Bob Dylan has made several changes to his touring line-up this year. Guitarists Bob Britt and Doug Lancio both left the Summer 2026 tour, replaced by three guitarists over the course of a month. Jazz instrumentalist Julian Lage appeared at a handful of shows but had European date commitments which saw him drop out of the shows. Both Joel Paterson and newcomer Jad Tariq have since taken to the stage.
Paterson, a Chicago-based blues guitarist, joined Dylan and long-serving instrumentalists Tony Garnier and Anton Fig earlier this month. Tariq has since been added to the line-up and performed a handful of shows with the All Along the Watchtower songwriter. Tariq cut his teeth as a Memphis guitarist and vocalist but has connections with Led Zeppelin and has issued crooner albums of his own.
In an interview with Blues Blast Magazine, Tariq confirmed he was brought up on the likes of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, but also had a soft spot for the legendary Robert Plant-fronted Led Zeppelin. He said: “He [Albert King] always gave just the right amount of space before and after, too. And my parents got me into a lot of different styles, like hard rock, Led Zeppelin, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. That got me into the swing thing and brought me around to find the BB King and T-Bone Walker swing stuff.
“Those guys were the coolest, in the 40s and 50s. They had so much class and their phrasing was great. I think all of those musicians in that era had a better recognition of space and how to phrase things.” Tariq would credit the Coronavirus pandemic as a chance to catch up on music he had missed out on hearing the first time around.
He added: “It gave me time to catch up. I had only been playing professionally for a year, and that was a year of realizing where all the gaps in my knowledge and experience were. I got back in a woodshed and started practising a ton—digging into all the things I knew that I didn’t know. I dug into all the records that I may have listened to, but this time I seriously studied them. So, in some ways COVID was a good time to play catch-up. And when I came back, I felt able to hit the ground running.”
Tariq’s trajectory from practising in a woodshed to playing with Dylan took just six years. In the intervening years, Tariq would release two album projects, Precious Company and Jad Tariq Sings. A Bandcamp page description reads: “Primarily performing in the jump blues idiom, his guitar style exhibits a swinging jazz rhythm, merging seamlessly with the raw emotional intensity of the blues. His vocal style is in the tradition of the blues shouters of the ‘40s & ‘50s while also boasting the ability to croon heartfelt ballads.”
Tariq has also played with Charlie Musselwhite before this. He made his first Dylan show appearance in Cincinnati earlier this month. A full setlist for the first Cincinnati show can be found below.
- To Be Alone With You
- Man in the Long Black Coat
- It Ain’t Me, Babe
- Tryin’ to Get to Heaven
- False Prophet
- I Can Tell (Bo Diddley cover)
- Black Rider
- Share Your Love With Me (Bobby Bland cover)
- When I Paint My Masterpiece
- I’ll Make it All Up to You (Jerry Lee Lewis cover)
- Crossing the Rubicon
- Soon After Midnight
- Under the Red Sky
- I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You
- Goodbye Jimmy Reed
- I Shall Be Released
In a separate thread, guitarist Jad Tariq was hailed as doing “quite well” on his debut show with Dylan. A fan shared: “He did quite well. Kind of hung back and played rhythm, but also had a few nice solos. He was just a few feet from Tony, who said maybe one or two things to him. Bob didn’t shoot him any glares. When Bob brought out the harp for the first time, he had this look on his face like, ‘Is this really happening?'”
A review posted to the Flagging Down the Double E’s Substack was glowing in its praise of Tariq’s chemistry with Dylan and the rest of the band. It reads: “His instant chemistry with his new bandmates rendered a familiar setlist into something novel and exhilarating. It was easily one of the best Dylan shows I’ve seen over the last 20 years, and certainly the most fun.”
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