More than iconic
Bob Dylan: Texas Troubadour
By Guy Schwartz / The Rag Blog / August 4, 2009
Bob Dylan was more than iconic Sunday night in The Woodlands outside Houston. He rocked and grooved!
It was a concert that I wasn’t too interested in, so I stayed home and kept overdubbing my way thru Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp’s set times. (Yeah — I missed Willie. So, sue me!)
But — Bob Dylan is an icon, one I hadn’t seen since 2004 in Amsterdam (and the best thing about that show was watching one of our party, Carolyn Wonderland, go backstage to meet with Bob at intermission), so I saddled up the Blue Scion, and drifted out to the Woodlands after dark.
I’d heard that Bob had taken to saying he was from Texas (in some European interviews). It seemed like more amusing Bobness with the press, but last night I found out that his reasons for making that statement were deeper than they initially appeared!
The band’s groove was deep! Musically, the history and home towns didn’t matter. On this tour, The Bob Dylan Show featured a great Texas roadhouse band.
Bob’s suit was black and his hat was white. The rest of the band wore all black with white sport coats.
And…
Every musician onstage played rhythm! The band’s groove was deep, I tell ya!
No solos except for a few from Bob!
Rearranging old classics into mostly Texas shuffles on this tour, the band played those as if they had all grown up on the Texas Gulf Coast. It felt good! Watching those fellas in their matching jackets and hats, I felt like I was 14 in 1966 again, sneaking out of the house and taking the old Dodge Dart to some faraway East Texas dance hall to see some space-aged Ernest Tubb and Texas Troubadours.
Bob’s still in Texas for a spell. He’s at Round Rock tonight.
Take advantage of it if you can.
But does Dylan play like Bob Wills, does he have that Texas SWING?
Bob in Amsterdam 2004?
Impossible.
he’s obviously thinking of the late 2003 Amsterdam shows…
Dylan with the Band in the 70’s – in air conditioning – was badass. I was happy to discount my tix for the RR show to someone younger who knew the shortcut to the front stage area. I hope he snapped me a phone cam close up.
Oh well…Mr. Dylan does not have to swing like Bob Wills (by the way, my maternal grandparents met at a dance played by Bob Wills in Fort Worth, Texas). I owe Bob Wills something, and I owe Bob Dylan my sanity, for sure, since it was “Only a Pawn in Their Game” that I got as a birthday present long ago that taught me things can finally make sense. I’ve been after sense ever since.