Guitarist Julian Lage Rejoined Bob Dylan’s Tour After Five Gig Absence

The never-ending guitarist drama on the summer leg of Bob Dylan‘s Never Ending Tour reached a new stage on July 6 at the Mystic Lake Amphitheater in Shakopee, Minnesota, when guitarist Julian Lage, who was AWOL for the previous five shows, suddenly appeared back in the lineup along with new guitarist Joel Paterson. Check out a video of show closer “I Shall Be Released” that was surreptitiously shot by a fan in the audience, flouting the rules that are often rigidly enforced at Dylan shows.

When Lage last played with Dylan at the Sandia Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on June 26, he was splitting the guitar duties with Bob Britt. But when the show concluded, Lage headed to New York City for an event at National Sawdust that was booked the same night as Dylan’s next concert in Austin, Texas. That left Britt as the only guitarist in the group, following Doug Lancio’s unexplained exit earlier in June. But then Britt quit Dylan’s band with a “Sayonara Bobby” Facebook post. 

Nobody knew what to expect when Dylan walked onto the stage at the Moody Amphitheater in Austin on June 29, since the band had been reduced to just bassist Tony Garnier and drummer Anton Fig. But they were joined by Chicago-based blues and jazz guitarist Joel Paterson. He had the very difficult task of playing the first Bob Dylan concert of his career, without the help of an additional guitarist, and he pulled it off magnificently. For the next four shows, Dylan was backed by the stripped-down lineup of Paterson, Garnier, and Fig.

The July 6 show in Shakopee marked the first time that Paterson had to divide up the guitar work with another player. According to early fan reports, they worked very well together. You can judge for yourself by a fan recording of the entire show that went onto YouTube hours after it ended. 

Despite all the lineup changes, Dylan’s setlist has remained remarkably consistent the past few weeks. But he has dropped “All Along the Watchtower” even though it was just about the only song in the set that casual fans recognized. He’s closed most recent shows with “I Shall Be Released,” but some nights he reverts back to “Every Grain of Sand.”

Dylan has U.S. dates lined up through Aug 1. But Lage has a July 11 concert in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and a July 12 show in San Biagio, Italy. At the very least, he won’t be with Dylan July 12 in Pittsburgh. And unless he plans on jetting across the Atlantic Ocean on little sleep, he’s likely to miss several other shows as well. 

Things get even more complicated in October when Dylan heads to Europe for another leg of the tour, just as Lage is gigging across North America. He likely won’t be able to make any of those shows. Will Paterson handle them on his own? Will a new guitarist join up with the tour? Will any of the prior ones come back? Will Lage ever speak publicly about his time with Dylan and explain how this all came together? Dylan doesn’t have the habit of announcing his personnel changes in advance, and most people in his orbit stay quiet. We’ll just have to wait and see.