Working Three New Band Members into the Never Ending Tour

Kickoff of "Seattle and Prague" six-part mini-series

Two big anniversaries arrive in the next week. They both mark key turning points in the Never Ending Tour. As it happens, those anniversary dates land back-to-back, ten years apart, and each anniversary concerns a three-night stand at a single venue to kick off a tour. So I’m rounding them both into a six-part miniseries I’m calling, simply, “Seattle and Prague.”

I’m betting many of you know what the “Prague” part refers to. But that anniversary, 30 years ago on March 11, doesn’t land for a few days. So, if you don’t know, you’ll find out soon enough.

Before that, though, we have a 20-year anniversary to mark. And this one I suspect is somewhat more obscure. A fairly large percentage of you probably know what “Prague ’95” refers to. Is the same true when I write “Seattle ’05”? What’s so special about that?

Here’s what: On March 7, 20 years ago today, three new musicians joined the band. As best as I and a few other experts I consulted can figure, this is the only time three new musicians joined the Never Ending Tour at the same time.

Usually, in the NET era, bands shift a person at a time. Maybe two people, tops. Even returning from the Covid-enforced hiatus, three of the five players onstage remained the same as they had been two years prior. It’s undoubtedly easier to work new people into the fold that way.

So what does it look like when, in one fell swoop, three players have to be incorporated all at the same time? How do all these people, none of whom have much history playing with Dylan, sort themselves out? Are the shows extra-chaotic? That’s what I wanted to explore in the Seattle '05 half of this miniseries.

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The first entry of both parts—Seattle '05 this week, Prague '95 next week—will be free for all. The second and third entries of each will be for paid subscribers only. Upgrade here if you need to:

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Who were those three new players who first took the stage in Seattle 20 years ago today? In reverse order of how long they lasted in the band:

1. Elana James, violinist

Elana James co-founded the swing revival trio Hot Club of Cowtown in 1997. They had opened for Dylan in the summer of 2004, and, halfway through the tour, Bob started having James sit in every night for a song or two. First they did his country songs (“To Be Alone With You,” “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,” etc), then he started incorporating her into the newer, jazzier songs like “Bye and Bye” and, in this video from a show in Des Moines, “Floater”:

Presumably all those sit-ins led to her invite to join the band full-time less than a year later. She, alas, did not even last as a band member for the full tour. I love that short run she had—I wrote about it more here—but you can see why Dylan figured maybe he didn’t need a violin on every single song longterm, especially when Donnie could play it here and there as needed. (Note: She went by Elana Fremerman back then, so you’ll see her called that often too.)

The next two: Donnie Herron, Denny Freeman

2. Denny Freeman, guitarist

Denny Freeman was an Austin blues guitarist going back to the '70s, where the came up playing with the Vaughan brothers, Stevie Ray and Jimmie (he was even their roommate for a while, and would joke that Stevie still owed him $30 for rent). He was a member of the legendary blues club Antone’s house band in the '80s, and mentored a young Charlie Sexton, inviting him onstage when Charlie was only 11 years old. Sexton said learning guitar from Freeman “was like a master class. He was really the most stylized player of the (Austin blues) bunch.”

Sexton’s the one who told Bob about Denny. “There was a certain style that Bob was starting to move toward,” Sexton recalled upon Denny’s passing a few years ago. He told Dylan about “a guy down in Austin that not a lot of people are aware of, but they should be, and his name is Denny Freeman. At some point he may be really valuable to you… Eventually Denny called me and said, 'I got a call to go out there.'”

Here’s a couple photos of them playing together years before either joined the Dylan band:

via AntonesRecordShop

He was in the band for four years. He told friends in an email at the time, “I kinda feel like I've spent my whole life preparing for this gig.”

3. Donnie Herron, multi-instrumentalist

Donnie likely needs no introduction. He would go on to become Dylan’s second-longest-tenured band member ever, after Tony. But in March 2005, he too had never played with Dylan before. However, his country band BR5-49 had opened for Bob way back in 1997. Perhaps Bob saw him then and kept him in mind as a possible Bucky Baxter replacement, waiting to call him up years later.

“The Fastest Rising Stars In The Nation”

BR5-49 were a honkytonk-revival band in the '90s that had a lot of industry buzz and were signed to a major label. They got their odd name from the telephone number of a used car dealer on Hee Haw. In a 1997 Rolling Stone profile, Holly George Warren wrote “BR5-49, who made their name with a now-legendary residency at Robert's Western World, a boot store-cum-beer joint in Nashville, have taken their Louvin Brothers-like vocal harmonies and encyclopedic knowledge of classic country to places like Lee's Liquor Lounge all across America.”

In his BR5-49 days, Donnie seemed to exclusively wear blue-jean-overalls, which is funny when you’ve only seen him as the dapper-suited gentleman over Bob’s shoulder.

Donnie Herron in BR5-49’s “Even If It’s Wrong” video

So those were the three newbies in Seattle, 2005. Here’s what really crazy: Those three were all brought in to replace one guy. Larry Campbell, who could play every instrument all three had to offer and then some, had left at the end of the previous tour. They joined three existing players: Bassist-bandleader Tony Garnier of course, drummer George Receli three years into his tenure, and guitarist Stu Kimball, himself fairly new, having only come aboard nine months prior.

All three names had leaked a few weeks prior, so fans went into this tour with a lot of curiosity, especially about James, since the only other time Dylan employed a full-time violinist was Scarlet Rivera three decades before. Would the Desire songs make a comeback? (Spoiler: No.)

On these opening shows, though, Dylan threw the newbies in the deep end. Over three nights, they played 35 different songs, only nine of those more than once. What songs, and, most important of all, how did they sound?

That’s part two, tomorrow.

2005-03-07, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA