Show #113: Dance to the Nightingale Tune (Bob Dylan '06)

April 3rd, 2007

While I’d originally planned on something else this week, you folks are gonna get some Bob Dylan. It was just this weird, random thing last night that I cannot explain.

(Photo found here.)

I won’t bother explaining who Dylan is because everyone should know that already. What we’ve got here is the first half of Dylan’s performance here in Madison last Halloween. Ryan over at Muzzle of Bees attended this concert and you can read his review wherein he labels it his Second Worst Concert Experience ever. Is Bobby Z.’s voice really that crappy? Does the band go through the motions? I saw him in ‘94 at the Riverside and my criticisms of that night mirror Ryan’s quite a bit. Personally, I think Dylan’s voice here wavers between bad and not bad but you can judge for yourself with this very good audience recording. One thing that does impress me about this show is that he actually played four tracks from his most recent album, Modern Times, and a couple from his previous effort, Love and Theft. With such a huge back catalogue, it’s nearly impossible for Dylan to create a setlist that is representative of his career unless he wants to play for 12 hours and it seems that, like the show I attended, he all-too often performs stuff from 40 years ago and only throws in a couple token tracks of more recent vintage.

(Photo from Le Revue Gauche.)

Here’s the skinny on this week’s podcast:

It was recorded at the Kohl Center here in Madison amidst the relative calm on State Street on Halloween ‘06.

Personnel:
Bob Dylan – keyboard, harp
Tony Garnier – bass
George Recile – drums
Stu Kimball – rhythm guitar
Denny Freeman – lead guitar
Donnie Herron – electric mandolin, violin, pedal steel, lap steel

Setlist:

Intro
Maggie’s Farm
She Belongs To Me
Lonesome Day Blues
Positively 4th Street
Rollin’ And Tumblin’
John Brown
Watchin’ The River Flow
Workingman’s Blues #2

Download show

Bob Dylan

An intrepid taper managed to videotape part of this night’s gig and posted some rather shaky footage on YouTube. This is the final song of the performance, “All Along the Watchtower”.

Related posts:

1. Dylan Doc Tonight
2. On Dylan
3. Pope Labels Bob Dylan Some Kind of "Prophet"
4. Show #92: Halloween '06
5. Show #97: Wilco in Madison '06