Before Bob Dylan even walked onstage Friday evening to kick off the summer time Outlaw Music Festival tour at Ameris Bank Amphitheater in Alpharetta, Georgia, phrase circulated by the fan neighborhood that huge modifications have been afoot in Dylan World. Super fan Ray Padgett was on web site with early reports that gospel-era drummer Jim Keltner was taking up from Jerry Pentecost, and pedal metal participant Donnie Herron was out after a 19-year stint within the band.
But no one was ready for the exceptional present that adopted, which was some of the surreal and unpredictable nights within the 36-year historical past of the Never Ending Tour. After three years of enjoying a static set constructed round his 2020 LP Rough and Rowdy Ways and choose deep cuts from the previous, Dylan offered a very new present heavy on Fifties covers, and his authentic tunes from the previous 20 years. The solely songs recorded previous to the flip of the millennium have been 1990’s “Under The Red Sky,” and 1975’s “A Simple Twist of Fate.”
The tone for the evening was set when he opened with a canopy of Willie Dixon’s 1955 blues normal “My Babe.” Later within the night, he broke out Chuck Berry’s 1959 traditional “Little Queenie,” the Fleetwoods’ 1959 hit “Mr Blue,” the 1951 Hank Williams masterpiece “Cold, Cold Heart,” and Sanford Clark’s 1956 rockabilly hit “The Fool.”
There’s no document of him enjoying any of them all through the course of his complete profession. There wasn’t a single choice from Rough and Rowdy Ways, however he did escape 4 songs (“Early Roman Kings,” “Long and Wasted Years,” “Pay in Blood,” and “Scarlet Town”) from 2012’s Tempest.
Willie Nelson is headlining each evening of the Outlaw tour, however hours earlier than showtime, news hit that that he was below the climate and could be lacking the primary 4 reveals “per doctor’s orders.” Lukas Nelson and the Family Band subbed in. That meant followers who purchased tickets hoping to see Nelson and listen to their favourite Dylan Sixties tunes have been in for a protracted night. They did, nevertheless, get to see Robert Plant and Alison Krauss cowl Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” and “The Battle of Evermore” together with “Gone Gone Gone,” “Please Read The Letter,” and “Rich Woman” from their very own albums. Celisse took the stage first.
When the Outlaw tour heads to the West Coast later in the summertime, John Mellencamp and Brittney Spencer are coming onboard, and Plant and Krauss are departing together with Celisse. Dylan and Nelson are on the invoice each single evening. But within the extra speedy future, many questions linger. Will Nelson recuperate from his thriller ailment in time to affix up with the tour subsequent week? Will Dylan follow this weird set each evening? Will he throw in additional surprises? Might he think about masking a music written after Dwight D. Eisenhower departed the White House? Will venues proceed to let followers herald telephones and movie/livestream the set? (This was an enormous no-no at Dylan reveals these previous few years.)
Whatever occurs, it’s clear that is the beginning of one more chapter within the lengthy saga of the Never Ending Tour. And for the primary time in a really very long time, something feels potential on any given evening. Well, virtually something feels potential. We’re not going to listen to “New Pony,” “Ballad in Plain D,” or “Sara.” But if a music was on the radio when Dylan was in grade faculty, it’d emerge in some unspecified time in the future. For the Dylan devoted, that’s an extremely thrilling prospect. But for those who’re exhibiting up with the hopes of listening to one thing from his Greatest Hits document, it’s most likely greatest to sit down this one out. This is one for the die-hards.
Bob Dylan Setlist:
“My Babe” (Willie Dixon)
“Beyond Here Lies Nothin’”
“Simple Twist of Fate”
“Little Queenie” (Chuck Berry )
“Mr. Blue” (The Fleetwoods)
“Pay in Blood”
“Cold, Cold Heart” (Hank Williams)
“Early Roman Kings”
“Under the Red Sky”
“Things Have Changed”
“The Fool” (Sanford Clark)
“Scarlet Town”
“Long and Wasted Years”
From Rolling Stone US.
