Ray Padgett

Three books so far! Latest, from last year, is Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members. Previous two are about cover songs. Cover Me: The Stories Behind the Greatest Covers of All Time and a 33 1/3 on Leonard Cohen and the history of tribute albums called I'm Your Fan.

Put on Spirit on the Water in the car at pickup and my two year old goes “I scared of Bob Dylan.” Guess she’s not ready for Tempest.

"Tryin' to Get to Heaven" new arrangement last night is crazy. He's basically singing it over the chords to "One More Cup of Coffee." 14:45 in:

First “Million Miles” since 2014 tonight in Germany. Great pull.

A postscript to my piece about Bob Dylan's only show in Córdoba—a detailed insider account that appeared in an Argentinian newspaper of Dylan boxing at a local club in Buenos Aires.

New 33 1/3 on the best Wilco album! What's the over/under on how many times @robmitchum.bsky.social's name will appear in the index?

Night three brings the tour's first Bob Dylan guitar solo, the return of "Blind Willie McTell," and a dramatic (in a bad way) conclusion

Now that’s how you design an album cover

Superb piece by @raypadgett.bsky.social on Rolling Thunder '76 in the latest issue of @mojomagazine.bsky.social. The off-stage antics sound as wild as the live performances.

Pretty stellar "Additional Personnel" list. Can anyone ID the album?

Two scene reports from night two of Bob Dylan's "Lights of Autumn" tour. More setlist surprises, plus photos, video clips, and a full tape.

Every time I hear a new cover of "Walls" I wonder, is this the greatest Tom Petty song ever?

First of many tour dispatches this fall! Tom Wilkins reports in on a very surprising opening night in Oslo. With recordings of "Tangled Up in Blue" (with two new verses) and Bob's first-ever cover of Guy Clark's "Dublin Blues"

After the two familiar openers, we got a great version of Crash on the Levee. ERK was also (surprisingly) good. Truly special performance of Tangled. Dublin Blues was abruptly initiated by Bob while the band played the intro to UTRS. Surprising encore with You Ain’t Going Nowhere.

Vinyl’s so over. I’m only listening to music on wax cylinder now.

Tom Waits is also a Digger fan

First two boxes of zines heading out on a fittingly blustery day. The wind it was howling…

Heads up these are half (going going) gone!

One of my favorite live videos ever comes from this show. The fact that it was filmed on some crappy flip phone perfectly fits the ambiance. When the drums eventually kick in and the volume totally blows out the microphone - magic.

The first one is great and sold out quick - so hop to it if you want one (I ordered mine!).

Surprise! I wrote a zine/booklet about every single Rolling Thunder 1976 show, and it's available now. Limited edition - when it's gone it's gone. More info here:

“I was frightened he might get killed and dumped in the bayou...” Knife attacks, alligator stew and marital strife, in this extract from the new issue of MOJO – on sale now! – Ray Padgett explores the madness of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour 👇

New article on a show 15 years ago today in Cardiff! "I left the concert feeling as if I had been through some sort of North American Indian rite of passage, suffering multiple cuts from the razor sharp edge of Bob Dylan’s voice."

Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize ten years ago today. A while back I interviewed the guy who made the call to tell him, a Swedish concert promoter who's worked with Dylan since the 1960s. www.flaggingdown.com/p/bob-dylan-...

Who knew the final destiny of "Slow Train" was to be a yelly post-punk song?

Gotta be in the running for wildest albums covers of the 21st century

I wrote the cover story for the new issue of MOJO about Rolling Thunder 1976! I listened to the full box set (yes, all 39 discs) and interviewed a bunch of participants. Alongside ace 1966/2026 pieces by @johnharris1969.bsky.social and Flagging Down’s recent Dead correspondent @bourgwick.bsky.social

All the Record Store Day bullshit is worth it for this

Bob Dylan has played "Ballad of a Thin Man" 1,361 times live. Over all that time, the song has had a number of different arrangements—from sax solos to spooky echoes to a one-off Swing Revival version. I broke them all down:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHPW...

Bruce and Joan singing Chimes of Freedom last night

Oh to live on…Margaritaville…

Joke's on you I'm sick of emails anyway

Has Chris “Snake” Davis ever been on a record with Jeff “Skunk” Baxter?

Best music profile I've read in a while