The start of the 1990s was a truly rough spot for Bob Dylan. Under the Red Sky had failed to recapture the magnitude of his abilities as a songwriter, despite the best efforts of Don Was. He had not managed to crack it for The Rolling Stones with Voodoo Lounge, and here was another failure of repetitive nostalgia. It sounded as though Dylan was keen to shake off most of the work, to wiggle it away, should we wish to elicit that torturous track. Dylan wanted to during a show at the Wolf Trap Farm Park, where in 1991 he performed Wiggle Wiggle in the middle of a set featuring some of his very best songs. Dylan was becoming an act of nostalgia, of familiarity with those attending his shows. But he remains fresh on the Wolftrap bootleg by reconstructing his instrumental appeal, his music pulled apart once more.
Opener New Morning is far beyond what it sounded like on the album of the same name. Wolftrap features plenty of moments where Dylan overhauls his hits to the extreme. Both New Morning and I Don’t Believe You are far beyond recognisable, but it is a welcome change. Groovy guitar work is the key here, a nice tempo and familiar flow for Dylan to twist words and reorder the very meaning of the song. It is par for the course for those who have listened to more than a few bootlegs, but it is never not a surprise. Heavy hitters like Mr. Tambourine Man, It’s All Over Now Baby Blue, and It Ain’t Me Babe are given this treatment too towards the end of the recording. A steady and sudden punch of all-time greats. It feels like a payoff for sitting through a relatively turgid Gotta Serve Somebody and Wiggle Wiggle. The former song has become a welcome staple of modern-day sets from Dylan, but the latter is still an annoying little dive of a track.
Aside from that blip, the rest of the set is solid work. Dylan was in the teething stage of his creative process here, and it was not until a few years after this performance that he would provide any new studio success. Those covers albums, while neglected, are relatively nice works but far from the lofty heights he was capable, occasionally, of providing on stage. To think this is the same year as an infamous Stuttgart performance is maddening. He sounded a mess there, so did the band. Wolftrap offers familiar songs with some exceedingly strong instrumentals and a decent enough vocal range. Some of these songs are expectedly brilliant, All Along the Watchtower rarely ever fails, while a Johnny Cash cover to round out the bootleg, Folsom Prison Blues, is a welcome surprise.
Dylan has that pull for other artists’ work. Part of it seems to be to keep an audience on their feet, part of it to keep himself engaged with the work at hand. For how much Dylan tours, he would surely go mad if it were the same set each night. Such is the lucky dip thrill which comes from the occasional appearance of a rarity or unknown piece. Wolftrap features a wide selection of all-time greats, low points, and covers. It is the formula which worked so well for Dylan even when he did not have a release to promote, as was the case during the years following Triplicate and before Rough and Rowdy Ways. Shelter from the Storm here is an interesting listen, definitely the one song to take away from this set. It loses its sombre tone, the sadness which defines the Blood on the Tracks rip is replaced instead by a floaty, cheerful guitar piece. It still works, surprisingly, the whole set does.
