Farm Aid 40 delivered the musical message America needs in 2025

Thanks, Willie. We needed that.

“We” being Minneapolis, we the people, and we the world, who were gifted with 92-year-old Willie Nelson & Family’s version of America at a 14-hour marathon of music and good vibes Saturday afternoon/night/Sunday morning in Minneapolis.    

Rare all that, given that we live in an age of inauthenticity, lies, greed, hate speech and countless daily examples of how not to be a decent human being. Luckily, all of Farm Aid 40 at Huntington Bank Stadium Saturday proved to be the opposite of too much of America in 2025: authentic, organic, helpful, musical, kind, wise, rockin’ and, given the often hard-hearted state of the world, potentially revolutionary.

Outside the Gophers stadium gates, the world teemed with hate, racism, violence and a new scourge against liberals. Inside, a small-town revolving around rock ‘n’ roll, country music, activism, inclusiveness — as well as pro-union, immigrant and family farmer rights — set up and took hold for one shining moment and for one desperately needed reminder of how good things can work when good people put their minds, hearts, souls and backs into it. 

So, yeah. In the face of competing horrific headlines here in Minneapolis and across the globe, how much did I love this year’s incarnation of Farm Aid? Let me count the ways and whys:

Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts. These censored times — with President Donald Trump’s attack on his enemies list of late-night TV hosts, corporations, media outlets and political opponents (and anyone else who dares speak the truth about the criminal in the White House) — have had a chilling effect on expression and free speech, and it was beyond refreshing to hear Young and his blistering band open with his new single “Big Crime,” and the words he spit: “No more great again/Got big crime in D.C. at the White House/Don’t need no fascist rules.” 

I loved it. Raging and flailing, Neil was all of us, looking damaged and tired and a little crazy and a lot pushed to the brink. To be sure, too much live music of late has come with too little commentary or even acknowledgement of this dark age, which only adds to the creeping feeling of mass oppression. But Neil and crew’s “Rockin’ In the Free World,” “Be The Rain,” “Southern Man” and the poignant, plaintive “Long Walk Home,” in which he crooned “America, where have we gone?” (to which heads all around me bowed), was the perfect balm, coming as it was from a songwriter who is obviously paying attention to the world and has no other way to react to it but by screaming, singing, and shredding, righteously and ferociously. Much needed, much appreciated, much respect. 

The Homegrown Village. Set up outside the stadium corridor, this farmers market to beat all farmers markets held farming and conservation panels and hosted progressive farming vendors throughout the day, imploring all comers to learn about the land, farmers, nature and neighbors. Super sweet. Along with “hope,” “homegrown” was the most conspicuous word of the day.     

Jesse Welles. The best new songwriter going, Arkansas native Welles and band’s short set was just a taste of what he brought to the Cedar Cultural Center earlier this year and what they’ll bring to their First Avenue debut next year. His tunes (“Cancer,” “War Isn’t Murder,” “Bugs,” “Philanthropist”) cut across and spoke volumes about the times we’re living in with smarts, heart, grit and humor. Dude is ridiculously prolific and poetic, and a monster on acoustic guitar. What’s more, at a panel standing up for family farms, the seemingly perma-grinning Welles simplified the discussion by saying, “We don’t want sad cows. I mean, there’s got to be a spiritual component to it, right? We want happy cows, yeah? No one wants milk from a sad cow.” 

Fiddle players. They were everywhere! Lifting our hearts and their bands! Lisa Germano with John Mellencamp. Jake Simpson with Dave Matthews and Lukas Nelson. If one instrument was the star of the marathon, this was it, with several stunning moments of violin virtuosity wafting hard into the Minnesota night, the lot of which was probably highlighted by Trampled By Turtle’s Ryan Young, who fueled the Duluth dudegrass heroes’ set on “Codeine” and “Wait So Long,” and wizard-wickedly so. 

Dylan and Dinkytown. Amazing. You could barely see him or hear his voice, but the historical moment — Hibbing/Duluth/Minneapolis’ own Bobby Zimmerman and Farm Aid patron saint singing “All Along the Watchtower,” “Highway 61 Revisited,” “To Ramona,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” in his former college stomping grounds — was something to behold. Something about an outdoor show makes the music sound more infinite, and this was the case these 20 minutes, which I spent listening while watching Bob on the screen and looking out onto University Avenue and Williams Arena, soaking in the myth and the moment. Despite the stadium setting, I swear Dylan on piano and harmonica and his band’s loose and lively ways could’ve been a Church of Bob gig at the late, great Palmer’s Bar up the road. 

“Who Are You in Solidarity With?” chalkboard. This Homegrown Village board inspired concertgoers to write down their picks, which included, “Annunciation church and school,” “Stephen Colbert,” “public media/radio/TV,” “trans folks (you are loved),” “Palestine,” “Gaza,” “Israel,” “Jesse Welles,” “co-ops, unions, Teamsters Local 320,” “our public lands,” “those who struggle with mental health” and “everyone, eventually.”

Sierra Ferrell. A true original and tremendous songwriter, Ferrell this day was relegated to backup and duet vocals with Lukas Nelson, but her voice and presence alone were a honky-tonk heavenly treat that could’ve shone brighter with a set from her and her great band. Maybe next year.

Steve Earle. One man, one mandolin, and two songs — “Galway Girl” and “Copperhead Road” — for the ages.

Amy Klobuchar introducing Margo Price. “We need to stand with farmers, we need to stand with rural Minnesota,” said the senior state senator, then, “For our next artist, Margo Price, this is personal. She’s a Midwest farmer’s daughter; she grew up in Illinois and they lost their family farm in the ‘80s, and she took that experience and put it to music. Her songs are about resilience, her songs are about dignity, her songs are about coming back from the hardest times. She’s so good, and this week she was the featured artist on Jimmy Kimmel’s show. We want Margo back on Jimmy Kimmel’s show!” Cheers to that comment and for Klobuchar’s willingness to say it out loud to one of the loudest ovations of the entire shebang, as thousands took the opportunity to react as a community to the news of the host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” being suspended by Disney/ABC last week at the behest of Trump.

Dan Engelhart on Facebook. After Klobuchar’s introduction, Minneapolis Park Board (district one) candidate Engelhart posted a keffiyeh-clad selfie and wrote, “My senior senator who just recently seems to want to follow humanitarian law introduced Margo Price [and] I held my keffiyeh arms aloft the entire time and tried to get ‘Free Free Palestine’ going. #farmaid40 #farmaid2025 we can do this! Ain’t nobody free until we all are!”

Margo Price. Not naming the too-many-bastards-to-name, the supersonic-voiced Price kicked off with her pointed new single “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down” (which she sang on Kimmel’s show last Wednesday) and concluded with a guest turn from Jesse Welles on a fiery version of the Dylan classic “Maggie’s Farm.” The set highlight was a poignant duet with Jeremy Ivey on Woody Guthrie’s “Deportees (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos),” and here the context was everything, and inescapable: With Trump and his flying thug-monkeys stoking fear across the land, Woody’s 80-year-old words and Price/Ivey’s beautiful harmonies put a human face to today’s ICE round-ups, disappearances and deportations. Empathy is real. So is outrage.    

Big screens, simple messages. The rolling photos of crops, farm animals, farmers and farmland throughout the day gave even the slickest city slicker a crash-course on indigenous food sources and how corporations have corrupted the farm-to-table movement. First-person stories of farmers and their crops, livestock, and struggles provided messages of organic hope, the kind embodied by farmer Angela Ferguson, who said on screen, “It starts with loving the seeds and loving the land and loving the people you’re producing the food for.”  

Dave Matthews, “Peace on Earth.” “The world is blowing up/but you are here with me/that makes it OK,” sang the huge-hearted Matthews at the start of his set, and hell if he wasn’t exactly right. Farm Aid Day, as declared by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, brought the world together for a day. At least that’s how it felt when Matthews’ repeated chorus of “Peace, but what about the monsters?” hauntingly hung in the air as a gentle but in-your-face reminder that human indecency and evil are inescapable realities of life. So are great songs and singers.

Billy Strings. The budding bluegrass legend lit it up with a set highlighted by a scorching reading of Flat and Scruggs’ “Doin’ Time” and his band’s ace players, who met him at every quick-whip turn. “I’ll only talk when I introduce these guys,” he told the crowd of 37,000, about his band, and so that’s all he did, opting to let his flying picking fingers do the talking. But he recently echoed Woody Guthrie’s “This Machine Kills Fascists” credo and embodied the Farm Aid way and more when he said, “I’m not gonna punch anybody in the face. I’m not going to carry a gun. I’m not going to fight a war. But with my guitar I will. All I have is my songs to fight back against the ugliness that’s out there.”

Waxahatchee and Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats. These two relative newcomers were the revelation of a concert that bridged the city-country divide for a day, both bringing heart and clap-along harmonies to the masses. Rateliff wore a “Stop Factory Farms” shirt and ended their set by saying, “Take care of each other, we love you, and look forward to peace, love and light.”

Micah Nelson and the family band, “Everything is Bullshit.” Hilarious and hilariously fed-up lyric and chorus from Willie’s son, as fervently sung by both band and crowd. Everything may indeed be B.S., present company excluded, but this is a B.S. anthem befitting the B.S. times.

Wynonna Judd’s parting message. Before the last song of her set, the huge-voiced survivor and country music superstar wearily reminded all that Farm Aid is “a celebration, and we need more of those.”

Sunday morning with Willie. Gov. Tim Walz perfectly introduced the Texas icon and Farm Aid founder Nelson as “fiercely independent, generous, kind, irreverent, and a bit of a hell-raiser.” As Saturday turned to Sunday, Willie delivered a romantic and impossibly feel-good set that opened as always with “Whiskey River,” and highlighted by the ridiculously durable “Georgia.” He was in amazing voice and spirits and his wonderful “Last Leaf on The Tree,” the title track of his 2024 album, had everyone in Huntington Bank Stadium (or, the stadium formerly knowns as Memorial) tearing up and wondering how much time Willie and we all have left. Everybody but Dylan joined for a gospel medley of “Will The Circle Be Unbroken,” “I’ll Fly Away,” and “It’s Hard To Be Humble,” and someone said something about joy in resistance and resistance in joy and more cheers to that. Finally, a singalong to Hank Williams’ “I Saw The Light” at 1 a.m. promised a new day rising, no matter how many bastards try to keep us down. 

Thanks again, Willie. We needed that.

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