Bob Dylan – Restless and Rowdy Ways Review

One tour ends, another is announced. It truly is never-ending, and that is no bad thing when it comes to Bob Dylan and the Rough and Rowdy Ways spectacle. Everything between a rejuvenation of interest in creating to a swansong, this tour has been described as just about everything you can imagine. Restless and Rowdy Ways compiles a year of efforts. A compilation effort which pieces together a bulk of the usual setlist on a year of touring, which took Dylan across the United States and Europe. Throw in a surprise performance of Dignity towards the end, and what you have is a fantastic experience, an aggregate of quality from seventy or so shows. What quality it is. Trust in the bootleggers who record these shows, presumably splitting those Yondr pouches open for the greater good or just hiding a recording device in their coat pocket. Heroes are what bring out the likes of Restless and Rowdy Ways.  

It’s the little details that make Restless and Rowdy Ways such a great listen. A compilation effort that runs about as long as the Rough and Rowdy Ways show itself does, and with that, it gives listeners at home a chance to experience what those in the audience did. What those listening in to Restless and Rowdy Ways receive, most obviously of all, is a streamlined impression of how Dylan is now sounding. There will be those who love this new, reimagined sound Dylan is offering with the blues-rock, piano-led tone of his contemporary tracks and a steady stream of hits, and there are those who will be wrong. Crossing the Rubicon has a brilliant heaviness to it, a fantastic hand to Jim Keltner there on the drums. But crucial to it too is the softer electric guitar, the little flourishes of grand piano work. Instrumentally, it’s a wonderfully imagined tour, and Dylan’s vocals have improved too. 

Rough and Rowdy Ways tracks may inevitably dominate the show, with some staggering versions of I Contain Multitudes and Goodbye Jimmy Reed found within, but those reimagined classics are thrilling. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue takes a moment to find its instrumental footing, but what a performance it becomes. Nothing short of beautiful. It’ll bring a tear to the eye of those who found solace in the song, whose comfort has carried on beyond the studio version and into live versions elsewhere. The same goes for Every Grain of Sand, a song which has received some healthy re-evaluation from Dylan and his fans with its inclusion here. Desolation Row is always a thrill to hear, as is Watching the River Flow. It’s the instrumental strength which matters most, and for It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue, it has the makings of a career-best performance, if not for the start.  

Those searching for a quality Rough and Rowdy Ways compilation need not look any further than this. There are plenty out there, but there are few as definitive as Restless and Rowdy Ways. A delightful experience that makes good on the usual setlist as a way for those at home to experience it, and yet still finds space to throw in a surprise, just as Dylan does occasionally with covers and deep cuts. That comes in the form of Dignity, a song which feels like one of the more unlikely choices for what may turn out to be his final tour. Rough and Rowdy Ways may have been extended into 2026, but who knows when unruly times on stage come to a close? Enjoy it while you can, and re-experience it while changes can still be made to the lineup, to the setlist, and to the show.