Bob Dylan & His Band, John Mellencamp, & Willie Nelson  

July 24, 2009

Friday 5:00pm

Detail:

BobDylan has just announced an ambitious line-up for this year’s summer concerttour.  Along with fellow troubadour WillieNelson, this summer’s tour will also feature John Mellencamp, marking just thesecond time in the past 24 years that these three performers have shared theconcert stage.  Since first embarking ona tour of minor league baseball parks in 2004, over a half-million fans havecome together to spend a night under the stars. With free admittance for children*, these tours draw amulti-generational fan base rarely seen on the concert circuit, causing onereporter to describe it as, “more like a backyard party than a rockconcert.”  The Boston Globe ranked the tour amongst “the most relaxed,enjoyable shows of the year.  “You Can’tBeat Fun At The Old Ballpark,” came a headline from the Chicago Sun Times.

 

Besidesperforming over 100 concerts each year for the past 15 years, Bob Dylan drops into millions ofhouseholds each week with his highly popular satellite radio program Theme Time Radio Hour.  In recent years, he has also received thebig-screen treatment, courtesy of film director Martin Scorcese, with thecritically acclaimed release of NoDirection Home, the first feature-length film biography of Bob Dylan.  Prior to that, he spent over 20 weeks on theNew York Times best seller list with the publication of Chronicles: Volume One, the first in a series of the artist’sself-penned personal histories.   In between these high-water marks, Bob hasearned multiple Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a KennedyCenter Honor (the highest honor of artistic achievement given in the UnitedStates). As a recording artist, he continues to hit thelong ball.  After debuting at #1 with hislast record, Modern Times, Bob Dylan hasjust released a brand new studio album on April 28 through ColumbiaRecords.  Entitled Together Through Life, it has already received 4-star reviews fromMOJO, The London Telegraph and the New York Times. 

 

Over the course of a career that has spanned more than 30 years, JohnMellencamp, consummate songwriter and performer, has released 23 albumswith worldwide sales of over 40 million units while amassing 22 Top 40 hitsongs.  In 2008, the same year he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hallof Fame, Life Death Love and Freedom,was issued which Rolling Stone called“one of the most compelling albums of Mellencamp’s career” and placed it amongthe top 5 albums of the year.  Mellencamp's ties to Willie Nelson dateback to 1985, the year they joined forces to mount the first Farm Aid benefitconcert that also featured a stellar set from Bob Dylan. Besides rallying his friends each year to support Farm Aid,Willie Nelson is quite possibly themost prolific recording artist in any genre of music.  In the past five years alone he’s released noless than a dozen records, and when he’s not in the studio recording new albums,he fills time writing books, acting in feature films and generally keeping apace unimaginable for someone half his age.