Bob Dylan – The Thundering Sky: Unreleased Live Recordings, 1995: Volume Two Review

Back to the days of pre-electric wonder. Not a return to the folk roots but a removal of the electric beauty which would dominate the bulk of Bob Dylan’s career. The Thundering Sky: Unreleased Live Recordings, 1995: Volume Two is a masterful collection of stagework detailing a classic tinge to it. Meditative is the right word for it. Dylan has taken some of his finest tracks and performed them as acoustics – in a state of their raw beauty – for the first time in years. The likes of Tangled Up in Blue and Mr. Tambourine Man are reduced to their raw, studio sharpness for the sake of finding new life in them. It works wonders and this unofficial bootleg collects eight incredible moments from a tour predating the Triplicate turns. Instead of those covers which would later become studio staples are booms of classic work – something Dylan has now shied away from. Rightly so. 

Visions of Johanna is given a glorious acoustic momentum. Dylan slips away into the background of that track but still gives a strong vocal performance. For all these tracks the appeal and focus are on instrumental effectiveness. There is a tender tone taken with each of them, a natural and inevitable change of pace given their acoustic tendencies. A rare performance of Mama You Been On My Mind could not sound better. Those pangs of grief following the end of his relationship with Suze Rotolo still feel as raw as they did in 1964. But it is a piece which gets its kicks from the acoustic beauty, the raw urge found within the fabric of its songwriting. Dylan does not miss a step with it and quiets down the folk classic which would later be covered by Johnny Cash, Joan Baez and Jeff Buckley. He finds new love in the ashes of old by implementing some wonderful harmonica over the top. 

Where Tangled Up in Blue may sound strained its beauty is in the simplicity of the performance around it. Acoustic flurries lead the charge as extremely slight percussion filters through slowly. There are the usual whoops and hollers of a crowd realising they are hearing a hit. But Dylan has managed to tune his live appearances to more than his best efforts. Rough and Rowdy Ways is a display of this and while The Thundering Sky does not have an album to promote, it does serve as an indicator of how Dylan can sound better on the stage with contemporary efforts than the usual classics. He has hits on his hands but is a working, contemporary musician. Like Bruce Springsteen there is a sense of not giving in to the hits and instead confirming to their sold-out crowds they are still a musical force to be reckoned with. 

As much can be heard here, although less than usual given the hits within. But what hits they are. Dylan is in fine form and presents a wonderful rise of adept and in-tune wonders. Mr. Tambourine Man certainly lingers as a charming, crashing experience. He pierces the silence with a barely audible guitar and isolates his vocal work almost entirely. Dylan’s vocal presence has changed over the decades, yet it is here in these performances where it sounds as strong as it has been in some time. There is a comfortable atmosphere running through these tracks which find the crucial blend of interactive audiences and silent observations. Dylan is given the chance to lay down his hits without the manic cries and cheers interrupting him, and The Thundering Sky does well to piece these acoustic performances together.