Bob Dylan on Guitar

Well, it was 45 years ago this year that Bob Dylan plugged in at Newport (although I recently embarrassed myself by insisting that it had been 1964), but the more noteworthy item is perhaps the fact that Bob is back to picking up the guitar again these days.

The last few years, Dylan has spent his shows behind a keyboard. Whether because he doesn't have the strumming dexterity that he used to have or because it's easier to read the lyrics while standing at a synthesizer, Dylan has been pounding the 88s rather than strumming the six.

According to Andy Greene's review in Rolling Stone of Dylan's August 4th kickoff of his fall U.S. tour in Austin, Texas, he spent half the night either on guitar or else "gripping the mic and prowling the stage Frank Sinatra-style." The keyboard is still his resting place for the other half of the night, but that is still a pretty impressive change.

I did some spot checking over at BobLinks' list of 2010 setlists, and it seems that this trend started much earlier in 2010 -- shows in Japan and Eastern Europe featured Bob on guitar or standing centerstage.

This all sounds very cool to me!

Bonus: Bill Pagel over at BobLinks also has organized a list of what songs were played on what dates -- what fun!