Bob's New Band Finds Its Sea Legs

2005-03-08, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA

Twenty years ago this week, three new band members joined the Never Ending Tour at once—the most new players ever onstage at the same time. Yesterday, in the first entry in this mini-series, I gave an overview of who they were, where they came from, and how long they lasted. (It’s probably worth starting there if you missed it.)

Today, a deeper dive into the music. Specifically, a close listen to the opening three-night stand in Seattle to hear what the newbies contributed to Dylan’s music, and how well they gelled getting all thrown in at the same time.

---

Of the three, Denny Freeman would soon become the dominant player in the band. By the end of his tenure, it felt like every single song, every single night, included two or three Denny Freeman guitar solos. Which was too many, frankly (though that wasn’t his fault).

That dominance is not apparent in these early days. Of the three newbies, his contributions early on were the most subtle. Unusually, the guitar often takes a back seat in these arrangements, especially at solo time, and what there is gets more evenly divided between he and Stu Kimball than it would be later, when the two evolved into a clear lead/rhythm dynamic, which makes it difficult for me to say in most cases “Here’s a Denny Freeman part” as easily as I can with Donnie and Elana. It might really be Stu, and there’s not much video to help tell.

But Denny makes his mark a few times in clear ways. The first is night one in “Moonlight,” where he takes a very jazzy solo that reminds me instantly of his later playing on Modern Times (the “When the Deal Goes Down” solos, especially). As I noted yesterday, his background is deep blues, but honestly his jazz playing to me made him stick out more than anything. And this is a song where I can easily make out which guitarist is him—one of only a few, to be honest.

Denny solos at 3:14, 5:21 (brief)

Two other moments where he shines during this opening run find him on slide guitar. The first is electric slide on “Highway 61 Revisited,” from night three—first during a brief but very hot solo, and then at the end where it sounds like he and Stu are trading off solos.

Denny solo at 2:17, then with Stu at 4:45

Four songs later, he plays acoustic slide on “Ballad of Hollis Brown.” It adds a great, spooky touch that grows more prominent as the song progresses. Donnie Herron is on banjo; a great combo of instruments.

He’s playing slide throughout, but you can hear it most prominently starting at 4:08

Here’s a brief video of Denny and Donnie playing a bit of the song too:

Denny’s musical contributions would become so huge so fast, I found it surprising how little he asserts himself in these opening shows. But that’s kind of the point: He’s brand-new, as are two of his bandmates, and they’re all still trying to find their sea legs.

---

In these early days, Dylan was clearly working out how to best utilize his utility player, Donnie Herron. Will he primarily be a steel guitar player, a banjo player, a mandolin player, or a violin player? Donnie would eventually land on Option A—steel guitar—some nights playing nothing else, but in this opening run he switches instruments a lot. One song, “To Be Alone with You,” he plays on three different instruments over the course of this single tour: steel, then violin, then banjo. In Seattle, he was on steel for the song, and sounds great

All these Herron clips are less solo-specific than the other two musicians, so fewer timestamps to note. He sounds great throughout!

Herron’s steel sounds great on the slow country songs you’d probably associate with the instrument—“The Man in Me,” “Sing Me Back Home,” etc—but he holds together the fast rockers too. Listen to him on three that jumped out at me: “Queen Jane” from night one, then “Like Rolling Stone” and “Rainy Day Women” from night two (on the latter his steel intertwining with Elana’s violin is particularly enjoyable).

---

Deep dive continues for paid subscribers below the jump (and tomorrow’s finale will get sent exclusively to them)