Before you hit play on Bob Dylan’s Grammy Awards performance of Maggie’s Farm, look at the stage. The arrangement of the musicians behind him. Ducks in a row. Their uniform, black blazers and white shirts, brings the focus to the instruments. This is a celebration of the tools Dylan used, a reminder of how far he has come. A performance of Maggie’s Farm at the Grammy Awards in 2011 may feel like an odd choice for reflection, but it is one of the few classic tracks Dylan is willing to play, changed and unchanged. Where he often details new arrangements on the likes of Desolation Row and It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue on the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, the infrequent but fiery appearances of Maggie’s Farm suggest an ongoing love for the Bringing it All Back Home track.
This is not just a celebration of Dylan, but a reminder of Mumford and Sons’ rise. Two musicians who should never be in the same sentence, and yet thanks to the Grammy Awards, here we are. It is easy to rinse Mumford and Sons, the British folk band wearing the skin of stomp and holler with all the charm of a BrewDog pub regular performing karaoke. But their abilities and musicians, their control of tempo and tone, is second to none here. It makes all the difference for Dylan, who around this time was experimenting with a rock-gargling vocal choice. Irrespective of thoughts on either the vocal work or the band backing him, the instrumental experience, the depths of those banjo plucking, big bass efforts for Maggie’s Farm is a tremendous flourish which brings it to its folk roots and love of the great outdoors. Defiance is what it offers, and that much is assured with this performance.
Dylan backed by a line-up of musicians who blur into one another is a rare treat. He is centre stage, adrift from the rest of the instrumentalists as he was when his electric turn had him alienate audiences across the globe. Crucial to this performance is Dylan having fun. He whips out the harmonica for a few blows towards the end and recedes into the line of musicians, one instrument among many. It is a wild performance, a testament to the qualities of stage work as a path between certified legends and at-the-time popular artists. Dylan was both, but to see him pair with Mumford and Sons makes sense. They had a style which affects the modern folk sound, it still does.
A boisterous crowd does well to sell this performance. As though a sudden appearance from Dylan was not enough to celebrate, hearing him perform Maggie’s Farm is a treat. He uses this song, occasionally, as a shock moment. A performance at Farm Aid 2023 offered something similar. A bouncing instrumental style and a comedown with a harmonica blow, it is the energy Dylan tracks received through his electric heyday which comes to light here, yet without the use of those roaring guitars. What it provides is a new love for the folk fundamentals he was part of, an adaptation of the banjo and big bass style which falls in and out of favour, depending on the decade. We are seeing the rise once more, what with Mumford and Sons and The Lumineers all popping up like critters in a Whac-A-Mole game. Take a moment with Maggie’s Farm live from the Grammy Awards 2011 to remember why it became such a massive moment in music history.
2011 Grammy performance (with Mumford & Sons/the Avett Brothers). Never fails to elicit chills.
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