A Month of All-Star Sit-Ins

Betts and Sexton and Nicks and Sahm and Krauss and mo(o)re—but not Mellencamp

After “When I Paint My Masterpiece” at this 1995 show in Bloomington, Indiana (thanks to Doug for the request), Dylan told the crowd, “My buddy John Mellencamp is here tonight. He’s already painted his masterpiece. I’m still waiting for mine.”

That excellent bit of BobTalk made me hope for a Mellencamp guest appearance. Alas, John remained in the audience. But, in looking that up, I discovered how many other knockout sit-ins happened on this six-week tour of the American South and Midwest in Fall 1995. Some really surprising and unusual ones, and on a host of different songs too. So I thought I’d present a brief overview.

Guest #1: Alison Krauss [Sep 29 Sunrise, FL]

For the first week of this tour, the opening act was Alison Krauss & Union Station. One night in Sunrise Florida, Krauss joined Dylan to play violin on a song. Moreover, they did a song he had never sung onstage before: “One More Night.” He’d only played it once before, with an inebriated Ronnie Hawkins handling the vocals, so this was its real Dylan debut. Krauss’s violin sounds beautiful. Bob’s vocals are a bit too low in the mix, but they sound beautiful too.

“One More Night” became a perennial part of the setlist…just kidding! He never played it again. Not even when Krauss opened for him again last summer. Damn.

Guest #2: Dickey Betts [Sep 30 Tampa, FL]

The next night in Tampa, local resident Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers sat in on half the set. He played guitar on “Seeing the Real You at Last,” “Obviously Five Believers,” a bunch of others. But that’s not the headline. This is the headline:

Yes, this is the night Dylan and Betts did “Ramblin’ Man!” Betts told me about it a year or so before his death:

Another time, Bob wanted to do “Ramblin’ Man.” I said, “You don’t know the words to that, do you?” He said, “I know all the words to ‘Ramblin’ Man.’ I shoulda wrote that song myself.” I said, “Okay, let’s check. If you don’t know, just make shit up, and you’ll do well.” So we sang “Ramblin’ Man.” He sang every word exactly the way I wrote it.

Wow, he knew it.

I mean, he knew it! And he sang it better than it’s ever been sung before. [Dickey busts into Dylan impression:] “I’m on my way down to New Or-leans this morning.” He was talking and singing at the same time. It was great.

You’ve got a pretty good Dylan impression.

“I’m on my WAY down to New OrLEANS this MORNING. I’m LEAV-ing out of NASH-ville”… The words meant so much the way he sang it.

Guest #3: Sheryl Crow [Oct 16 New Orleans]

Two weeks later in New Orleans, Sheryl Crow sat in. That’s already pretty cool right? It gets better: She sat in on accordion! Here’s what I wrote in my accordion-themed post: