Still Whistlin’ Dixie: The Bellamy Brothers Ride Again at Old Washington Music Festival

by Dave Parsons

It started the way the best country music nights at the Old Washington Music Festival always do, with the sun melting over the Guernsey County hills.  The heat and humidity were starting to dwindle, and an evening 90s country fans have dreamed about was about to take place.

Thursday night, July 17, 2025, the Bellamy Brothers brought the kind of seasoned country show that reminds you why you fell in love with the twang in the first place. This wasn’t a legacy act mailing it in. This was a 90-minute dose of jukebox truth, delivered by two men who’ve logged more musical miles than some of today’s chart-toppers have Instagram followers.

Feelin’ the Feelin’ was the opener, and it felt like slipping into your favorite pair of jeans. Their voices were still like you last remembered hearing them, whether live or on the worn-out CD in your vehicle. The crowd wasn’t just listening. They were living the songs. There was a younger kid down toward the front who was belting out every word from memory.  You had to wonder when these guys became part of his life, because he wasn’t alive when these songs were on the radio.

By the time they dropped into Kids of the Baby Boom, the party was on. The Bellamys, now well into their 70s, still play with the relaxed authority of men who’ve done this for 40+ years.  Mostly, because they have! They’ve charted in 60 countries and spent more weeks on the Billboard country charts in the ’80s than most realize.

Dancin’ Cowboys kicked it up a notch. Suddenly, there were line dances in the grassy field, as decades were peeled back to some core memories, of miles line danced to this song in honkytonks that probably aren’t even there anymore.

In a nod to country icon Don Williams, Some Broken Hearts Never Mend, was a single for the Brothers, and a music video filled with country stars of the 1990s. David’s grinning through Sugar Daddy let you know the song probably got him in trouble more than once back in the day. Do You Love as Good as You Look? followed, with a lot of men in the crowd singing this line to the ladies around them.  Lovers Live Longer was the perfect follow-up to the previous question in a song. The next three songs, I Could Be Persuaded, When I’m Away from You, and the rowdy Rip Off the Knob, kept the hits coming without stopping.  You forget how many hits these guys had.

And then came the first drum roll of Old Hippie, and the place erupted.

If there is one song that captures the Bellamy Brothers’ true legacy, it is Old Hippie. It isn’t just a fan favorite, but a character sketch that grew up with its audience. From the Vietnam War to vinyl to modern medicine, it charts the uneasy path of growing old while trying to stay true. Maybe more now than when it was a hit, those who thought the song was about their dads now realize it’s about them.  Update a line or two, change the name of a war, and every verse bites, and every line stings.   It was the kind of moment you don’t forget.

They didn’t let up.

Crazy From the Heart, Forget About Me, and You Ain’t Just Whistlin’ Dixie kept things flowing.  During Crazy from the Heart, a young woman stood still for the whole song, clutching a photo in a locket, and fighting back tears. She told me afterwards that it was her parents’ song. They’d met at a Bellamy Brothers concert in 1988, and her father had just passed this past March.

By the time they reached the first chorus of You Ain’t Just Whistlin’ Dixie, people weren’t just singing out of tune, they were in a happy bliss that way.  There was pure bliss on their faces, as bodies swayed, memories were remembered, and new memories were being made.

Over by the merch table, a young boy stood proud in a brand-new Bellamy Brothers t-shirt, as his older version told him about how he once saw the Bellamy Brothers open for Loretta Lynn in 1980, not too far from here. 

Three hits later in the set came If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body (Would You Hold It Against Me)? The set had hit its peak, the steady stream of hits, but you knew they were saving the ones everyone wanted to hear for the end.  This song doesn’t just hold up.  It still works, even here in an era when so much of the genre has traded heart for horsepower. There were hands in back pockets, people slow-dancing with strangers, and one woman up by the stage shouted, Yes, I would! at full volume, earning a laugh and a nod from Howard.

They continued on top of the mountain they spent 75 minutes building.  There’s something transcendent about the first shimmering chords of Let Your Love Flow. It charted as a pop-country crossover in the ‘70s, and its opening riff is as well-known as any rock anthem. People sang it like an old hymn that was embedded in their souls.  If we could only get the world going in the same sway and full of the love that was in that Ohio grass field as they sang along, then the world could again be as the Bellamy Brothers are: timeless.

The final songs, Redneck Girl and Reggae Cowboy turned the fairgrounds into a jamboree. This was a celebration, plain and simple. The Bellamys delivered it with pure affection, never smug, never pandering. They know who they’re singing for. You could see the stress leave people’s bodies. Couples danced with bare feet. A group of boys formed a conga line. The security team even swayed a little. It was joy, honest and weird and warm.

And as it ended, Howard gave one last wave. David offered his signature smile, the kind that’s carried him through four decades of applause and four million miles of road.

There was no smoke machine. No video screens. Just harmonies. Humor. Honesty.

After 40-plus years, that’s more than enough.

And as long as there’s gravel to dance on, beer to be poured, and country songs to be sung with grit and grace, the Bellamy Brothers will always have a place here.

You ain’t just whistlin’ Dixie.

Bellamy Brothers Setlist – Old Washington Music Festival – May 17, 2025

1. Feelin’ the Feelin’

2. Kids of the Baby Boom

3. Dancin’ Cowboys

4. Some Broken Hearts Never Mend

5. Sugar Daddy

6. Do You Love as Good as You Look

7. Lovers Live Longer

8. I Could Be Persuaded

9. When I’m Away from You

10. Rip Off the Knob

11. Forever Ain’t Long Enough

12. Old Hippie

13. Crazy from the Heart

14. Forget About Me

15. You Ain’t Just Whistlin’ Dixie

16. I’d Lie to You for Your Love

17. I Need More of You

18. For All the Wrong Reasons

19. If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against

20. Let Your Love Flow

21. Redneck Girl

22. Reggae Cowboy