Bob Dylan returned to Scotland to play two nights at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall on Tuesday, November 5 and Wednesday, November 6.
The concerts were part of the second UK leg of his ongoing Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour, which played Glasgow in October 2022.
Dylan, at 83, has nothing left to prove — with 40 studio albums and over 600 songs under his belt. But he infuses his classic songs with a new energy, with vastly different instrumentation.
His voice has always been marmite, and with age as a factor, it’s even more so. In fact, two people sitting next to this reviewer left early. That is to say, go into a modern Dylan concert expectation-less.
He may no longer be the freewheelin folkie he once was, but this set-list is carefully crafted to reflect on later-life themes of growing old and death, comprising heavily of songs from 2020’s Rough and Rowdy Ways.
Newer tracks, from that album, are played as on the record, but for his ‘greatest hits’ things are rather different. Desolation Row has a driving, acoustic guitar lick and a steady drum beat that had some audience members dancing, and It’s All Over Now Baby Blue replaces the acoustic guitar with piano. An instrument which Dylan seems to now favour.
From the Rough and Rowdy tracks, the highlights were False Prophet and Key West. One an upbeat blues track, the other a sprawling 10-minute epic about finding immortality.
Dylan ended the night on a perfect note with Every Grain of Sand, from his divisive Christian period but the song brought many audience members to tears and continues to be one of the few classic hits from that time.
As the final bows were taken, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
Featured Image Credit: Ticketmaster
He/Him
Arts Editor 24/25
Press email: arts@brignews.com
