Bob Dylan – Huntsville 1993 Review 

Any artist touring without the release of contemporary material must manage the nostalgia charm. That is what Bob Dylan does with his live sets now. By changing the arrangements of his classic songs, five years on from the release of his last studio album, the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour is still of interest. It was a similar experience for those in the 1990s. Dylan had released two cover albums but rarely included those songs in his live sets. He focused on adapting the classics of his discography, as well as a few selections from the rough 1980s period, to the stage. There is an instrumental softness to these pieces on Huntsville 1993, a performance which has Dylan race through some of his very best songs with a lighter touch. Gone are the rocked-out ways of the Tom Petty and Grateful Dead tours, and in comes a setlist layout which would serve him for almost a decade.  

Huntsville 1993 is a rarity because it does open with a contemporary release. Dylan’s cover of Hard Times, as featured on As Good as I Been to You, opens the show. But it is not long before he lays out the hits, leaping between John Wesley Harding, Blood on the Tracks, and his Greatest Hits Vol. II release for a staggering performance of Watching the River Flow. Songs like Watching the River Flow and When I Paint My Masterpiece, the latter absent here but now a staple of his set, are defined more by the stage than the studio. Such is the case for songs frequently appearing in a setlist but overhauled by Dylan and the band’s musical interests at the time. You can hear those at play with the soft but sharp style to songs like All Along the Watchtower and Gates of Eden.  

Both are incredible moments from an outstanding show that gets better the longer it goes. Huntsville 1993 has a rare quality to it, a charm which bleeds into the hits which had never left the stage but had been wrought with issues in the late ‘80s. An all-time great performance of Maggie’s Farm is featured, but that must not overshadow the exceptional performance of Oh Mercy song, What Good Am I?. Dylan would not play those Oh Mercy pieces as much as he should have, but hearing them appear between resounding versions of Everything is Broken and Maggie’s Farm is a treat. A closing performance of It Ain’t Me, Babe offers a satisfying end to the show. It’s all about keeping the mood of an audience in check as Dylan blasts through his biggest and best songs with a new instrumental swing.  

That tone would be offered often in performances to follow Huntsville 1993. Soft rock suggestiveness filled with a desire to reinterpret the hits of old. Those shows preceding the release of Time Out of Mind are where these new renditions are at their best. You can hear Dylan and his band searching for a new studio groove while on stage. Part of it is hearing what an audience reacts to and working from there, but another major aspect is finding a suitable style. Dylan could not repeat himself with the Rolling Thunder Revue roar or the stripped-back folk shift. His decision to push on, to plug away at these varied instrumentals for his greatest hits, is a great sign. Dylan continues to do this. It is crucial to the search for a new sound, something Huntsville 1993 offers the veteran songwriter.