Once upon a time, in a far-off land called Cleveland, OH, a 12-year-old boy went to see his first concert on a warm July night in 2009. The show was a tripleheader at a minor league baseball stadium on the city’s East Side featuring Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Bob Dylan. Considering Ubers weren’t available or indeed invented yet—and the fact that he was 12—he went with his mother to see these icons of the vintage music with which he was becoming quickly enamored, Dylan in particular.
After that, the boy kept on going to concerts—mainly classic rock, and always with his parents. While working for his high school newspaper, an assignment to cover a local battle of the bands signaled the merging of his budding passion for writing and longtime infatuation with music, a bit of his preferred art form and a bit of his obsession. He continued writing about music through college and eventually landed a job writing full-time for a reputable online music publication. Spoiler, that boy was me.
Meanwhile, things were pretty good for Bob Dylan, too. He put out six new albums in the years since that show in 2009—some of them pretty good. In 2016 he earned a Nobel Prize for Literature, while in 2019 I earned a Journalism degree from Ohio University—so, you know, we both did pretty well—and on a warm Thursday evening in March 2024, both of our paths led us to Asheville, NC for a concert where I was joined, once again, by my mother.
A lot had changed for Dylan in the 15 years since my first concert. Never one to rest on his laurels, Dylan has consistently reinvented classic selections from his generations-defining catalog. Familiar sections of the show were made new and unique as Dylan shared alternative renderings of classics like “Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)”, “When I Paint My Masterpiece”, “Gotta Serve Somebody”, and “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”.
While Dylan transported “Most Likely” from Woodstock to Laurel Canyon by way of a breezy new composition, one of the most fascinating parts of Thursday’s show was his new Spanish-flavored, upbeat version of “When I Paint My Masterpiece”. You don’t usually see musicians start playing their songs faster as they age, but then again Bob Dylan is no usual musician. Also, as a devoted Deadhead, it was surreal to have to remind myself after hearing it performed countless times by countless bands—though it may have sounded like it.
Elsewhere in the set, Dylan and his backing band plucked “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” from the woodsy aura of John Wesley Harding and dropped it onto a Southern California beach with a surf-rock reimagining. Another classic, “Gotta Serve Somebody”, was made new again as Dylan took the blues out of the song and made it a slow-building spiritual by taking it from a minor key to a major key. Given how his current performance style leans into a subdued, smoky, blues lounge act—another change of the last decade and a half, and one that serves him well—the irony of removing the blues from “Serve Somebody” seemed to underscore his longstanding creative restlessness.
This latest evolution from the artist that has consistently defined the times comes from his 2020 album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, around which much of the show was based. Of the 17 songs played on Thursday, eight came from the 2020 LP, which many have labeled the singer-songwriter’s best work in years. The hazy, half-singing, half-talking drawl of the album translates live into a stage presence that is so delicate and exact. It’s not forceful because the meaning is self-evident. The sparing stage lights were low and the volume wasn’t blaring like a typical rock concert, so the seated audience leaned closer not to miss a word. Though his singing style has remained constant, this time around I was able to understand more of his lyrics and more of life, which are one and the same. Knowing the source material better after years of listening certainly helped, too.
Related: Bob Dylan Brings His Grateful Dead Cover Stateside With “Truckin’” In Milwaukee [Watch]
Of course, some things have stayed the same over these past 15 years. There were still songs I didn’t know, despite my pre-show Rough and Rowdy Ways cramming (my plans to listen to the whole discography fell by the wayside), like “False Prophet” and the Shot of Love (1981) chestnut “Every Grain of Sand”, which closed the show. Another constant is Dylan’s aforementioned commitment to consistently redefining his catalog with fresh interpretations, though fortunately I’ve matured enough to appreciate the live product not sounding like the record (thank nearly a decade of listening to jam bands for that).
Though the Dylan of the 1960s and the Dylan of the 21st century are certainly quite different—something I did not know going into my first concert in 2009—one thing he has held onto dearly is his harmonica. The harp made several appearances throughout the show as Dylan rose out of his seat behind his piano to blow on “To Be Alone With You”, “I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself to You”, the closing “Every Grain of Sand”, and others. As he played the harmonica, I couldn’t help but think back to my 12-year-old self who brought my plastic harmonica to the show thinking there was a chance I could get Dylan to sign it. Give me a break, I was 12.
But more everlasting than Bob Dylan’s place in our cultural pantheon—more everlasting for me, at least—has been my mother’s unwavering support of my creative outlets and love of music. Obviously, the surrealism of going to see Bob Dylan again with my mom some 15 years later was lost on neither of us, and when these tour dates aligning with my mom’s visit to Asheville were announced I even remarked that this review would write itself. (It didnt, by the way. It took a lot of blood, sweat, and beers tears).
To be there with the person who helped send me down the path to becoming a live music lunatic and ultimately a live music journalist fully closed the cosmic circle and brought the song back around for a coda. I was a 12-year-old kid again, sharing my music and my life with the person who gave both to me.
[Photo: Me and Mom at the show, a.k.a It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Writing)]
Bringing it all back home, so to speak, Dylan offered up another full-circle moment toward the end of the show with a cover of Johnny Cash‘s “Big River”, a song that also happens to be live staple of Grateful Dead concerts. Before I was a follower of the Dead and before I even saw that first Dylan show, I was raised on the Man in Black. Connecting the dots of J.C., Dylan, and the Dead was a solid four minutes of thematic resolution that felt too scripted to be real.
In the end, seeing Bob Dylan live all comes down to expectations. If you go into the show anticipating not being able to understand a word he says or not knowing most of the songs, chances are you will walk away pleasantly surprised. And if you happen to take your child—which many on Thursday did, possibly for their own first concerts—don’t be surprised if they wind up writing schmaltzy concert reviews about you 15 years later.
Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour continues with a two-night stand in Louisville on Saturday and Sunday. For tickets and a full list of tour dates visit his website.
Setlist: Bob Dylan | ExploreAsheville.com Arena | Asheville, NC | 3/21/24
Set: Watching the River Flow, Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine), I Contain Multitudes, False Prophet, When I Paint My Masterpiece, Black Rider, I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight, My Own Version of You, Crossing the Rubicon, To Be Alone with You, Key West (Philosopher Pirate), Gotta Serve Somebody, I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You, Big River (Johnny Cash), Mother of Muses, Goodbye Jimmy Reed, Every Grain of Sand