The past and present of outlaw country come together this weekend at Snowden Grove Amphitheater in Southaven for Willie Nelson’s Country Throwdown tour. Nelson, now 78, never seems to slow down. Constantly touring and recording, his simple guitar, sing-speak voice, and bottomless catalogue are the lead resume items for what is now clearly one of the great careers in all of American music. Nelson brings a whole posse of up-and-comers with him on this tour: Randy Houser, Lee Brice, Brantley Gilbert, Craig Campbell, Drake White, and Willie’s son, Lukas Nelson, with his band Promise of the Real. The tour also features a side stage — the Bluebird Café stage, named after the famed Nashville venue — to showcase emerging songwriters. But there’s also a right-in-his prime sidekick in the form of Alabama’s Jamey Johnson, who followed up his breakout second album, 2008’s Waylon Jennings-inspired That Lonesome Song, with a 25-song, double disc opus, 2010’s The Guitar Song, which combines ’70s outlaw sensibilities with the sounds of ’80s-era country radio. Willie Nelson’s Country Throwdown tour lands at Snowden Grove on Thursday, June 9th, starting at 3 p.m. Tickets range from $35 to $49.50. Johnson is scheduled to take the stage at 8:35 p.m.; Nelson at 9:55 p.m.
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