Bob Dylan – Austin 1995 Review

There is a tinge of grief to this Bob Dylan performance. The death of long-time collaborator and friend Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead fame prompted a special appearance from Doug Sahm. He would be dead just four years after this performance. It is a shadow that hangs over the Austin 1995 performance even still, as Dylan tries to unravel the months of grief into a performance worthy of revisiting. His pre-Time Out of Mind days find a languid approach to songwriting. The MTV Unplugged performances had revitalised him, or at least they had in the eyes of a paying audience. No artist can stay on that blur of popular music and earth-shattering writing forever. Peaks and valleys, that is the healthy route. Dylan was gearing up for another peak of musical quality, but this performance feels a tad different to the acoustic roots of his high-profile Unplugged session.  

With no fresh material to showcase, Dylan sounds keen to play the hits in revised form. Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood) is performed with boisterous swagger, the sort of sound which comes from an artist having something to prove to themselves. Not a tangible goal, not an accomplishment which can be seen by an audience, but a personal target which Dylan achieves. Fiery performances the whole way through this Austin 1995 set makes it a game-changer of an experience, two hours of Dylan and the band at their very best. Longstanding collaborator Tony Garnier provides some tremendous grooves on bass, while Bucky Baxter is nothing short of brilliant. Nashville Skyline rip Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You is performed with phenomenal focus. Thanks to a great quality taping, the little intricacies of the performance, the shimmering guitar work and break into solo excess, can be heard developing. Slowly it crawls into view, and what a time it is to hear it at the centre.  

Dedicated bootleg listeners will no doubt recognise the explosive percussion, the cool guitar work, which introduces All Along the Watchtower. Dylan is moved by the Jimi Hendrix version, he still sounds overwhelmed by that version. It is not Dylan channelling Hendrix here, but maintaining the search, the adventure in songs of old, in hopes of finding a new meaning. Plenty of artists have done it, but not as much as Dylan does with All Along the Watchtower. Sahm makes for an ample addition to the gig here. Elongating those classic songs is what these live shows are best known for, and Austin 1995 may hold within it the best All Along the Watchtower Dylan will ever perform. Tremendous reimaginings of Shelter from the Storm, Mr. Tambourine Man and Girl from the North Country cement this rock and roll route. 

Tributes are made to Grateful Dead and their late leader, and rightly so. Performances of Silvio and Alabama Getaway are placed well in the set. Not early enough to redefine the show as a tribute, not late enough to feel like an afterthought. They are tucked neatly away between some subtle nods to the impact Garcia’s passing had on Dylan. Never Gonna Be the Same Again, a rarity from Empire Burlesque, feels too on-the-nose an inclusion to be anything but a suggestion of how Dylan feels. He provides an emotionally charged showcase, a direct response to the passing of a close friend. A sudden shot of his mid-1980s work, right in the middle of his all-time greatest hits. A fascinating addition, and one which once more highlights the purpose of these bootlegs. Who knows how Dylan will reinvent a song, how well it will sound in a new light. Only by listening to excellent shows like Austin 1995 can we ever find out.