Bob Dylan Concert Reviews: Jubilee Jam, Jackson, Mississippi, 17 May 2003

We passed Jerry Lee Lewis’ town and I kept expecting the ghost of Howlin’ Wolf to emerge from behind a tree, but instead I saw lots of Mississippi cops

It was raining in Memphis all day and some said that a tornado had touched down the night before on Union Avenue, and there were tornado warnings on the TV when my friend Link picked me up and we headed south to Jackson. This was my first time in Mississippi and every Mississippi fantasy I’d ever had was running through my mind as the rain poured down in torrents. We passed Jerry Lee Lewis’ town and I kept expecting the ghost of Howlin’ Wolf to emerge from behind a tree, but instead I saw lots of Mississippi cops and lots of fender benders as we passed something back and forth below window level.

Jackson was a couple of hundred miles south of Memphis almost in a straight line, but I didn’t see any cotton fields or we were on Nissan Boulevard passing a Nissan plant that seemed to stretch for a mile and then found ourselves in the center of Jackson, parking by the state capitol.

The main stage of the Cellular South Jubilee Jam was situated at the end of some downtown mall in the shade of …