Mr. Dylan Spent Some Time Watching the River Flow During the Pandemic (Milwaukee Concert Review & More)

This is a guest review by Patrick Eliason, who is part of the Dylan Troop here in the Northland. In addition to playing some sweet guitar and golden harmonica licks, he's played a central role in our annual Singer/Songwriter Contest at Duluth Dylan Fest. When I learned he was going to be in Milwaukee for the opening performance of Dylan's 2021 tour, I asked if he could send a summary.

Mr. Dylan Spent Some Time Watching the River Flow During the Pandemic

No wonder Bob pulled that song out of his bag of tricks to start his tour. With enough gravel in his clarion voice and artistic license on his lyrics he set the flow for a world premiere of his somewhat dark rough and rowdy ways. Further liberating himself from care of criticism Bob let us know most likely we’ll go our way he’ll go his. They may be the same trail.

To further his conviction that he’s alright with who he is, Bob told us that he contains multitudes. He said it well and with a smile. Leading into a warning of no false prophets.

Is it a simple twist that led into the creation of a monster? Or was it not a version of a monster but a thing of beauty. The harp was definitely not twisted and the pedal steel thoroughly brought you to your feet.

Tony smiles with Bob center stage. A nod to Donnie. The ladies smitten at the thought of being the bard's babe. The rider in black would be hopelessly lost to the melancholy mood. The muse would win the hearts and the souls.

A look to the front. The sides. The balcony. More smiles elicited. The band is in sync with the muse. The whole world is at the service of one and all. The pirate philosopher takes a bow. Did he end out in sunny Key West. Did he escape the Roman kings.

We’ll stay in the tempest through midnight, then let our hearts be taken by Bob giving himself to us all.

All of us, even Jimmie Reed.

Night was dedicated to Les Paul. From Milwaukee.

Band members-

Bob Brit: guitar

Charlie Drayton: drums

Doug Lancio: guitar

Donnie Herron: lap and pedal steel, electric mandolin

Tony Garnier : bass

Bob Dylan: piano, vocals, harmonica

Encore:

Love Sick

It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry

* * * 

If you are not a regular concert goer and want to experience the waves of energy from Bob's concerts in real time, live, as if in person, the ExpectingRain.com has a Live Discussions section in which you can see fans reacting in real time to what is happening. It's the closest thing to being there in person. 

What follows are some excerpts from Tuesday's event.

The Rough and Rowdy Road Tour Is Underway: Dylan Still Has That Old Black Magic

Bill Pagel wrote: ↑
https://www.boblinks.com

Riverside Theatre
November 2, 2021

1. Watching The River Flow
(Bob on piano, Donnie on Lap steel, Tony on standup bass)
2. Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I'll Go Mine)
(Bob on piano, Donnie on electric mandolin, Tony on standup bass)
3. I Contain Multitudes
(Bob center stage then on piano, Donnie on pedal steel, Tony on standup bass)
4. False Prophet (Bob on piano, Donnie on lap steel)
5. Simple Twist Of Fate (Bob on piano and harp, Donnie on pedal steel)
6. My Own Version Of You
(Bob on piano, Donnie on pedal steel, Tony on standup bass)
7. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
(Bob center stage then on piano, Donnie on electric mandolin)
8. Black Rider
(Bob center stage then on piano, Donnie on electric mandolin, Tony on standup bass)
9. Melancholy Mood (Bob on piano, Donnie on pedal steel, Tony on standup bass)
10. Mother Of Muses (Bob on piano, Donnie on electric mandolin, Tony on standup bass)
11. Gotta Serve Somebody (Bob on piano, Donnie on lap steel)
12. Key West (Philosopher Pirate)
(Bob center stage then on piano, Donnie on pedal steel, Tony on standup bass)
13. Early Roman Kings (Bob on piano, Donnie on lap steel, Tony on standup bass)
14. Soon After Midnight (Bob on piano and harp, Donnie on pedal steel)
15. I've Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You
(Bob center stage then on piano, Donnie on electric mandolin, Tony on standup bass)
16. Goodbye Jimmy Reed (Bob on piano, Donnie on lap steel, Tony on standup bass)

-- Band introduction
"Why thank you everybody! ... Alright on the drums tonight is Charley Drayton, Doug Lancio is playing guitar, Bob Britt's playing the guitar, Donnie Herron's playing on the steel guitar, and Tony Garnier is playing on the bass guitar... We wanna play this whole show tonight for Les Paul. Les Paul, we know he was from here and we wanna honour him tonight with this show."

(encore)
17. Love Sick (Bob on piano, Donnie on pedal steel)
18. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
(Bob on piano, Donnie on pedal steel

Band Members
Bob Dylan - piano
Tony Garnier - bass
Charlie Drayton - drums
Bob Britt - guitar
Doug Lancio - guitar
Donnie Herron - violin, pedal steel, lap steel

Doug Lancio has been in John Hiatt's touring bands beginning with The Ageless Beauties in 2008.

* * * 

Someone asked it was really Bob, or just a Hologram. (Made me smile)

* * * 

by temper-tempest-tambourine » Wed November 3rd, 2021, 11:05 UTC

I really like the set.

Rough And Rowdy Ways - 8 songs
Tempest - 2 songs
Blonde On Blonde - 1 song
Blood On The Tracks - 1 song
John Wesley Harding - 1 song
1 sidetrack song, released on Greatest hits vol. 2
Slow Train Coming - 1 song
Highway 61 Revisited - 1 song
1 cover song
Time Out Of Mind - 1 song

A pretty well balanced set, covering his whole career, if you ask me.
Maybe there'll be less Rough And Rowdies as the tour unwinds and more material from his early days.

And by the way, NET also means Newer Established Tracks. So, the NET is officially revived!

The NET is all about favoring newer material over the older. Period.
We have 11 Mod Bob songs (12 if you count Melancholy Mood), and others are earlier works.

Also worth pointing out, 3 Shadow Kingdom songs, and one possible Shadow Kingdom outtake (Simple Twist Of Fate). So in one sense, it could also be seen as 15-16 Mod Bob songs!

First show in a while without Masterpiece, without Tryin' To Get To Heaven, Honest With Me, Pay In Blood, Thunder On The Mountain, Things Have Changed etc.

A pretty good new fresh setlist! Wonderful for the eyes and hopefully for the ears as well (I've heard fragments of songs and Bob's voice sounds better than both RARW and Shadow Kingdom. Hopefully the whole show is like those fragments, because it'll be a treat!)

Photo credit: Duncan Hume (?)

Steve Martin Plays the Blues… I Mean, Bluegrass

Steep Canyon Rangers tuning, checking mics

Spoiler Alert: If you have not seen Steve Martin perform with his Steep Canyon Rangers, this review might give away the punch line to a couple of his stories. If you can't handle that, come back tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday. 

And since we're talking about Wordless Wednesday, I should mention what a delight it was to do live painting in the park at the Harvest Fest Sunday. I even met a person who said they look forward to my Wordless Wednesdays. Thank you.

Disclaimer: This review of Sunday's Steve Martin concert may not be as well written as Christa Lawler's front page story in the Duluth News Tribune. That piece was written by a professional writer for a well known daily newspaper, and this one is only written by a blogger. But I'll do the best I can. You can read Christa's review here.

Well, hey, I have been a Steve Martin fan for decades, and I am not ashamed to admit it. I've read his autobiography Born Standing Up twice as well as most of his other books and laughed so hard at some of his films that my cheeks hurt. When you read Born Standing Up you can see that his great joy seems to be performing, and since so much of his live comedy involved sight gags and visuals, it became near impossible to carry out his vision in football stadium sized venues which sold out but failed to really satisfy. It's that connection with an audience that seems to jazz him. For this reason, putting together a road show with virtuoso musicians appears to be a very natural career move. And when you have so much money you don't need any more, and you still have a lot of life in you, why not do what you love? Making music is a wonderful thing... sharing your passion with others, now that's living.

The setting was Duluth's Bayfront Festival Park where so many great bands have played and festivals have been held. The tickets read, Rain or Shine so it was nice to have the weather be so accommodating. Pure sunshine.

The first task of the band when they came on was to get the microphones set. This took a little while, but when you're going for that perfect sound, the attention to detail here was refreshing. Loved that sound. The band played a lick and then left, and then returned with Mr. Martin, wearing a dark sport coat and white slacks. He introduced the show with this observation: “A lot of bluegrass is fun and a lot of bluegrass is virtuosity on display…. But one thing it's not is boring.” And to be frank, I can't imagine Steve Martin being boring no matter what he does. Later in the show he confessed, "I'm doing my two favorite things, comedy and charging people money to listen to music."

The banter is as much a part of Steve Martin's schtick as the endlessly entertaining talent. After a warm up song in which the various band members pulled solos briefly, he mentioned how he met the band (Steep Canyon Rangers) at a party in North Carolina. The week before Lyle Lovett did a similar thing with his own acoustic band, opening with a crowd warmer that gave each band member a chance to show off a lick or two, tipping his hand to all that he was backed by an incredibly talented team of musicians.

But Steve Martin's banter is all Martin. “This next song is a sing-a-long.” In reality it was an instrumental followed by a second, one slow and one fast. So right from the start he showed the virtuosity of his band while preparing us for a late afternoon mix of great music and comedic zest.

The next song was Daddy Played Banjo, followed by a love song from his Rare Bird Alert CD, “Go away, stop, turn around, come back.”

Between each song Martin would switch banjos. He had at least five of them set in racks on the right side behind the band. “People ask why I have so many banjos on stage. I think of my banjos as my children, which means that one of them is probably not my own.”

After introducing part of the band they played another instrumental, "The Crow."

He introduced the next saying by saying it was based on personal experience. “I Think My Masseuse Is Too Chatty.” This was followed by his comedic break-up song "Jubilation Day" which is also on Rare Bird Alert after which he declared, “It’s been 45 minutes since I Googled myself.”

“If you’re not enjoying the show so far, you’re wrong," he announced before taking a break. He cited a line from a reviewer which affirmed this fact, then took a break as the Ranger played a song, then went into "Who's That Yonder, I Can't Sit Down" a capella, men's quartet style. Great voices and wonderful warm up to the crowd pleaser, Atheists Have No Songs. (You can find it yourself on YouTube.)

Much more could be said but you get the picture. I won't spoil all the jokes, but you can easily imagine it being a one of a kind show. The second half playlist included Pretty Little One, Best Love (Sir Paul failed to show up for his cameo), Me and Paul Revere, and others. The encore included such over-the-top fiddling you simply had to let your jaw go slack with awe.

If you get a chance, and they're in your neighborhood, you really need to go see this show. It may be a highlight of your year.