Bob Dylan: Mr. Guitar Man

With the heart infection that had obituary writers scrambling just a few months ago now behind him, and his first album of new material this decade due in just a couple months, Bob Dylan appeared very much alive and well on the 20th anniversary of Elvis's passing. (He's not, however, doing the new songs on this tour.) The grizzled former folksinger who did more to transform the music that created Presley -- rock and roll -- than any other single artist back in the '60s and has been an enigma ever since came to Great Woods on tour with a fiery young acoustic-guitar-toting woman of the '90s, Ani Difranco. And the timing of last Saturday's concert was to both singers' benefit: with Phish's mega "Great Went" in full swing up in Vermont, many of the older hippie types who often seem to be first in line when Dylan tickets go on sale were otherwise occupied, leaving room for a large contingent of younger, mostly female Difranco fans.

So Difranco received the kind of warm, rowdy reception ("We love you Ani" was the shouted refrain) she's become accustomed to as a headliner. It seemed to come as a pleasant surprise to the charismatic folk-punk with the dyed hair: midway through an upbeat set bolstered by the light, Dave Matthews-style funk of her backing band (drummer Andy Stochansky and bassist Jason Mercer), she admitted that elsewhere on the tour audiences had greeted her with sideways glances and grumbles of "You're not Bob."

Of course, Dylan has also had to deal with that kind of reaction from his fans, most famously in Newport three decades ago. So maybe, despite a few empty seats that went unsold in the back of the house, it was a nice change of pace for the Dylan of myth to stand before some new faces, to preach, as it were, to people other than the long-ago converted. For instance, when two Dylan experts in the row behind me began arguing over the authorship of one tune (called variously "Cocaine" or "Cocaine Blues," by the Reverend Gary Davis), it was refreshing to see two young Ani women a few seats up just dancing hand-in-hand instead of debating to the deep blues groove of the tune.

Not that it has ever been easy to tell what's on Dylan's mind. He offered nothing more than a "Thank you" here and a few unintelligible mumbles there during an 11-song set followed by three encore tunes. In fact, he spent surprisingly little time at the microphone, opting instead, as has become his habit in recent years, to step back and let his guitar do the talking. Beginning with "If Not for You," which followed the set-opening "Absolutely Sweet Marie," and continuing through "Just like a Woman" and a muscular, blues-rockin' version of "Silvio" (from 1988's Down in the Groove), Dylan solo'd on guitar with gritty grace and growing confidence. He hit his stride mid set on "Tangled Up in Blue": the song's vocal melody reduced to a flat, almost spoken croak, he dug in the heels of his cowboy boots and rediscovered it on his acoustic guitar, playing bent-string leads on nearly as many verses as he sang.

Dylan's current touring ensemble is all about guitar, with young six-string specialist Larry Campbell and veteran pedal-steel player Bucky Baxter in supporting roles. All three guitars solo'd together on the set-closing "Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat" and again in the outro of the first encore, "Like a Rolling Stone," from which Al Kooper's indelible organ line was noticeably absent. Hell, even the world's most famous guitar band, the Rolling Stones, kept the damn organ in there. But Dylan seems to be searching for something new in his songs -- and, more important, finding it.

-- Matt Ashare