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Dylan tour stop reviewed in San Diego
Roz Haddon reported for Series of Dreams that Bob Dylan performed at The Rady Shell in San Diego on the Long Hot Summer 26 tour, with The John Doe Trio and Lucinda Williams opening. The set opened with “To Be Alone With You” and featured fresh arrangements, including a samba-style “Paint My Masterpiece,” five Rough and Rowdy Ways songs, country covers, and “All Along the Watchtower.” Haddon also noted Julian Lage joining Dylan’s band and praised the outdoor venue’s acoustics and phone-free atmosphere.
Why it matters
The review offers current tour intelligence on Dylan’s set construction, arrangements, band personnel, and performance approach at age 85.
Sources & driving stories
SERIES OF DREAMS · Roz Haddon
Series of Dreams coverageModern Times trilogy reading challenged
Jeffrey Hill, writing in Edward Copeland's Tangents, argues that treating Modern Times as the final installment of a Time Out of Mind/Love and Theft trilogy is overstated. Hill says Dylan’s use of traditional music long predates those albums, citing Good as I Been to You and World Gone Wrong, and challenges narrow readings centered on Charlie Chaplin, flood imagery, or Revelation-style apocalypse. He instead frames the album as part of a broader Dylan continuum marked by violence, archaic codes, raunchiness, manners, and cowboy swing.
Why it matters
The piece adds a newly surfaced critical counterweight to a common interpretive frame around Dylan’s 2000s work.
Sources & driving stories
EDWARD COPELAND'S TANGENTS · Jeffrey Hill
Edward Copeland's Tangents coverageWorth noting
WORTH NOTING
Blind Willie McTell reappraised
A bob-dylan.org.uk post reviewing songs tied to 1982 and 1983 identifies “Blind Willie McTell” as the clearest 1982 standout, emphasizing its outtake status, musical force, and influence through cover versions.
Still unclear
OPEN QUESTION
Are the new arrangements becoming tour staples?
The San Diego review highlights fresh versions, including a samba-style “Paint My Masterpiece,” but one summarized show is not enough to show whether these choices are fixed or rotating.
OPEN QUESTION
Is Modern Times criticism shifting frames?
Hill’s essay pushes against trilogy and apocalypse readings, raising whether current Dylan criticism is moving toward broader continuity-based interpretations.