Bob Dylan – High Water Rising: Unreleased Live Recordings, 2001 Review

Satisfaction lingers in High Water Rising: Unreleased Live Recordings, 2001. It is Bob Dylan and the band at their most consistent in these early years of the 21st century. The joys of classic tracks and the Love and Theft days of Dylan’s discography make for a wonderful pairing. Opener High Water has the twang of an outback country classic. Its jangling acoustics and the proclamations of an incensed and in-form Dylan are a real treat. In comes the percussion, a nice blend of what becomes one of the finest performances of this unofficial bootleg. Those rising tones of High Water are a pleasant surprise and so too are the rest of these live recordings. Heartfelt and intense pieces from an album which laid down tracks in quick succession and got to the core of what the late producer Steve Albini would stand by. An album taking more than a month is no burst at all.  

Love and Theft, the performances within High Water Rising, are a boom of wonder. Sugar Baby lingers as one of the finest in this unofficial collection. Interspersed between the groovy likes of Tough Mama are obvious classics from the legendary career. Mr Tambourine Man and Tangled Up in Blue makes for a delightful double bill. There is a re-energised appeal to the slowed-down Mr Tambourine Man featured here. It sounds nothing like the original recording and the shock cheers from the stunned audience are an exceptional layer to be found in this slick, acoustic beauty. Crucial for these classics and their appearance here is the obvious change from Dylan, who sounds as though he is enjoying a brief trip down memory lane amid a collection of well-received contemporary material.  

Tangled Up in Blue is crying for a boom of percussion yet survives on its acoustic fury, a well-placed and timely encounter with the best of the instrumentals on offer throughout this collection. Dylan and the band pride themselves here on the flow of their overlapping sections. Slight experimentations but a drive to consistency keeps them good on the likes of Cold Iron Bounds. Another classic piece in the form of Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door keeps the line between hits and new material nicely blurred. Enough of a change is made to the opening of the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kidd piece to surprise listeners, even now. Those backing vocalists do well to match the tone set by an acoustic powerhouse and the eventual Dylan vocal range.  

Wonderful instrumental range and a clear-cut version of classics which remain some of the strongest performances Dylan would give the likes of Mr Tambourine Man for years to come, High Water Rising is an essential listen for even passive bootleg fans. Ending it with Summer Days is a neat flicker of classic rock and roll fury. A swinging feel to it matched only by the likes of Chuck Berry can be heard in that final piece and what an end it makes for. The rockabilly joys of Love and Theft are not lost in these performances and feel well amplified and right at the heart of an underrated portion of Dylan’s career. The Great Gatsby effect still lingers in that track and for much of High Water Rising, a collection benefitting from crisp recordings, there is a sense of Dylan working at the peak of his powers. 

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