It was the hottest day of the summer in Tennessee and free water was scarce
at the amphitheater. But it was all worth it because Bob Dylan put on an 
unforgettable show. It was quite a bit different than the show he put on 
last year at the Outlaw Festival in Alpharetta, GA when he sang mostly 
covers. Although that was great in its own way, this show was tighter and 
rocked harder. I don't know if it was the addition of Anton Fig as drummer 
or the many Outlaw shows he has performed in the interim, but Dylan upped 
his game on this one.

Some improvements over Alpharetta that helped all the bands that played: 
The volume level was set much louder and the sound was cleaner. The quarry 
walls held the music inside the amphitheater. No lawn tickets – everyone 
had a seat. And they all had a good view of the stage. No distractions 
from people talking over the music. Most were in their seats and attentive 
for this show. Not much milling around in the crowd. Dylan's set time was 
better this time around. He came out at dusk and darkness fell about three 
songs in.

Dylan's voice is growing increasingly stronger and more melodic. He sang 
with passion and the crowd was right there with him. One of my favorite 
songs of the evening was "To Ramona". I'd seen where he had added it to 
his set list in earlier shows and was hoping for it as it's a favorite of 
mine and I had never heard him perform it live before. "Early Roman Kings" 
with its "Mannish Boy" riffs sounded great and had the crowd rocking. It's 
a song I usually don't care as much for live, but tonight was different. 
"All Along the Watchtower" was straight up rocking out. "Love Sick" was 
the one song that stayed pretty faithful to the original version, but more 
passionately performed. The absolute highlight for me was "Don't Think 
Twice". Just WOW! The crowd cheered at the end of every verse in response 
to him singing, "It's Awwwlrrright".

I'm so glad I braved the heat and went. Bob Dylan blew away all my 
expectations. My favorite show of his in the past ten years or so. This 
time around, I didn't watch him walk offstage thinking this might be the 
last time I would ever see him. He's gonna outlive us all.

Ric Harwood