown the band’s profile extremely quickly within this short year and while their success has already skyrocketed since the last time I’ve seen them, it’ll hit the stratosphere once their sophomore album releases.

Finally, to close out the 13th edition of Outlaws & Legends, Shane Smith & the Saints burned down whatever rubble The Red Clay Strays left behind. The end of Saturday night is a tough one to write about because if anyone was going to be better than The Red Clay Strays, it was going to be Shane Smith & the Saints, and it was a damn close race the whole night. Personally, I think it ended in a tie. I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a million times, I will never get tired of seeing Smith & the Saints live and their Outlaws & Legends set just further cemented to me that they should be headlining every festival under the sun. The harmonies are always on point, their songs get heavier and much more energetic in the live setting, and you can feel the emotion of every word Smith sings down into your soul.

Somewhat similar to The Red Clay Strays, songs from Smith & the Saints’ new album Norther also fit right in. Getting to hear It’s Been A While live was a treat, Book of Joe in the second slot right after the band’s signature intro of The Prometory from Last of the Mohicans -> The Mountain kept the energy level extremely high to start the show, and while I thought on record, Fire in the Sky and Field of Heather were kind of messy, I absolutely loved how well they sounded live. Their 90-minute set felt like they were shortchanged. 90 minutes in and it still felt like they were just getting started. It’s the way every one of their shows feels and it’s why I’ll keep seeing them live every time I get the chance to.

Final Thoughts:

My final thoughts are pretty blunt: I absolutely loved Outlaws & Legends and I want so badly to return in the future.

The music was great, obviously, but what stood out to me the most was just how tight-knit the whole festival felt. It’s a smaller fest but the community around it was second to none. I saw so many people running up to each other to give hugs, scream “HI!” I even saw a few instances of people looking down at younger kids with a “You’ve gotten so big!” during the day. It’s also so awesome that people who have been coming for years become little celebrities. Before Jake Worthington’s set, a radio host pointed out an older couple next to each other in lawn chairs and personally thanked them for supporting the station and for supporting the festival by attending for all 13 years. While I do love the experience of going to ACL every year or would love to experience the excess of Coachella or Lollapalooza, nothing beats moments like that at small, homegrown festivals like Outlaws & Legends and I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever been to a festival that was just as concerned at cultivating and maintaining a culture inside the gates as it was about curating a great day of music.

I cannot recommend adding Outlaws & Legends to your calendar enough when it returns to the Back Porch of Texas on March 21 & 22, 2025 and I will never be able to thank Alanna Rumsey and the entire crew at Back Porch Productions for letting me be a small part of the weekend.