Willie Nelson‘s traveling Outlaw Music Festival tour kicked off on Tuesday in Phoenix, and for the second straight year, Bob Dylan is supporting Willie on every stop. Also for the second straight year, Dylan is using the multi-artist showcase as an opportunity to shake up his setlists. Among many other bust-outs and debuts, Bob Dylan played his first “Mr. Tambourine Man” in 15 years.
Tuesday’s Outlaw Music Festival stop at the Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre in Phoenix started with opening sets from singer-songwriter Lily Meola, world-renowned mandolinist Sierra Hull, and bluegrass whiz Billy Strings who debuted a cover of Bad Livers‘ “Ghost Train” during his 15-song set.
Related: Billy Strings Busts Out Bob Dylan’s “Tangled Up In Blue” At Savannah Closer [Videos]
The sky drew dark as Dylan took the stage, a fitting accompaniment for him and his band’s matching black suits. Easing in with live staples “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” and “It Ain’t Me, Babe” with Dylan on guitar, Bob quickly deviated from his typical Rough and Rowdy Ways-heavy setlist of the post-pandemic years. “Forgetful Heart” from 2009’s Together Through Life made its first appearance in a decade next, with Dylan reaching far further back soon after to rescue “To Ramona”, taken from 1964’s Another Side of Bob Dylan and not played since June 14th, 2017, per his official website.
Between bust-outs from his own catalog, Dylan continued adding antiquated covers to his repertoire, as has become his custom for Outlaw Fest. First up was George (Wild Child) Butler‘s 1968 blues song “Axe and the Wind” released with Willie Dixon, separated by “To Ramona” from Bobby Troup‘s 1946 R&B standard “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66”. While Setlist.fm notes that this was the first “Route 66” since 1986, neither that setlist aggregator nor Dylan’s official setlist page can produce records of any other performance of the song. The cover was a fitting debut in Phoenix, not far from U.S. Route 66, which cuts across the state of Arizona not far from the Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre.
Dylan still had more surprises in store, including the debut of “I’ll Make It All Up to You”, written by Charlie Rich and originally released by Jerry Lee Lewis in 1958. Perhaps the biggest surprise for the more casual Dylan fans unfamiliar with ’50s R&B records came midway through with “Mr. Tambourine Man”. While Dylan has been known to keep some of his biggest hits out of his modern setlists, “Mr. Tambourine Man” remained a setlist staple virtually since its release in 1964, only taking sporadic one-to-three-year gaps over the past 45 years. That streak ended on June 28th, 2010 in Carcassonne, France when Dylan played what would be the last “Mr. Tambourine Man” for 15 years until Tuesday night.
Rather than winding down with “Goodbye Jimmy Reed” and “Every Grain of Sand” as he has done most night of the Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour of the past four years, Dylan revisited the title track to Under the Red Sky (1990) and Tempest‘s “Scarlet Town” following “Mr. Tambourine Man”. With one more trick up his sleeve, Dylan dropped the mic with a most unexpected, sentimental cover of Celtic punk band The Pogues‘ “A Rainy Night in Soho” to close the show.
Check out videos of Bob Dylan at Outlaw Music Festival, including the first “Mr. Tambourine Man” in 15 years and the Pogues debut. Outlaw Music Festival continues this week with a string of California dates. Find tickets and a full list of shows here.
Bob Dylan — “Mr. Tambourine Man” — 5/13/25
[Video: silas matthews]
Bob Dylan — “A Rainy Night In Soho” (The Pogues) — 5/13/25
[Video: Aaron Riley]
Setlist: Bob Dylan | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre | Phoenix, AZ | 5/13/25
Set: I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight, It Ain’t Me, Babe [1], Forgetful Heart [2], Axe and the Wind (George “Wild Child” Butler) [3], To Ramona [4], (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66 (Bobby Troup) [3], All Along the Watchtower, I’ll Make It All Up to You (Charlie Rich) [3], It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry, Mr. Tambourine Man [5], Under the Red Sky, Scarlet Town, A Rainy Night in Soho (The Pogues) [3]
[1] Bob on guitar
[2] LTP 7/11/15
[3] Debut
[4] LTP 6/14/17
[5] LTP 6/28/10