On the Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte bootleg, Bob Dylan hands Rainy Day Woman 12 & #56 to the backing singers. They, somewhat jokingly, said he was too old to perform the song in 1980. How does it fare when played in 2016? High Water Everywhere finds out. A solid compilation of the very straightforward efforts Dylan was performing around the time, with little material from Shadows in the Night warranting a promotion. In finding a comfortable balance between the likeable but light cover songs and the stage presence, the ever-changing songs in the setlist, there is a lack of risk. A few High Water (For Charley Patton) switch-ups and a rare Like a Rolling Stone feature on High Water Everywhere, but this three-hour compilation of live performances highlights the tranquillized energy. It is not the wrong energy to have; it is how Dylan uses it which becomes the problem.
He would find a better expression for it on the gloomy, séance-like Rough and Rowdy Ways spectacle, but with a crowd still wanting to sing along to Mr. Tambourine Man and Blowin’ in the Wind, the opposition between artist and audience becomes clear. The latter song is given a new tempo, a wide-open core not quite filled by the plodding piano notes. But this is the point of Dylan on stage. His experimentation with those classic tracks is what we hope to hear, not the verbatim studio version. A rather stunted piano for Blowin’ in the Wind is a sore moment which carries itself throughout this bootleg. Dylan is not a man possessing dainty digits, no, but he has improved in recent years. Here are the rough starts of his work behind the grand baby piano, hammering away and making a noise which sounds close to the classics. It sounds as though Dylan is stripping the songs back to their essentials, more than anything.
Love Sick sounds lighter than usual, lacking the percussion, the punch of a strong guitar line. Tangled Up in Blue is reduced to one man, his guitar, and the occasional instrumental interjection from the rest of the band, presumably noodling as they wait for these solo moments to finish, but not realising their guitars are plugged in. High Water Everywhere is a mixture of all-time great moments, and the sense Dylan does, to some degree, wish to return these songs to a solo experience. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right is played with a chirpier tone, a soft-pop lounge-like experience if there ever was one. But this feels like the right form of tinkering, a constant desire not so much to reinvent the song, but to figure out where the new direction, the fresh, contemporary material, will head.
You can hear that on at-the-time new tracks, the pieces which had Dylan working in the studio on original material. Soon After Midnight and Long and Wasted Years both hold a reverence which some of his classics have lost in the chase for new sounds. Those Tempest tracks begin feeling like warmer parts of the set, and this compilation, more than anything, highlights the strength of Dylan’s 2012 album. Pay in Blood hears that contemporary edge from Dylan, the vocal work fantastic and the instrumentals with a little swing to them. Two versions to be heard out on here, alongside Like a Rolling Stone and Make You Feel My Love. Dylan has little time for the classics, and that is how it has been for the last few years. A welcome change when it comes to finding a new sound, though these High Water Everywhere showings are a tad sparse, albeit vocally very clear.
