Pop Break Live: The Last Waltz Tour 2019 at The Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre (Count Basie) in Red Bank, New Jersey
Photos by Matt Heasley
It’s fitting that an all-star tour was assembled to celebrate the anniversary of an iconic farewell show.
On November 6, 2019 Blackbird Presents brought ‘The Last Waltz Tour 2019: A Celebration of The Band’s Historic Farewell Concert’ to The Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre (aka/fka Count Basie Theatre) in Red Bank, New Jersey
The show featured Warren Haynes (Gov’t Mule), Lukas Nelson (the man who taught Bradley Cooper to play guitar in A Star is Born, and Willie Nelson’s son), GRAMMY® Award-winning producer/musician Don Was, Jamey Johnson, John Medeski (Medeski, Martin and Wood), Terence Higgins (Dirty Dozen Brass Band), Mark Mullins & The Levee Horns (featuring the original horn arrangements of Allen Toussaint).
The show saw the all-star band cover a number of classics from The Band as well as cuts from Hoagy Carmichael and His Orchestra, Bo Diddley, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Little Junior’s Blue Flames, Muddy Waters, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Marvin Gaye, and Dr. John.
The nationwide tour also saw guest appearances from: Cyril Neville (The Neville Brothers), Dave Malone (The Radiators), and Bob Margolin (Long time Muddy Waters guitarist who performed with Waters and The Band in the original Last Waltz).
According to press release: “The Last Waltz Tour 2019: A Celebration of The Band’s Historic Farewell Concert is an extension of Blackbird Present’s acclaimed 2016 two-night, sold-out concert event The Last Waltz New Orleans and 2017’s The Last Waltz 40th Anniversary Tour which was praised by audiences and critics across the country. “You soon knew that The Band’s legacy would be well feted. Earplugs were required — for the crowd, not the band,” wrote the Huffington Post in its review of the show at the Orpheum in Boston, Massachusetts. “The last 30 minutes of The Last Waltz @SaengerNOLA was the best thing I’ve heard @jazzfest,” said Keith Spera, music critic, The New Orleans Advocate.”
The Last Waltz, for those unfamiliar, was the farewell show for The Band that was held on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. Special guests on the show were Ronnie Hawkins, Bob Dylan, Paul Butterfield, Bobby Charles, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, and Neil Young. Martin Scorsese filmed the documentary about the concert.
Setlist:
Set 1:
Up on Cripple Creek (The Band cover)
The Shape I’m In (The Band cover)
Stage Fright (The Band cover)
Georgia (On My Mind) (Hoagy Carmichael and His Orchestra cover)
It Makes No Difference (The Band cover)
Life Is a Carnival (The Band cover)
Down South in New Orleans (The Band cover)
Who Do You Love? (Bo Diddley cover)
This Wheel’s on Fire (Bob Dylan & The Band cover)
King Harvest (Has Surely Come) (The Band cover)
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (The Band cover)
Set 2:
Chest Fever (The Band cover)
Ophelia (The Band cover)
Caravan (Van Morrison cover)
Helpless (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young cover)
Mystery Train (Little Junior’s Blue Flames cover)
Rag Mama Rag (The Band cover)
Mannish Boy (Muddy Waters cover)
Farther Up the Road (Bobby “Blue” Bland cover)
Forever Young (Bob Dylan cover)
The Weight (The Band cover)
I Shall Be Released (Bob Dylan cover)
Encore:
Such a Night (Dr. John cover)
Baby Don’t You Do It (Marvin Gaye cover)
