BOB DYLAN : DARK SUIT & WHITE COWBOY HAT

 

Disc One (74:45)

  1. Intro
  2. Hallelujah, I'm Ready To Go
  3. Mr. Tambourine Man
  4. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
  5. Searching For A Soldier's Grave
  6. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
  7. Positively 4th Street
  8. Cry A While
  9. High Water (For Charley Patton)
  10. Boots Of Spanish Leather
  11. Visions Of Johanna
  12. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right

Disc Two (68:29)

  1. Summer Days
  2. Mississippi
  3. The Wicked Messenger
  4. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
  5. Country Pie
  6. Like A Rolling Stone
  7. Knockin' On Heaven's Door
  8. Honest With Me
  9. Blowin' In The Wind
  10. All Along The Watchtower

Label : Tambourine Man Records

Venue : Cricket Arena, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

Recording Date : February 10, 2002

Quality : audience recording (A+)

Review (Bob's Boots) : The odd name chosen for this title fits in with the odd aesthetics of the overall package. The show is typical of the tour. The sound quality is excellent, although seemingly not mastered quite hot enough (the volume needs to be turned up louder compared to other recordings). The vocals are powerful and way up front. The instruments are mixed well, but the music is only half the volume of the vocals. The highlights are created due to the high volume of the vocals. "Hallelujah" and "Searching For A Soldier's Grave" feature great harmonies. As usual, the harmony vocals on "Blowin' In The Wind" soar into the heavens. The final word of each verse of "It's Alright, Ma" drops low and creates a beautiful phrasing. Highly recommended to all who like their audience recordings heavy on the vocals.

Review (Cult Following) : One trouble for the dedicated bootlegger is quality control. Not when it comes to finding perfect rips, or thereabouts, of Bob Dylan stage shows, they are experts on that. The trouble comes from offering a fitting image of the performer, be it from the show or a promo item with text added. Microsoft Paint is no friend of the bootlegger, whose skills are in sound, not in sight. Dark Suit & White Cowboy Hat, a rip of the Charlotte, North Carolina show from 2002, has a fine enough cover. If you can find a higher resolution image of it, that is. For now, it is back to using a stock image from an official archives release. This unofficial bootleg comes from decades later, but it embodies a similar style. Aviator-wearing Dylan, touring with The Band, had a coolness to him which would skip the 1980s and return for the 1990s and 2000s. You can just about visualise it on this post-Love and Theft gig. A twenty-one-song show, and a staggering one at that. Dark Suit & White Cowboy benefits from that fine blur of deep cuts, covers, and reimagined hits. It’s that trio of styles which would work so well for Dylan during this period. Opening cover track Hallelujah, I’m Ready to Go sets the mood nicely. It’s an upbeat occasion, but one held in reverence and fear of the higher powers. Cutting that traditional into a return of Mr. Tambourine Man to the stage, arguably the best of Dylan’s early years material, but a song sparsely played in modern times, is a treat. A few blows of a harmonica precede the strong vocal delivery. That is crucial for these twenty-first-century performances. Moments on the post-Love and Theft release tour feature Dylan with a refreshed vocal range. He sounds better here than he did at the start of the 1990s. Just give the Oh Mercy Live bootleg a listen. You can hear the ups and downs of his voice there. A beautiful consistency comes through on Dark Suit & White Cowboy Hat. Dylan’s vocal range is steady and tremendously sweet. Hits like It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) and Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right, are borderline miraculous. It’s the steadiness of Dylan’s vocal work, absolutely, but the band being comfortable as a backing group without much flair to show on those songs is what keeps it together. They are given their chance to shine on the likes of All Along the Watchtower, a song which serves Dylan frequently as a show closer, or thereabouts, on this tour. Though Dylan would never return to folk performance, the soft rock tone of a song like Visions of Johanna or a Love and Theft rip like Mississippi highlights just how close he is to those early career moments. Dylan does not head back that far, but you can hear a few broad strokes of comfort in those songs. They are countered well with some exhilarating performances of Like a Rolling Stone and Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door. Songs which, somehow, are special on every appearance. They appear frequently and, even then, are moments of exultation for a satisfied crowd. Those whoops and hollers are what you make of them. They never affect the vocals or the instrumental, nicely timed cuts between applause and appreciation for the artist. A very strong bootleg of an even stronger performance. Those wanting their fix of the twenty-first-century Dylan performances would be hard-pressed to find a show better than this. A marathon setlist with plenty of love shown to those classics in his discography, and enough room still for contemporary purposes. That fine line is rarely walked better by Dylan than it is here.