Bob Dylan’s rotating cast of guitar players added a new name to the mix as the folk hero kicked off his latest tour with a mystery guitar player in tow.
The guitarist’s identity has yet to be officially confirmed, but as Rolling Stone reports, fan theories point towards Telecaster finger-picker, Mike Seal as being the new guitarist.
Dylan didn’t introduce his band members on the night. He didn’t say a word between songs, apparently. Seal is yet to make a post on his socials about the show, and Dylan setlist guru Bill Pagel hedged his bets by listing him as “?” in his gig report.
It looks promising like a promising theory. Seal is a highly celebrated, Grammy-nominated session musician. But if Seal isn’t the man in question here, it would be another fascinating twist in Dylan’s guitarist merry-go-round.
The new six-string slinger, unveiled at the Lights of Autumn Tour’s first show at the Oslo Spektrum in Norway over the weekend, is Dylan’s sixth in five months.
Jimmie Vaughan, jazz ace Julian Lage, and Jad Tariq have also played roles in Dylan’s band in recent months, after Doug Lancio and Bob Britt both exited over the summer.
Joel Patterson, meanwhile, went from playing to 150 people a night to thousands after his call-up. He was in the band in Norway, but who was alongside him is yet to be clarified.
Why Dylan is going through so many guitarists remains a mystery. Lage and Tariq are expected to be in and out of the group as they balance other commitments, and neither were able to fly to the Norwegian capital for the tour’s opening night. They’ll likely return to the fold at different points across the tour.
Still, it was an interesting night as far as the setlist was concerned. Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood) was played for the first time since 2005, while Tangled Up in Blue, dusted off for the first time since 2018, was the subject of a heavily stripped-down reworking.
The tour continues in Gothenburg, Sweden tonight (October 19) before shows in Denmark, Germany, Belgium and beyond.
He’ll wrap up the tour with a five-night stint at London’s Royal Festival Hall. There may yet be more guitarists added to the roster during that time as his Bobness seemingly vies to work around the packed calendars of Lage and Tariq. It’s never a dull day.
Elsewhere, one of Dylan’s most famous guitar partners, Robbie Robertson, has opened up on his boss’ rocky transition from acoustic to electric.
