Over the weekend, Bob Dylan opened the ‘Outlaw Music Festival Tour’ with a setlist that included ’50s blues and country covers, deep cuts, and songs from his 2012 album ‘Tempest’. This unpredictable setlist is characteristic of Dylan, who is known for choosing idiosyncratic setlist choices over fan favourites. The first night included songs such as Willie Dixon’s ‘My Babe’, Chuck Berry’s ‘Little Queenie’, and Hank Williams’ ‘Cold, Cold Heart’.
Dylan’s second night in Charlotte included more classic Dylan cuts like ‘Ballad Of A Thin Man’, ‘I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight’, and ‘Highway 61 Revisited’. The inclusion of songs from ‘Tempest’ was further highlighted after fans spotted T-shirts promoting the album’s 2012 tour on sale at the festival’s merch booth.
Willie Nelson was forced to withdraw from the first three nights ‘on doctor’s orders’ due to an unknown illness. The joint headline tour that was announced in February will feature 26 dates around North America that will last until September. Performances by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, John Mellencamp, Billy Strings, Brittney Spencer, and Celisse will also occur at select dates.
Dylan’s instincts to keep fans guessing were met by a heckle in March, when a woman shouted, “Play something we know!” At the Fort Lauderdale show, the musician launched into a new arrangement of his 1971 track ‘When I Paint My Masterpiece’ in which he sang the lyrics to the tune of Irving Berlin’s ‘Puttin’ On The Ritz’.
A biopic of Dylan’s life, named ‘A Complete Unknown’, is in production, with Timothée Chalamet taking on the lead role. Footage has emerged of Chalamet filming scenes opposite Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, and Edward Norton as Pete Seeger. The movie is set to explore Dylan’s transition to using the electric guitar in the ’60s, his rise to fame, and his subsequent achievement of icon status in the folk-rock music industry
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