The 10 Must-Hear Bob Dylan Tapes of 2024

The best of the best from Rough and Rowdy and Outlaw

In 2024, Bob Dylan performed a whole lot of concerts. This statement will not be breaking news to anyone who subscribes this newsletter. Many of you, like I did, will have closely followed the tours and recordings from afar (and, for the truly lucky, attended one or two in person). That said, the avalanche of shows and tapes was a lot for even the most dedicated fan to keep up with.

So today, I’m presenting my list of “The 10 Must-Hear Bob Dylan Tapes of 2024.”

My criteria were two simple things: Great show, great recording. Most of the tapes I selected offer both in spades—though a just-okay tape of a highly notable show could slip in, and did a couple times.

The caveats to such a list are probably obvious. This is just personal preference, for one, and even I haven’t listened to every single tape of every single show. So it’s just a starter pack based on what I liked, a chance to plug in some holes you might have missed. Feel free to share your other favorites in the comments.

I’ll be going chronologically through the year’s three big tours: Rough and Rowdy: U.S. in the spring, Outlaw Tour in the summer, and Rough and Rowdy: Europe in the fall. Each show includes a download link. Thanks as always to the tapers, the secret heroes without whom none of this would be possible!

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1. March 1, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Taper: chrisgratz

It’s always a hoot when a concert moment breaks out of our little Dylan-nerd bubble and goes viral. That happened a couple times this year. The first was at the year’s very show, when Bob finally brought Rough and Rowdy Ways to Florida. Four songs in, a woman in the crowd loudly hollers “Play something we know!”

So he does.

Sort of.

Dylan proceeds to play “When I Paint My Masterpiece”…to the tune of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” (or, if you prefer, “Puttin’ on the Ritz.”) It was a perfect bit of synchronous timing. He was always going to play this song in this spot, and always with this new arrangement they’d clearly been rehearsing, but the timing coming after the rude heckle was too perfect. “Bob Dylan Trolls Heckler,” the headlines read. What a way to start the year.

2. March 17, Belk Theater, Charlotte, NC
Taper: TK

On the Fall 2023 tour, it seemed like Dylan was busting out a new location-specific cover every night. So much so that the New York Times wrote a whole article about it (and interviewed yours truly). At the start of this spring though, the pace slowed. At most shows, Dylan stuck with one of two songs in the cover slot: Jimmy Rogers’ “Walking By Myself” and Johnny Cash’s “Big River.” But on St. Patrick’s Day in Charlotte, he busted out an old Irish song he hadn’t sung in 24 years: “The Roving Blade” (also called “The Newry Highwayman”).

It’s a beautiful performance that caps off one of the year’s best tapes thanks to a pin-drop crowd and a recording that captures the low end better than most (Tony Garnier fans rejoice).

3. March 23, Palace Theater, Louisville, KY
Taper: DK

A superlative tape of a “standard” spring show. No surprises on paper, but just a beautiful way to hear what Dylan was up to in Spring 2024. Warning: It will make you miss Donnie Herron when you listen to his beautiful pedal steel that guides “I've Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You.”

4. April 6, ACL Live at the Moody Theater, Austin, TX
Taper: nightly moth
Remasterer: Bennyboy

The final show of the spring, and what we thought at the time might be the final show of the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour. The headline was, for the only time on the entire three-year tour (not counting the Outlaw interim), a guest player joined the band. Texas blues hero and Bob’s former opener Jimmie Vaughan stepped into usual guitarist Doug Lancio’s place for roughly half the set. It opened up the sound to become more solo-heavy that these shows typically got (listen to him shred on “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,” and add some tasty fills to “Gotta Serve Somebody”), and seemed to bring out a higher-energy Dylan, belting out his vocals and piano-playing his ass off to keep up.

Thankfully, a number of great tapers were there. My favorite is nightly moth’s, remastered by Bennyboy. Vaughan’s guitar licks reach out and grab you by the throat. I’ve seen a number of fans call this the single best tape of the year, and it’s hard to argue.

5. June 21, Ameris Bank Amphitheatre, Alpharetta, GA
Taper: various
Compiler: Bennyboy

The wildest show of the year doesn’t even have a proper tape. Which, in a way, feels fitting, like this weird fever-dream show can’t be confined to a standard recording.

Opening the Outlaw tour, Dylan ditched almost everything he’d been playing for two-plus years and dropped a batshit setlist of never-performed-before covers and Tempest tunes. Some he kept around all summer; others he dropped immediately. The band seemed underrehearsed and flying blind, just having fun goofing around in front of a crowd mostly there to see Willie Nelson (who got sick and didn’t show).

The chatty crowds played hell with tapers. The Outlaw tapes are, in general, far more rough and rowdy than on the tour of that name. When a decent tape of the bizarre opening night failed to surface, prolific remasterer Bennyboy gamely compiled an ad-hoc one from a bunch of YouTube clips. As some noticed, YouTube videos counterintuitively sometimes boasted better audio than the tapes, perhaps because fans had to hold their phones above the noisy crowds’ heads to film. It’s a wild and hairy recording for a wild and hairy show.