• Last Week: Nagoya, April 18-19-20 (Setlists)
  • Covers: Truckin’, Not Fade Away, Brokedown Palace, Only A River
• Next: European Tour: June 2 – 30 (25 Shows)

Tour Related

• Recordings: Only A River (4/20), Truckin’ (4/20), Brokedown Palace (4/18)
• Bob Plays Complete Brokedown Palace and Debuts Only A River (Jambase)
  • “The 81-year-old musician proved the third time’s a charm at the Nagoya opener on Tuesday, when he finally made it through “Brokedown Palace.”
• Dylan Debuts Bob Weir Cover (Jambands)
  • “During the stacked 18-song frame, Dylan returned to the Grateful Dead’s songbook, tapping into their original “Truckin’.” The run-through represented the second time Dylan had performed the favored number during the current leg of his tour. As a follow up, Dylan offered a debut of Bobby Weir’s 2016 tune, “Only a River,” in full.
• Is Dylan Auditioning A New Concept Album in Japan (Forward)
  • “Still, fans and Dylanologists cannot help but wonder if Dylan has some hidden agenda in suddenly interpolating Grateful Dead and Dead-adjacent songs into his setlist, especially after several years of playing almost exclusively songs from his most recent album, 2020’s Rough and Rowdy Ways, with a few of his better-known classics tossed into the mix for good measure.”
• Japan Tour Wrap-Up (Flagging Down The Double E’s)
  • “Today, following the tour finale in Nagoya yesterday, we shares final thoughts — and a little playlist of his most memorable moments across all eight nights. Below that I throw in a few memorable clips from the Nagoya tapes to put a bow on these Japan dispatches.”

• Paul Brady on Teaching Dylan a New Guitar Riff (Readers Digest)
  • “He asked, how did I play the song “The Lakes of Pontchartrain”? I use quite a lot of unorthodox guitar tunings, which a lot of folk artists at the time were doing, so I asked him if I could borrow his guitar and if he’d mind if I retuned it?”
• Dylan’s Boston Debut (60 Years Ago) Was A Freewheelin Good Time (Boston)
  • “If you were paying attention in April 1963 to newspaper ads for a pair of weekend shows at a Kenmore Square coffeehouse, you might not be certain if “Bob Dylan” or “Bob Dillon” was about to perform at Café Yana.
• More on Dylan in Boston – (Pt.1) (Pt.2) (My First Rodeo)
  • “But after talking to Yana waitress Susan Bluttman, and considering Suze’s letter to her friend Sue Zuckerman, I think it’s most likely the case that, at the very least, Suze was there for the Friday show at Cafe Yana. Bluttman was insistent her memory was correct and her recall of other verifiable details checked out. I specifically asked if it was just “some woman” with Dylan or definitely Suze.”
• Dylan’s Whisky Brand Opens Kentucky Distillery This Year (Whisky Raiders)
  • “The distillery has been under development since 2017, but the company has kept the project under wraps until now. Heaven’s Door Distillery plans to open its doors to the public in September. Also on Thursday, Heaven’s Door officially announced The Last Refuge, the brand’s upcoming whiskey bar and live music venue that will open in a former church in Louisville.”
• Town Hall Harmonica Available for $45K (MomentsInTime)
  • “He brought with him two harmonicas which he had played on stage at his April 12,1963 concert and gave it as a gift to the McKenzies’ son, Peter. He wrote the title of the song he had played using this harmonica on the front of the box.”
• When Sam Shepard Met Bob Dylan (Hollywood Reporter)
  • “After being led down a long, dark hallway, Shepard discovered Dylan lying across a metal folding chair in a dark back room with his ragged cowboy boots propped up on a metal desk. Insofar as Shepard could see, Dylan was “blue.” He was “all blue from the eyes clear down through his clothes.”
  • New Book: Sam Shepard’s Life, Work and Times (Amazon)
• Ian Hunter on Dylan’s Hiring of Mick Ronson (OnlyFanStar)
  • “I met him once when I was dating Mott, and we went in there for a drink one night when it was empty. He went in with [folk singer] Bobby Neuwirth and played the entire version of ‘Desire.’”
• Charlie Crockett Talks Dylan (RollingStone)
  • “Crockett also talked at length about the Bob Dylan studio outtakes bootleg Pecos Blues, a series of recordings culled from Dylan’s sessions for the soundtrack to 1973’s Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. “I heard that Bob was fascinated by [Billy the Kid],” says Crockett, who added lyrics to an unfinished song from the sessions, “Tom Turkey.”  Discussion of Bob on VIDEO AT 4:00
• Dylan, Keith Richards to appear in new Documentary about Chicago Blues (KSLX)
  • “Born in Chicago, narrated by Dan Aykroyd and executive produced by Jim Belushi and Elliot Roberts, delves into the Chicago music scene of the ’60s using a mix of archival footage and interviews. In addition to Dylan and Richards, the movie features appearances by Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Bob Weir, Steve Miller, Charlie Musselwhite and more.”

• Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong – The Guitar Work (Dylanology)
  • “The solo acoustic songs that he did play, e.g. during the Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975, are played in an unusually unsophisticated strumming style which almost does not deserve to be called a “style” at all. So in a general sense, that would be the style to evaluate Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong against – which is also why those two albums came as such a surprise: where there had been two decades of unsophisticated strumming, suddenly there was varied and skilled guitar playing once again.”
• Shatzberg’s Scarecrows (strostvatican)
  • “I recently picked up a copy of the book Dylan by Schatzberg, which is exactly what the title implies. A beautiful collection of photographs that the pair created together in two and a half years during the mid-60s. Dylan is shown performing in concert, both solo and with the Hawks, later known as the Band.
• A GIF Guide to Dylan’s Guitar Poses (Flagging Down The Double E’s)
  • “When soloing, he busts out a variety of little stage moves that are a treat to watch. I got such a kick out of them that I made some GIFs. You too can use these moves next time you’re on stage playing the same three slidy notes over and over and calling it a guitar solo!”
• Songs of Freedom at the White House (Peter Stone Brown Archives)
  • “Less than three months later John F. Kennedy would be shot. Eight days later I saw Bob Dylan in concert for the first time. He opened with “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” and did several songs from the album that would be named after that song that would appear a couple of months later.”
• Bob Dylan in Hawaii 2014 (I Don’t Love Nobody)
  • “Anyone paying attention heard something else — something spirited, musically exciting, and often quite bleak. The band is tight and controlled. They break out here and there with perfect accentuation but without excess. They perform skillfully, with poise and discretion.”
• Black Rider (2020) Pt.2 (Untold Dylan)
  • “Unconventional the song certainly is. On all fronts, in fact. That goes for the opening words already, the opening line with its unusual metre. Black RIder, black RIder, you been LIving too HARD – twice an amphibrachys, twice an anapest.”
• Dylan Lyrics & Music: It Ain’t Me Babe (Untold Dylan)
  • “It is a push out the door – but not a violent push, more a gentle edging outwards.  And as the lyrics say, it is presented as being in the lady’s best interests: “I’m not the one you need”.
• Dylan Cover A Day: Ring Them Bells (Untold Dylan)
  • “The great problems with doing a cover version of “Ring Them Bells” are a) the song itself is highly distinctive, and b) the use of the word “bells” invites the uninventive performer / arranger / producer to do the obvious.”
• Other People’s Songs: Gotta Travel On (Untold Dylan)
  • ““Gotta Travel On” was based on a fragment of an unnamed song found in the archives of the Virginia Folklore Society.  It was also titled “Done Laid Around”, though versions with that title typically use a different set of lyrics.”
• Dylan’s Favorite Songs: If You Could Read My Mind (Untold Dylan)
  • “It is another utterly extraordinary piece – something many people feel from the moment the original recording starts alternating just two chords with an utterly magical melody above it, and lyrics that must dig into the heart of anyone with any sort of feelings and uncertainties within her or his life.”
• The Tarantula Files: Nothing To It & White Swan (Untold Dylan)
  • “Similarly so in the book “Tarantula” by Bob Dylan; but of course without any accompanying “music” ~ except for the ways the sounds of the words are put together to create rhythm, onomatopoeia, assonance, dissonance, consonance, alliteration, and all.”

• Watching The River Flow on Shadow Kingdom (Cult Following)
  • “Reflection is certainly the key to Watching the River Flow. The sharp and sudden first line, “What’s the matter with me,” still as astounding as it was all those decades ago.”
• John Wesley Harding – Far Out
  • “‘John Wesley Harding’ carries the first threads of piercing harmonica that pervade the album intermittently. After growing accustomed to the screeching solos, there’s something strangely hypnotic and charming about the unique sound that binds the songs with distinctive genes.”
• If You See Her Say Hello / You’re A Big Girl Now (Chris Gregory)
  • “In these songs Dylan is no longer the smart-tongued young hipster or the happy family man of previous periods. Not only does he lay what appears to be highly personal experiences of pain on the line but he also admits to being extremely confused and out of control.”
• Decoding Hurricane (Far Out)
  • “This secondary point meant Dylan could litter the track with literary devices to grab you into the tale and make you realise the wider consequences. Thus, at times it might be shocking – for instance, his use of the n-word – but this is all to ram home the unflinching point of prejudice not just against Carter but persecuted minorities in general.”
• New Reviews of Fragments
  • We continue to add reviews to our roundup.
• New Reviews of The Philosophy of Modern Song
  • We continue to add reviews to our roundup.
• Leftover Salmon Does Simple Twist of Fate (Bluegrass Today)
  • “Leftover Salmon’s lead singer and guitarist Vince Herman’s voice carries a lot of the grit Dylan was known for, and the band delivers an up-tempo version of the song. Support comes from regular bandmates Drew Emmitt on mandolin, Andy Thorn on banjo, Greg Garrison on bass, Alwyn Robinson on drums, and newest member, Jay Starling, on reso-guitar.”

• April 14-19: Gotta Serve Somebody TRIBUTE (Gothenburg)
• April 14-30: The Movie In Me (Series) Maxxi Rome
• April 19 – Oct 13: Becoming Bob Dylan, Ted Russell 1961 – 1964 (Bob Dylan Center, Tulsa)
  • Article
• April 20: Book Talk with Lewis Hyde (Bob Dylan Center)
• April 23: Dylan & Me Author Louie Kemp (Altadena CA)
• April 27 – May 20: Paolo Brill – Stolen Moments (
• May 10: Michael Gray at The Bob Dylan Center (Tulsa OK)
• May 14 – June 2: Girl From The North Country Coming to LA
• May 20-28:Duluth Dylan Festival (Duluth MN)
• May 21: The Kabbalah of Bob Dylan (Online)
• May 24: Bob Dylan Birthday Bash (Brooklyn NY)
• May 26: Michael Gray presents Dylan’s Greatest Rejected Tracks (Sussex)
• June 2-4: The World of Bob Dylan (Tulsa)

• Did you know we maintain a full list of all upcoming Dylan events?
  See it all at: Dylan Events Calendar

• DATE: June 2-4
• LOCATION: Tulsa OK
• World of Bob Dylan now sits within ‘SwitchYard Tulsa’ a larger arts festival
• KEYNOTES ANNOUNCED:
  • Greil Marcus – Author, Folk Music: A Bob Dylan Biography in Seven Songs.
  • Cass Sunstein – Museums Are Vulgar: Bob Dylan and Dishabituation
  • Margo Price – Recording Artist Strays (2023)
  • Jessica Hopper – Author of The First Collection of Criticism By A Living Female Rock Critic
  • Happy Traum – Coming of Age in Greenwich Village Folk Revival, 1954-1971
    .
• Regitration
  • Register for SwitchYard AND World of Bob Dylan ($300)
  • Register only for World of Bob Dylan ($250)

Dylan Guitarists in Tokyo

• Dylan.FM
  • The Songs of Good As I Been To You (Michael Gray)
• Pod Dylan
  • Lay Down Your Weary Tune (Leslie Scott)
• Bob Dylan Album By Album
  • Bringing It All Back Home (Pt.1)