Watch Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros Cover ‘Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain’ With Mickey Raphael

Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros continued their run with Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival on Sunday night at Forest Hills Stadium in New York. Harmonica player Mickey Raphael, a longtime member of Nelson’s Family Band, joined Weir on a performance of a song closely associated with Nelson, the country ballad “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain.”

Bob Weir performed “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain” with Billy Strings in April at Nelson’s 90th birthday concerts. The song, written by Fred Rose, appeared on Nelson’s standout 1975 album, Red Headed Stranger. Sunday’s rendition was the first Wolf Bros performance of the song.

Sunday’s set featured The Wolfpack strings and horn section joining Weir, bassist Don Was, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, drummer Jay Lane and pedal steel guitarist Barry Sless. The show opened with “Jack Straw,” followed by “Ramble On Rose.” Next came the “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain” debut, which was trailed by “Estimated Prophet.”

After Weir’s “Black Throated Wind,” the ensemble then engaged in a sequence of “Eyes Of The World” into Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” back into “Eyes.” The set continued with “Standing On The Moon” and Raphael coming back out to add harmonica to “Turn On Your Lovelight.” A Sunday evening “Samson & Delilah” sermon brought the set to an end.

Watch Raphael join Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros for “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain” last night in Forest Hills:

Weir also joined Nelson during the latter’s headlining set, coming out to play guitar on “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” and “Hard To Be Humble.” Nelson was joined by Norah Jones on keyboards throughout his set. Also onstage with Weir for the finale were members of The String Cheese Incident, who performed earlier that day, as well as Jones’ Puss N’ Boots bandmate, Sasha Dobson.

Watch the collaborative “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” below:

Photos by Adam McCullough