Bob Dylan/Willie Nelson Live Review

Bob Dylan\Willie Nelson
Hot Club of Cowtown
Friday, August 20, 2004
Pringles Stadium, Jackson, TN

The Bob Dylan concert was fantastic. I’m presenting my “review” in the cartoon-like (without the drawings) form of imagining some of his thoughts during the show:

I’ve played enough guitar in public. This thing of just playing an electric piano for the entire show is A-OK. It doesn’t matter that the audience can hardly hear my playing. I might not even be playing keyboards at all, just pushing buttons and flicking switches to control a musical rock show of four musicians who are more center stage than I am, while I sing my traveling preacher poems into a microphone that’s angled way too low.

The new adjustments to the “Cold Irons Bound” arrangement are really working. It’s so much fun to sing lyrics creepier than Edgar Allan Poe. And if it wasn’t for ol’ O.J., I wouldn’t even have the song at all!

I like having Stu’s lead guitar here on my side of the stage. He’s really got the blues and plays some really tasty stuff. I also like this co-bill with Willie. Plenty of people are coming out for our reasonably priced tickets and his legendary friendly relationship with the crowd probably offsets my usual distance some. That talking-to-the-crowd thing doesn’t work for me. It only worked back in the intimate “folkie” days and of course I tried it during the Christian album tours. Hell, I don’t even have to stand center stage anymore! Does anyone think of me as looking like Ray Charles up here, or like Thelonious Monk or something? Would anyone see me as being like that old man in a white lab coat whom Neil Young described in that song “Sedan Delivery”? I haven’t been this free on stage in, like, forever. Does anyone notice that I’ve actually transcended my own self and am very close to being the person I was at age 13 when I insisted on playing the drums solo at my bar mitzvah? This is so “me.” I’m not a rock star anymore, I’m simply Bob Dylan and I’m having a ball. I’ve never worked harder and tried less! I wonder if Steve Forbert drove over from Nashville. He’d absolutely love this show!

I’m so glad I was able to find another great drummer after David left. It’s certainly not easy to find excellent drummers these days. Oddly enough, that “vary the set more every night” criticism I was getting a few years ago turns out to have been a good idea. Taking that to an extreme has helped me further escape the tentacles of the nostalgia/oldies act syndrome. I should have thought of that myself.

And hey, this back-to-the-past, pre-’60s, country-and-western, cowboy hat and expensive suit thing has really worked. I’m so glad I quit trying to keep up with pop fashion and tastes. The world situation may be getting pretty bad but, uh, life is good. And this minor-league-baseball-field tour makes a lot of sense. It’s not sold out tonight but it certainly isn’t a disaster. The audience is pretty loose and having a good time. And the weather is cooperating, too. Of course, if you listen to most of the lyrics I’m singing, I sound dejected and very angry. Oh well, that’s nothing new. Should I care that a large part of my personality and artistic drive seems to stem from some extremely intense anger? I wonder if it will mean much to anyone when we play a few bars of the Exodus theme right before my second-most-apocalyptic song, “All Along the Watchtower.” Oh look, what’s up? Larry’s laughing . . . because . . . oh, Tony’s bass strap has come unfastened.

Originally posted to SteveForbert.com in September 2004.