Farm Aid 40
Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025
Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, Minn.
Performers: Willie Nelson & Family, Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts, Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds, Margo Price, Kenny Chesney, Billy Strings, Lukas Nelson, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Steve Earle, Trampled By Turtles, Wynnona Judd, Waxahatchee, Eric Burton of Black Pumas, Jesse Welles, Madeline Edwards, Wisdom Indian Dancers
By Rob McCune
Family farmers and their famous friends put their hoes down for a good, old-fashioned hoedown in Minneapolis for Farm Aid 40.
Every variety of folk was represented—from genuine cowboy country to rockabilly to more contemporary storytelling—and all folks, as long as they were friendly, were welcome.
Farm Aid founders Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, and Margo Price were firm in their advocacy for family farmers and their disdain for factory farms that are threatening an American way of life that has tilled the earth and fed the world as long as there’s been an America.
Mellencamp and others also were vocal in their appreciation of the singularly most important force that has made Farm Aid happen every year for the past 40 years: Willie Nelson.
Ninety-two-year-old Nelson isn’t just a figurehead for Farm Aid either. Headlining his 40th Farm Aid, the legendary Red-headed Stranger closed out the night, performing with sons Lukas and Micah and others, and gathering all of the musicians and bands on stage for a singalong at the end.
Twelve hours after the first act, the Wisdom Indian Dancers, had taken the stage for a sort of opening ceremony, Willie Nelson tossed his cowboy hat, and a few bandanas, into the crowd and waved goodnight. It’s hard to say how many of these Willie still has in him, but on this night, he was as legendary and as Willie as perhaps he’s ever been – and if that’s any indication, and if the world somehow is worthy (or just desperate enough), we’ll see his signature bandana and braids, and his trusty guitar Trigger, on stage again.
The Nelson family’s finale capped off a tremendous full day of stirring hymns and guitar-, mandolin- and banjo-picking, big-band stomping ballads and breakout songs by an incredible lineup of musicians.
Dressed for a rodeo, singer Madeline Edwards belted soulfully about not being able to “Hold My Horses” – something she no doubt had in common with the crowd, champing at the bit for more.
Next up was Jesse Welles, a true modern-day folk hero who has kicked up plenty of dust with political protest songs like “Red” and cutting social commentary on songs like “The Poor,” which he dedicated to billionaires like Bill Gates who he said have stolen farmland from families. Less controversial perhaps but just as clever, his last song of the set was about his love for “Bugs.”
Rocking a rad red electric guitar, Eric Burton of the band Black Pumas turned up the soul with his set, which featured his band’s 2019 radio hit “Colors.”
Singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield then brought her latest indie music project, Waxahatchee, to the stage, reminding us to stop and smell the “Lilacs” with her terrifically twang-tinged vocals. Named after a creek in Alabama where she grew up, the band is a return to folksy roots for Crutchfield, who previously was in a pop punk band called P.S. Eliot.
Farm Aid saw red with the next performance as the fiery Wynonna Judd and her band declared: “It’s about to get real country up in here.” Striking a chord for one of the best eras of country music, the ’90s, she broke out hit after hit, including “No One Else On Earth,” which got the crowd singing along – proving that truly no one else on Earth can do it like Wynonna.
Minnesota’s own Trampled By Turtles, a bluegrass-inspired folk band with 10 albums, were crowd favorites, bringing a unique blend of guitar, cello, banjo, bass guitar, mandolin and fiddle to hits such as “Wait So Long” and “Whiskey.”
Performing solo on mandolin, Steve Earle provided a mesmerizing interlude between acts, particularly rousing and rattling the fans with his stripped-down rendition of his hit, “Copperhead Road.”
In a red “Stop Factory Farms” t-shirt, overalls and cap, Nathaniel Rateliff brought out his band The Night Sweats presumably to burn (billionaire) barns. Backed by sax, trumpet, keys and drums, Rateliff’s jailhouse-rollicking revivalist “S.O.B.” certainly set the stage and stadium ablaze.
Lukas Nelson wears a cowboy hat at least as well as anyone else and probably better – and sings a cowboy song just as well. Before his family finale, Lukas showed off the shine on his boots, and his incredible voice, with some help from friends including Grammy-winning West Virginia singer-songwriter Sierra Ferrell, as well as Dave Matthews.
Billy Strings next wowed the crowd with his incomparable guitar skills – and, as if that wasn’t enough, he sings, too. Kenny Chesney treated the fans to a “Beer in Mexico,” playing as the sun went down. And Margo Price offered this sound advice during her set: “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down.” She went old-school country in her set, too, covering songs by Waylon Jennings, Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. On Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm,” she was joined on stage by Billy Strings and Jesse Welles.
Dave Matthews and longtime collaborator guitarist Tim Reynolds had a sit-down acoustic set, stripping down DMB tracks such as “Grey Street” and mixing “Don’t Drink the Water” with a little of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.” For “Crush,” “Warehouse,” and “Ants Marching,” the duo was joined masterfully by fiddler Jake Renick Simpson, from Lukas Nelson’s band.
John Mellencamp started out his set with a statement on the “Lawless Times” we’re in before taking a trip down Americana road with fitting tributes such as “Small Town,” “Pink Houses,” and an almost acapella take on “Jack & Diane,” with audience assistance. The Cougar can still roar with the best of them.
Only legends left alive as Bob Dylan took a dimly lit stage to perform at piano a medley from his catalogue of hits including “All Along the Watchtower,” “Highway 61” and “Don’t “Think Twice.” Then, Neil Young with his band The Chrome Hearts rocked out signature protest anthems “Big Crime” and the iconic, rallying “Rockin’ in the Free World.”
Willie Nelson and family’s set spanned the river valleys, golden prairies and the countless miles of road of the country superstar’s life and music, with staples such as “On the Road Again,” “Georgia (On My Mind),” and “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys.”
There were tender moments too, as with his duet with son Lukas on the Pearl Jam cover “Just Breathe;” and Willie singing Tom Waits’ “Last Leaf” was enough to make the tears well up in anyone’s eyes. But Willie Nelson isn’t one to shed any tears about his life or even its end – as he reminds us in the poignant but hilariously on-brand “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.”
The night ended with a gospel choir of Farm Aid family and friends on “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” “I’ll Fly Away,” “It’s Hard to Be Humble” and finally “I Saw the Light.”
And in the dark of a Minneapolis night, we were reminded that this light, the candle being carried for family farmers by Willie Nelson and Farm Aid, shines ever bright.
Rob McCune is Every_Thing_After_Photo on Instagram, where he shares his concert photography and reviews, as well as clips from his “Every.Thing.After” podcast, with interviews with musicians and bands.
