Farm Aid draws sellout crowd to Noblesville’s Ruoff Home Music Center

Farm Aid draws sellout crowd to Noblesville’s Ruoff Home Music Center

By: Kevin Vickery

Farm Aid 2023 brought a crowd of over 24,000 concert goers to Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville, IN on Saturday, September 23rd with performances by Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds, Margo Price, as well as The Jim Irsay Band featuring Ann Wilson of Heart, and many more artists throughout the day. 

Farm Aid started in 1985 as an idea by Willie Nelson who formed a collaborative effort with Neil Young (Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young and Buffalo Springfield) and Indiana’s own, John Mellencamp to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land. Dave Matthews joined the Farm Aid Board of Directors in 2001, and Margo Price joined in 2021. Since it’s conception, Farm Aid has raised more than $70 million to promote a strong and resilient family farm system of agriculture. 

In its 38-year tenure, the annual event has been held all over the country. This marked the third time it has been held here in Indiana with the last time being in 2001. On returning the event to Indiana, Hoosier native, John Mellencamp says, “We are honored and excited to bring the Farm Aid experience back to Indiana. My home state holds deep meaning for me and for the generations of family farmers who have dedicated their lives to caring for the Earth and bringing us good food.” 

Saturday’s nearly twelve hour show started with Wisdom Indian Dancers, and Native Pride Productions., featuring authentic Native American dress and dancing to promote cultural awareness. They were followed by Clayton Anderson, and then The Black Opry featuring Lori Rayne, Tylar Bryant and Kyshona.  Up next was Particle Kid, which is the stage name of Willie Nelson’s youngest son, Micah. Apparently he earned that name when his Dad misspoke while trying to refer to him as The Prodigal Son, and the nickname stuck.

He was followed by The String Cheese Incident, a band that I have always respected but never seen perform live.  They are an American Jam band from Colorado whose sounds incorporate elements of bluegrass sounds, as well as rock, electronica, calypso, country, funk, jazz, Latin, progressive rock, reggae, and psychedelia. They delivered a great set and I would highly recommend giving them a listen.

They were followed by Allison Russell and then Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, took the stage. I have personally been hoping to see them live since 2015 when I was first introduced to their combustible mix of soul and rock flanked by a powerful horn section that quickly cemented them as a rare multi-generational band. Their show was great despite the fact that they didn’t play a few of their hits that I along with the rest of the crowd were hoping to hear.

Up next was Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real. If you’ve never heard of Lukas, I’ll tell you that if you like Willie Nelson, you’ll love his son, Lukas. His voice is reminiscent of a young Willie and since his debut over a decade ago, he has toured the world with his longtime band POTR, playing sold-out shows and festivals and winning fans with his singular sound. His newest album, “Sticks and Stones”, was written solely by Nelson with the hope of bringing people together. The album captures the band’s musical power and fits perfectly alongside the canon of the electric live performances they’re known for.

Next up was Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros featuring The Wolfpack, Bobby Weir is a founding member of the legendary Grateful Dead and Dead & Company and is one of rock’s most distinctive rhythm guitarists and singers. Their set was excellent and featured an all-star jam including guitarist, Sturgill Simpson, Luckas Nelson, and Margo Price.

The celebrity jam session then continued when Indianapolis Colts owner, Jim Irsay took the stage with his all-star band that featured Heart’s Ann Wilson on lead vocals. Irsay has a massive collection of historic musical instruments that he regularly displays at shows for the public. He featured some of those iconic instruments on stage with his band that included Indiana’s own, Kenny Aronoff on drums alongside other top-notch studio and touring musicians. The highlights for me included their cover of Pink Floyd’s, “Comfortably Numb” and Heart’s, “Barracuda”, which was particularly authentic, given Ann Wilson’s presence on lead vocals.

Irsay’s super star cover band was then followed by Farm Aid Board Member, Margo Price. Her ability to mix the styles of rock and roll, psychedelic country, rhythm & blues, and even bright shiny pop, are all present in her live show as well as her new album, “Strays”. Her delicate vocal style and unhurried delivery come out sounding singularly to her. My personal highlight of her show was when she covered Tom Petty’s, “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” but like most natural born Hoosiers, I’m always going to sing along with the lyric, “She grew up in a Indiana town…”

I am embarrassed to admit that prior to this concert, I had never seen Dave Mathews perform. And while this wasn’t his typical full band show with his complete, Dave Mathews Band, the acoustic set he delivered with guitarist, Tim Reynolds was both powerful and memorable. Even with a stripped down version of the band, they strummed their way though some of his Grammy winning group’s biggest hits and kept the crowd fully entertained. As a philanthropist, not only has Dave Mathews been involved with Farm Aid for twenty-two years, but his work with his group’s Bama Works Fund, established in 1999, has raised more than $65 million dollars for humanitarian and environmental initiatives and his ongoing partnership with The Nature Conservancy has resulted in three million trees being planted since 2020.  The continued partnership will bring the total to four million trees in 2023.

His show was followed by Indiana native and hometown hero, John Mellencamp. His set featured basically every classic song from his repertoire that any self-respecting Hoosier would want to hear. The crowd enthusiastically sang along to his hits like, “Small Town”, “Pink Houses” and “Jack and Diane”. Personally, I think it’s always great to see Anderson Indiana’s own, Dane Clark on the drums who’s been holding the beat for Mellencamp for the last twenty-seven years. Before playing his 1987 hit, “Paper and Fire”, Mellencamp lamented to the crowd that when he wrote this song, he never thought he’d still be playing it today. He viewed it as a “temporary thing” as it was written about the perils and downfalls of the American farmer. He went on to say that while he was proud to be involved with Farm Aid, he never would have dreamed that there would still be a need to assist and support family farms and still seek regulation against industrial farming thirty-eight years later, citing the State and Local Governments as the blame.

When Neil Young took the stage, I was surprised to see that he was performing solo with only his guitar and harmonica to accompany his unique and distinguished voice. Of course he can deliver a strong show in this manner, but since his recent albums have featured Micah and Lukas Nelson, along with Lukas’ band, Promise of the Real as his backing band, I assumed they would be on stage with him, given that they were already part of the night’s bill. Nevertheless, his set was still both authentic and meaningful while delivering a pertinent message about the cause at hand. He took the time to address the crowd between songs about the issues concerning today’s family farmer. He reminded everyone that “Farm Aid is really Earth Aid” and that to save the farms, we have to first save the planet. He added that it’s the requirement of the consumer to make choices about what products they buy in supermarkets, saying that, “It’s your responsibility to check labels and only buy products that are from family farms and not industrial agriculture”

When Young’s set concluded, the crowd assumed that Willie Nelson was about to make his way out but we were all in for a surprise.  An unannounced and unexpected special guest instead made his way to the stage. The stage lighting was dimmed, the house video screens were turned off and the stage video backdrops were locked on a single black and white image of an old broken windmill when the legendary Bob Dylan took the stage for a surprise performance. He wasn’t introduced; he never addressed the crowd, never said thanks, and never discussed Farm Aid. He did deliver a four-song mini-set that was backed by the legendary Heartbreakers, formerly the band for the late, Tom Petty. Once the audience figured out who it was, they were all very enthusiastic to cheer him on. Even though I’ve never been a big fan of his music, and despite the weirdness of the whole thing, I was still glad to say that I was able to see this musical icon perform.

Once Dylan left the stage, it was finally time for the man of the hour, Willie Nelson along with his family band to deliver the performance that everyone had been waiting for. At ninety years old, Willie’s show still packs the punch that it did the first time I saw him over forty years ago. There’s just something special about when he and the band open the show with “Whiskey River” that will never grow old. His signature sound of both vocals and guitar playing were exactly what you would expect to hear as he made his way through his hits like, “Help Me Make it Through the Night”, “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys”, “On the Road Again” and my personal favorite, “Angel Flying to Close to the Ground”. His family band included both of his youngest sons Lukas and Micah who played guitar and shared some of the vocal duties. Sure he may have been sitting on a stool while performing, but hey, he’s Willie Nelson and as long as wants to sit and perform, I’ll be there to watch and listen.

I had the chance to speak with local concertgoer, Kerri Davis of Indianapolis who said this was her first time attending Farm Aid but probably her tenth time seeing Willie Nelson perform live in concert. She had this to say about her admiration for Willie, “Willie is a National Treasure. He’s not only a prolific songwriter and performer, but a great humanitarian. Every time I get to see him and his family in concert it’s a treat.”

On his involvement with Farm Aid Farm Aid, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America. Willie had this to say, “Family farmers have the solutions to some of our toughest challenges. As we face a changing climate, farmers in Indiana, across the Midwest and all over the country are farming in ways that create more resilient farms to build healthy soils and protect our water.” 

For me, overall, it was simply a great day for the show.  Clear skies and mild temperatures made for the perfect day to see so many musical legends perform on the same stage in one day, right here in Indianapolis at Ruoff Music Center…. But yeah, I’m old school and I still call it Deer Creek.

For more information about how you can assist the American family farmers, by donating to Farm Aid, visit farmaid.org

Henry County resident and Ball State alum, Kevin Vickery, is bassist and lead vocalist for The Cousin Brothers. He spent several years working in Nashville for some of the biggest names in Country Music before taking over the reins at his family business. If you have a story idea or an event that you think Kevin should cover, contact him at kevin.makesomenoise@yahoo.com