We Stand Inside the Rain

“Tonight as I stand inside the rain” – Bob Dylan

The rain in New Britain Connecticut could not keep 5,000 plus Bob Dylan fans young and old from hearing the 65 year old Dylan perform 14 of his old songs to new rock and blues beats. The night was a family affair with people from 6 months to 70 years rocking to Dylan who did not perform any tunes from his new album “Modern Times”.

Although built in 1996, the New Britain Stadium is a fair weather ballpark. The overhang is only for the rich and the few. Everyone else is subjected to the elements which last night included a steady rain and a real downpour at points. Provisions for disabled access are poor but the staff makes up for the designer’s flaws with great accommodation, if you ask.

The Bob Dylan Show could best be called a musical review. It’s like Rolling Thunder without the cocaine. Dylan headlines and a changing guard of blues and country performers entertain before him. Last year he had Willie Nelson, and this fall the Foo Fighters will join him for a west to east swing.

Alana James and the Continental Two, a Texas swing band, are growing on me after the third time. She sings well, plays the fiddle to beat the band and swings her tunes with verve. They don’t vary their set which is ok if you don’t realize
that Dylan fans attend more than one concert. Do they know anymore songs?

Junior Brown also grows on you. He can swing, he was not slurring his words and music and his set ended with some Duane Eddy and rockabilly material. All right.

Jimmy Vaughn seemed to get his groove tonight. The music had everyone swaying. The R&B sound was solid. LouAnn Barton started sounding decent and I waited for each line of “Natural Born Luuver” and “In the Middle of the Night”. Lou Ann is working on her raunchy performance. She makes me want to see Etta James again. Why does Jimmy Vaughn not play and Stevie Ray Vaughn material – that’s what you’d expect.

By the time Dylan came on at 9 pm or so, the crowd on the field was wet, slightly cold and getting tired. Nonetheless, the field was full of people, with more enduring the rain up in the stands. These people are tough.

Dylan opened his set with a rocking “Cat’s in the Well” as he has for the past three nights. The crowd roared, thanking him for showing up and performing. About half the songs were repeated from the previous two nights.

“You Ain’t Goin Nowhere” is a fun song from the basement tapes which brings a smile. The 65 year old security guard was singing along with Dylan to “Positively 4th Street” “What a drag it is to see you.”

He sang “Forever Young” with tenderness, the sadness of age. “It’s All Right Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) has a rocking arrangement that kicks the song into high gear.

“Simple Twist of Fate” was played effectively as a medium waltz. A couple was dancing in the upper deck where we had collected under a canopy. It had that feel, a love song.

“Highway 61” is one of the great rocking blues songs Dylan does and he punched it out tonight with energy. No repeated verses, just rocking. Where on Route 61 can I find that those people: Louie the King, the 2nd mother, Georgia Sam, and Abraham? Easily done: get on down to Highway 61. Yeah.

When Stu Kimball started those familiar chords on the acoustic guitar while the stage was dark, it sent chills up my spine. I thought for a second we were going to get an acoustic song like the old days. Then the band breaks into a rocking “Tangled Up In Blue” Oh well, this one is great too.

The crowd roared as Dylan ripped into “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Rainy Day Woman”. Those are two great songs to end the night. “How does it feeeeel?”

The band and Dylan came out one more time for the line up and bow. The crowd milled out to the parking lot to wait 30 minutes in the traffic. The music and the night fade away as we drive off in the rain.

Went to See the Gypsy

Go on back to see the gypsy.
He can move you from the rear,
Drive you from your fear,
Bring you through the mirror.
(copyright Bob Dylan)

The second day of our Dylan tour started under a downpour. I’m glad we didn’t let that discourage us since we had a great evening in Manchester, NH.

Mass Pike was awash in water and not too scenic. We cut off on a local road and still made good time to Manchester. When we got to the Merchantsauto.com stadium the rain was down to drizzle. I got blocked with my camera going in – rats – even buried it in my backpack. Those rules are stupid since people are using camera and recorders all over the place.

There is no fun in using a wheelchair – well I lie since wheelchair racing is a rush. There are a few perks and one is easy seating in modern ballparks. We were able to get situated under the overhang and the top of the seats, next to the beer, food and bathrooms. Rain ponchos were in supply and needed since the rain kept up off an on all night. Most people came prepared and stayed to the end. Endurance pays off.

Food and drink were an upgrade over the Wahcohah Park in Pittsfield but the old time ballpark feeling was missing – modern times.

We got to hear Alana James who is a spirited Texas swing fiddle player – read fast. Nice jump-up music to start the night. Junior Brown appeared to be better tonight. Jimmy Vaughn needs a singer and some inspiration. He does groove but you need a singer – guitar licks do not a performance make.

Emboldened by the modern accommodations, I took my wheelchair down
onto the field using the elevator and met some cool guys also using chairs. It was a snap to get around and you could see the stage from the field.

Ta da – same Copeland intro music – reminded me of Elvis using Strauss – Also Sprach Zarathustra (the Space Odyssey 2001 theme). It made the crowd perk up – I wonder if they got the irony.

Dylan and the band rocked through the same first four numbers from the night before. There were small changes but nothing too exciting. I was beginning to wonder if the second concert was too much too soon. I left the field area and went back to my girl friend – first it was raining and second the excitement seemed to pale.

When I got there he was just breaking into Watching the River Flow. The song pulled me in. Then Tears of Rage – one of the great songs Dylan wrote with Richard Manual. The evening was picking up. Rocking out with Mobile Blues – “Oh mama can this really be the end.” My girlfriend said – “You sing all those songs except the River one.” She is an astute person with impeccable taste. Interestingly, she liked hearing songs from the previous night again. “It’s like meeting old friends again” she said.

Oh my God – he started “It’s All Right Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) with a great rocking arrangement. The band was cooking. I could not believe he sang “A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall” next – a great classic done again with conviction. I leaned over to my girlfriend and said “Girl, we are going to Connecticut for Tuesday night. This is too awesome – rain or no rain.” She laughed in my
face, tossed her hair back and said “Yeah!”

The band was cooking hard on “Highway 61” and Dylan was too. He
repeated a verse – that is so easy to do when you brain freezes as the band comes off the transition between verses. I hope someone captured that and it becomes available on BitTorrent.

We all went wild when he started “Tangled Up in Blue”. So perfect for the night and his timing and emotional delivery was right on. I still sing “She was working in a topless place” Dylan cleans that up since he was born-again.

By the time of the encore, I was belting out “Like a Rolling Stone” and “All Along the Watchtower”, two guys in cowboy hats were dancing down by the dugouts and a 60ish guy in front of me was standing and swaying in the seats.

Go on back to see the gypsy.

Feels Like Pittsfield Again

He can heal the sick
Cure the dead.
He will set you right,
Settle your dread
The lame will walk
The dumb will talk.
Hurry up before he goes
Get down to the show.

After seeing three Bob Dylan shows in a row last summer I hadn’t planned on seeing him again until my girlfriend suggested it. Cool, let’s go. So with little planning and we headed to the border at Calais, ME. Friendly border guards wished us a good time and they were bang on. Last year they called us Dead Heads which was highly complimentary.

We meandered through the White Mountains for two days and arrived in Pittsfield , MA just about supper time. Getting tickets, beer and sausages, we missed Elana James. It sounded like Les Paul and Mary Ford with the syncopated swing and odd-ball harmony.

The people in Pittsfield are great – the food at the park is awful. I love Wahconah Park: it has that older ballpark nostalgia. The crowd had a family feel to it: aging hippies, middle aged business types, people who shave every day, twenty/thirty somethings, teenagers and kids. Kids under 12 free – great idea. Lots of beer, less weed than Canada. Things are different south of the border.

Junior Brown came up to the mike and garbled “Is this thing on?” and proceeded to run through his set like he needed to be somewhere else. Perhaps he did. I was glad when he got off and wondered what kind of management was allowing him to go on.

Jimmy Vaughn knows all the standard blues licks and guitar leads. He can’t sing and his act sadly needs a good vocalist. He can swing sort of and the whole set was like bar blues. He did bring out a female singer – sorry no name – who made me wish for Etta James. She had some of Etta’s phrasing without the sexy swagger. Passed the time.

They give Dylan this amazing intro. Aaron Copeland’s “Appalachian Spring” and “Rodeo” are played over the PA. They Dylan is announced as the poet laureate of the 60’s counter-culture, chemically dependant, cured born-again, washed-up has been of the 80’s and now back better than ever. Wow, bare your soul Bob.

Then the Man came out with his band. It was rocking. It was blues. It was the best thing that happened since last year. The band is super tight and rocks constantly. Dylan is still the king of his
material, even when he re-interprets it. Dylan is Picasso re-painting the nude one more time. You have to admire the beauty and the passion. His words are the catch phrases of the last 50 years. They the American experience. His voice is full of emotion, color, timbre. Only once did I regret his approach: I like “I Shall Be Released” as a torch song. He sang it with a somber emotion. Hey, he’s the artist.

He did at least four harmonica solo’s. Each of them pleased the crowd. They were fresh sounding and powerful, especially the upbeat coda to Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right. Dylan plays harp like a lead guitar solo.

The concert was long, exhausting. I stayed in the mosh pit until my one good leg gave out and had to go back to the stands with my girlfriend. I belted out “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Rainy Day Women” at full voice. It was ecstasy. My girlfriend said he was better than last year. She also said she like my version
of some songs better than his. She is getting good: she can recognize some tunes just from lead in. Is she a keeper or what?

Leaving the ballpark, the cops squeezed our car behind the band’s bus going out of town and through the traffic we came alongside Bob’s bus, you know the one pulling his motorcycle. This realization came into my mind: I am going to meet Bob before I die. Why? What will I say? How to act cool and not like
a fan?

I let those negative thoughts go and just cruised along in the night on the inside lane. The bus was dark and shinny, its wheels glimmered. We pulled into our motel in Lenox and the bus rolled over the next hill and into the night.

Stephen Pate
(temporarily in Manchester NH)