Dear Xfan:

I suppose if all you know about Bob dates from 40 years ago, you would be disappointed, or at least baffled. What Bob is doing now, and has been doing since about 1965, is NOT really "folk music," at least not by the rather strict definitions embraced by some folks hereabouts. Most of us know that by now ~ those of us who like it and those who don't. I'm sorry to hear that you didn't know what to expect.

As was well documented in the film "Don't Look Back," Bob's fans in the UK were much harsher in their disapproval of his "new direction" back in the mid-60s than were most Americans. Looks like little has changed in the interim.

Back then, during Bob's first tour with the musicians who would later become known as The Band, sound systems were a lot more primitive than they are now. Not only were audiences generally less accustomed to amplified instruments than they are today, the amplification was much cruder than what we hear today, and it's undestandable that many found the sound to be simply incomprehensible. But things have changed since then.

I'm not in England, so I don't have first-hand knowledge of just how the band sounds on the curernt tour, but I'm sure that, just as for all the other 21st-century performances, the sound is clean and clear, even if a bit loud for some tastes, and the musicianship is absolutely fine.

And ~ "Couldn't take any more repetition..." ??!??!?!?! Repetition is the last accusation one would expect to be directed toward the post-Greenwich-Village Dylan. If anything, most fans feel he doesn't repeat himself enough! Seems like he never sings a song the same way twice...