At 83 years old, Bob Dylan remains a singular figure in the landscape of modern music, effortlessly bridging generations, genres, and sensibilities. His second of two nights at La Seine Musicale, a venue he inaugurated seven years prior, unfolded like an ongoing conversation with the entire tradition of American music. The setlist was rooted in his latest offering, Rough and Rowdy Ways, with nine out of 17 songs drawing from that album—a bold statement from an artist never content to coast on past glories.
The performance wove together strands of folk, blues, rock, gospel, and even jazz. "It Ain’t Me, Babe" morphed into a rollicking rock 'n' roll number, "When I Paint My Masterpiece" took on the playful guises of a mambo/calypso number, while "Every Grain of Sand" was transformed into a quasi-gospel meditation. His voice, full of gravelly gravitas, evoked the ghosts of Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, and Muddy Waters, yet sounded utterly contemporary. This is the confluence where Dylan thrives, standing at the crossroads of folk storytelling, blues sorrow, and rock rebellion.
His band, led by the legendary Jim Keltner on drums, played with a simmering intensity, often building up tension in cacophonous crescendos reminiscent of Captain Beefheart. Tony Garnier’s bass anchored the songs with subtlety, while Bob Britt and Doug Lancio’s guitars carried a sharp, cutting edge—though the absence of steel guitars and fiddle was notable. Yet the sound was anything but sparse: Dylan’s own piano playing, once the subject of derision, has grown into something ornate and purposeful, a vehicle that enhances the emotional depth of his songs. His piano playing is much like his lead guitar playing, his harmonica playing and his singing: he tiptoes around the notes then wrangles them and pulls them in in an effort to tame the melody. He goes in and out of the beat trying to find the perfect convergence point between his lyric and the music. It's not merely a performance: it's a musical surgery, with Dylan going inside the song, extracting its substance and showing it all to his adoring audience.
Dylan’s voice, often criticized by those who misunderstand its raw power, was striking in its resonance and control. It wasn’t just his gravelly tone, but the weight of every phrase, as if each word carried the accumulated wisdom of his decades-long journey. For a man who has spent his life at the center of American musical tradition, Dylan continues to be both its historian and its future, weaving a rich tapestry of sound that defies simple categorization. The evening was a masterclass in American music—an artist, still at the peak of his powers, showing us all the ways music can be born anew nightly.
Crooner, Bluesman, Country, Folk and Rock n' Roll singer... Hobo, Troubadour, Millionaire, Superstar... Nobel Prize Laureate, Writer, SONGwriter, Painter, Welder, Actor, Craftsman, Artist, Artiste, Artisan... Song and Dance Man, Ex-Guitarist, Pianist, Harp Blower, Music Legend, Counterculture Icon, Christian, Jew, Carnival Barker, Preacher, Matador, Cowboy, Hipster, Hippie, Bohemian, Beatnik and all-around enigma, this was Bob Dylan, on yet another stop on his never-ending tour, just doing what he does.
