Nyheter
Dylan går country!
Datum: 2005-03-09

Bob Dylan åpnet sin nye turné i Seattle på mandag, med et utvalg nye musikere på laget. Informerte rootsy.nu lesere vil dra kjensel på noen av de nye navnene.

Don Herron (steel guitar) har bakgrunn i BR5-49, Elana Fremerman (fele) spiller med Hot Club of Cowtown og Danny Freeman er veteran fra Austins bluesmiljø, der han bl.a. har spilt gitar med Angela Strehli og Lou Ann Barton.

Vi har plukket opp denne konsertanmeldelsen fra en lokal Seattle avis.

Dylan reinvents himself at Paramount show


By GENE STOUT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER POP MUSIC CRITIC

Like a rolling stone, Bob Dylan gathers no moss.




REVIEW




BOB DYLAN, MERLE HAGGARD AND AMOS LEE

WHAT: Rock/folk/country concert

WHEN: Monday night at the Paramount Theatre

If fans can count on anything, it's Dylan's ability to reinvent his music and keep them guessing about his next move.


The folk-rock icon opened his latest cross-country tour last night at the Paramount Theatre, playing keyboards instead of guitar in a 90-minute set that borrowed songs from his long-running »Love and Theft« tour, but featured new arrangements and a new band lineup that added a country twang to many classic songs.


»Like a Rolling Stone,« a popular encore song last year, was almost recast as a country-rock tune featuring Don Herron (of Nashville neo-hillbilly band BR549) on soaring steel guitar. »Mr. Tambourine Man,« the second-to-last song in the main set, was reborn as a tender, stirring ballad with a mournful country-noir sound.


But Dylan, who is writing songs for a new album, didn't share any of his newly penned songs with the tour's opening-night audience.


When he opened his 2002 tour at KeyArena, Dylan surprised longtime fans by playing keyboards for the first time in years. At the Paramount, Dylan was at the keyboards throughout the show, occasionally adding harmonica accompaniment, and singing in a raspy yowl. The concert featured a broad range of styles, from straight-ahead rock to acoustic blues and jazz.


The concert included sets by folk-soul singer Amos Lee, who performs tonight at the Tractor Tavern (after opening for Dylan), and country legend Merle Haggard.


In addition to multi-instrumentalist Herron, the band featured fiddler Elana Fremerman (of the Hot Club of Cowtown) and Texas guitarist Denny Freeman (who has collaborated with Angela Strehli, Lou Ann Barton and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, among others), as well as longtime Dylan sidemen Tony Garnier (bass), George Receli (drums) and Stu Kimball (guitars).


Dylan wore a wide-brimmed, flattop hat reminiscent of Vaughan, as well as a black slacks and long black coat buttoned in the front. Band members, dressed almost entirely in black, performed in front of a red curtain that later parted to reveal a starry-night backdrop. But the bright house lights were a constant annoyance, coming on after each song during much of the set.


Dylan, who also performs tonight and Wednesday night at the Paramount, opened with a bluesy, rocking »Drifter's Escape,« followed by the 1970 tune, »The Man in Me.« The 15-song show, including two encores, featured »Moonlight,« »Honest With Me« and »Sugar Baby« from the 2001 »Love and Theft« album, as well as »It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)« (which brought Dylan his first ovation of the night) and the wonderful »Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again,« holdovers from last year's tour.


Anchoring the middle of the set were »I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met),« »Queen Jane Approximately« from »Highway 61 Revisited« and the jangly, rocking »Cat's in the Well.« The swampy rocker »Watching the River Flow« featured a gravel-voiced Dylan singing »This ol' river keeps on rollin' ... no matter what gets in the way and which way the wind does blow.«


Dylan's first encore featured »Like a Rolling Stone« and »All Along the Watchtower.« He returned for a tender version of Haggard's »Sing Me Back Home.«


Haggard's set featured his veteran group, the Strangers, whom he described as »the oldest beer joint band in existence.« Haggard and his old-school country group seemed a bit out of place in front a hardcore Dylan crowd, but the 67-year-old country star (who recently rejoined his former label, Capitol Records) made the best of things with sentimental versions of »Silver Wings,« »Mama Tried« and »White Line Fever.« (Note: »White Line Fever« was misidentified in the original version of this review.)


During a tender »That's the Way Love Goes,« Haggard quipped, »Honey, don't worry what George Bush does.« But he cut short a version of the classic »Okie From Muskogee,« telling the crowd, »Oh, you don't want to hear that one.« Maybe he was feeling self-conscious about the song's famous redneck lyrics.


Singer-songwriter Amos Lee, backed by a three-piece band, opened with an impressive 30-minute set featuring songs from his new album of folk/soul tunes.

Läs mer om Dylan, Bob