Fresh Tour Energy and an “I’m Not There” Draft
What Happened
The most worthwhile Dylan development yesterday was live rather than archival. In a detailed review for Flagging Down the Double E’s, Ray Padgett described the Bowling Green, Ohio show as a notably more forceful stop on the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour: same general songbook, but a different feel. In the smallest room of the spring run, Dylan’s band reportedly leaned away from the hushed, piano-led mood that marked much of the last couple of years and toward something tougher and more driving.
What made the review worth noticing was its specificity. Bob Britt and Doug Lancio were said to be on acoustic guitars only, while Anton Fig’s drumming and Tony Garnier’s bass gave the set a sharper backbone. Several songs were singled out as genuinely rethought, including “I Contain Multitudes,” “I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You,” and a more percussive “Crossing the Rubicon.” It was not painted as a perfect night—“To Be Alone with You” reportedly began a little murkily—but it did sound like a livelier one.
The other meaningful item came from Artnet News: a typed lyric sheet for “I’m Not There” has resurfaced ahead of an April 21 Omega Auctions sale in the U.K., with an estimate of £20,000 to £40,000. The auction-house account says the sheet passed through Allen Ginsberg and Sally Grossman before being rediscovered inside a book. If that history holds up, it is a real Basement Tapes-adjacent find, tied to one of the most elusive songs in Dylan’s catalogue. Beyond those two items, the day was mostly familiar retrospective and fan-culture material.
Key Points
- Bowling Green was described as one of the spring tour’s most energetic recent shows, with a louder, more driving acoustic-band sound.
- The setlist may be mostly stable, but the arrangements apparently are not: “I Contain Multitudes,” “I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You,” and “Crossing the Rubicon” were all flagged as newly reshaped.
- A typed “I’m Not There” lyric sheet is headed to auction with a £20,000-£40,000 estimate, giving the day its clearest archival development.
- Recent smaller-venue touring now looks more interesting for what it is doing to the performances than for any wholesale songbook change.
Implications
The Bowling Green review does not amount to a grand reset, but it does make the current tour more interesting again. Dylan’s live story often turns not on surprise songs but on pressure, pacing, and arrangement, and this sounds like one of those moments when the band found a different gait. In the context of this spring’s smaller rooms, that may matter more than setlist-watch chatter.
The “I’m Not There” sheet is a quieter kind of news, but it touches a deeper seam. Dylan’s archive still emerges in oblique ways—through estates, books, dealers, and auction houses rather than tidy official rollouts. When the item involves a song as haunted and half-hidden as “I’m Not There,” even one document can reopen attention to that whole Basement world.
Things to watch
Watch
Whether upcoming shows confirm Bowling Green as a real lift in energy or just one especially strong night.
Watch
Whether the auction listing yields clearer images, stronger provenance detail, or wider scholarly attention around the “I’m Not There” sheet.
Watch
Whether the spring run keeps producing arrangement changes even if the basic song list stays put.