There is no one out there like him
People complain how Bob Dylan never talks to the audience, that he never gives interviews.
People complain how Bob Dylan never talks to the audience, that he never gives interviews, that he shuns contact from fans, but in fact he’s probably the only artist who has such an intimate and complex dialogue with his fans every night on stage as well as on his records.
Every night on this last tour there’s been variations in approach to the songs, giving fans the opportunity — if they want it — to hear different treatments and nuances as well as playing songs from various sources and backgrounds, sharing songs he loves from Hank Williams to folk and blues. What a gift.
I think a lot of what he’s doing with his songs in terms of new chord voicings and arrangements is streets ahead of everyone. Taking one song or a phrase and merging on the lyrics of another and vice versa, or just setting up completely different approaches, like a newly made bed for the lyrics and voice to lay upon. Aspects of hip hop would be a modern example, and of the folk process and pastiche. He’s stepped outside his catalogue and looking back in to it he’s using it like an instrument, mixing and matching and playing it against a multitude of phrases, styles and models from musical history. There really isn’t anyone quite like him on the live scene in 2024. And that’s just one aspect of what he’s doing night after night. Mind blowing.