Bob Dylan
The Outlaw Music Festival, Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, Phoenix, Arizona, May 13, 2025
At 83 years old, there’s a delirious poignancy in hearing Bob Dylan sing the words of the late Irish songwriter Shane MacGowan: “I’m not singing for the future/I’m not dreaming of the past/I’m not talking of the first times/I never think about the last.”
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A live debut of Dylan’s cover of The Pogues’ A Rainy Night in Soho closed a fascinatingly diverse set on the opening night of The Outlaw Music Festival’s 2025 summer tour, where the now octogenarian songwriter – back in the zeitgeist once more thanks to A Complete Unknown – played sandwiched between the progressive bluegrass of Billy Strings and a beatific performance from festival founder Willie Nelson. Though characteristically light on stage banter, uttering little beyond a spare “thank you” now and then and a mumbly introduction of his backing band, Dylan’s set was heavy on deep cuts and early landmarks alike, shaking loose from the Rough and Rowdy Ways-heavy setlists that defined earlier shows this year with a grab bag of covers and his first performance of Mr. Tambourine Man in a decade-and-a-half.
The sun had only just set as Dylan took the stage at 8:25 PM, seated behind an upright piano and flanked by guitarists Bob Britt and Doug Lancio, longtime bassist Tony Garnier (who’s been part of Dylan’s so-called Never Ending Tour since 1989), and recently installed drummer Anton Fig, replacing outgoing Jim ‘Buster Sidebury’ Keltner. It’s not uncommon for evening temperatures this late in May to foreshadow the desert’s famously brutal summer heat, but a cool breeze and mild temps made for a gorgeous spring setting as Dylan eased into I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight, from 1967’s John Wesley Harding.
Loose and swampy, the band met Dylan’s energy under glowing red stage lights. The massive video screens on stage left and right may have featured zoom-ins and frenetic cuts during Strings’ set, but for Dylan, they featured one static shot, signifying a considerable shift in energy. Compared to Strings’ raucous talking blues and longform jams, Dylan’s presence was muted, as if he was asking the audience to lean in closer, quiet down, and really listen.
As the song concluded, Dylan rose and rewarded that attention, picking up a guitar for It Ain’t Me Babe, which prompted cheers of recognition from the crowd as he strummed the opening chords. No stranger to on-stage reinvention of even his most famous songs, the band dug into the classic in a relatively straightforward fashion.
Both opening songs have been fixtures in recent setlists, but from there, Dylan shifted into surprise mode, returning to the piano for Forgetful Heart, from his underrated 2009 album Together Through Life. It was hard not to miss the studio inclusion of Los Lobos member David Hidalgo’s accordion part, but Britt and Lancio’s stinging guitars filled in nicely, offering counterpoint to Dylan’s lovelorn blues: “Why can’t we love like we did before?”
Listeners of Dylan’s sorely missed Theme Time Radio Hour show know he’s a sucker for an obscure blues platter, and that’s what he pulled out next, offering a menacing take on Willie Dixon’s 1968 song Axe And The Wind, as performed by Chicago bluesman George ‘Wild Child’ Butler. Swinging heavily on the keys, Dylan intoned over the shuffle: “You never can tell/which way the axe is gonna fall.” You gotta watch out for that swinging blade, man.
He dusted off another long-neglected gem next, taking to the harmonica for a thrilling rendition of To Ramona, from 1964’s Another Side of Bob Dylan. “Everything passes/everything changes,” Dylan sang, articulating a brokenhearted parallel to the Stoic philosopher Heraclitus’ maxim that the “only constant is change.”
But all the heaviness of that song lifted as Dylan gleefully bounced into Bobby Troup’s “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” next, an R&B standard which has been covered by everyone from Bing Crosby to The Rolling Stones to Depeche Mode. Once among the most famous motorways in the United States, Route 66 was officially removed from the United States Highway System in 1985, but stretches of the old road can still be traversed through Flagstaff, Arizona, a locale name-checked in the song. One wonders if the drive into Phoenix inspired the evening’s cover.
Dylan quickly shifted back into prophetic mode following the novelty number, with a stormy take on another John Wesley Harding selection, All Along the Watchtower. As mentioned earlier, the wind was gently blowing, far from the apocalyptic howl that greets the two approaching riders in the lyrics, but that didn’t prevent the moment from feeling suitably eerie, even as Dylan twisted and augmented the familiar melody, which, as noted in Dylan superfan newsletter Flagging Down The Double E’s, veered into a major key. A cover of Charlie Rich’s I’ll Make It All Up To You followed, Rich being a longtime favorite of Dylan’s, who lauded the late ‘Silver Fox’ a number of times on Theme Time Radio Hour_._
Taking us from old Route 66 to Highway 61 Revisited, Bob tucked into the quixotically titled It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry, from 1965. But it was the follow-up, a jaunty, playful version of Mr. Tambourine Man that really shook the crowd. Scanning the lawn, one could spot twirling hippies—who’d been mostly still since String’s amped up performance—drifting into Grateful Dead-style spins as Dylan cooed out the folk standard’s refrain. A pair of red-hued selections followed, Under the Red Sky, the title track of Dylan’s 1990 album, and Scarlet Town, a dusky and haunted song from 2012’s Tempest.
On the closing A Rainy Night in Soho, Dylan sounded particularly charged. His admiration of MacGowan is well known, but the song felt as if it was custom built for Dylan. Guitars subbing in for penny whistles, Dylan tapped into the eternal now, forgoing the past, forgetting the future, lamenting songs long gone and the missing boys and girls who once sang them. It was elegiac but curiously defiant, a perfect encapsulation of what it’s like to see Bob Dylan in 2025. Ever a mystery, ever the trickster, he remains as inscrutable in his 80s as he did in his mythic youth. Or to borrow another line from his version of Axe And The Wind: “I may be here forever/I may not be here at all.”
Set List:
I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
It Ain’t Me, Babe
Forgetful Heart
Axe And The Wind (George ‘Wild Child’ Butler cover)
To Ramona
(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66 (Bobby Troup cover)
All Along The Watchtower
I’ll Make It All Up To You (Charlie Rich cover)
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
Mr. Tambourine Man
Under The Red Sky
Scarlet Town
A Rainy Night In Soho
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Main picture: Bob Dylan at Hyde Park, London, July 12, 2019 (credit: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images for ABA)