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Bob Dylan performs traditional folk ballad after 34 years.
In a moment that felt less like a concert and more like a sacred transmission from the heart of the American songbook, Bob Dylan, the eternal troubadour, reached deep into his bottomless catalog during a recent stop on his Never Ending Tour and resurrected 'The Lakes of Pontchartrain,' a traditional folk ballad he hadn't performed live in 34 years. For the faithful gathered in the hushed arena, the opening chords were a time machine, a direct line back to the dusty, formative days of the tour in 1988, a period when Dylan was re-embracing his roots with the fervor of a pilgrim returning home.The song itself, a haunting lament of a lonely traveler and a Creole girl he cannot have, is a cornerstone of the folk tradition, passed down through generations like a cherished heirloom, and Dylan’s early, raw renditions were a testament to his role as its chief curator. Its disappearance from setlists after 1991 was a quiet loss, one of those setlist casualties that hardcore fans track with the meticulousness of archivists, its absence a silent question mark at every subsequent show.Its triumphant return, therefore, wasn't merely a setlist surprise; it was a profound statement, a deliberate act of artistic archaeology that underscores the living, breathing nature of Dylan’s relationship with his own vast repertoire. Unlike an artist who treats their songs as finished artifacts, Dylan approaches his work as a fluid, ever-evolving conversation, rearranging melodies, altering phrasing, and re-contextualizing lyrics to speak to the present moment.To hear him sing this centuries-old ballad now, with a voice weathered by decades of travel and wisdom, is to hear a new story entirely—the yearning of the young traveler filtered through the perspective of a man who has seen all the lakes and all the longing the world has to offer. This is the magic of the Never Ending Tour, a musical journey now in its fourth decade that has become less a series of concerts and more a continuous, unfolding epic, a grand, rambling novel where each night is a new chapter and the reappearance of a song like this is a pivotal plot twist.It speaks to an artist utterly unbound by nostalgia, yet deeply respectful of his sources, treating the folk tradition not as a museum piece to be preserved under glass, but as a wellspring to be revisited, reimagined, and reinvigorated. For the audience, it was a gift of immeasurable value, a shared secret with the man on stage, a reminder that in Dylan’s universe, no song is ever truly retired—it’s merely waiting in the wings for its perfect moment to step back into the light, its melody suddenly more resonant, its story more poignant, its place in the canon reaffirmed by the master’s hand.
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#Bob Dylan
#Never Ending Tour
#folk ballad
#live performance
#setlist
#The Lakes of Pontchartrain
