Dylan brings newest chapter of national tour to Las Vegas

Spencer Patterson

Friday, March 18, 2005 | 9 a.m.

Even Bob Dylan's massive memoirs project can't slow his "Never Ending Tour."

The 63-year-old folk-rock legend is back on the road, five months after publishing "Chronicles, Volume 1," the first of three scheduled Dylan manuscripts.

The "Never Ending Tour," which officially kicked off in 1988, returns to Las Vegas on Saturday night, when Dylan makes his first appearance at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the 8 p.m. concert. At press time, a small number of tickets remained available.

Country veteran Merle Haggard shares the bill with Dylan for most of the tour, but will not be onstage at the Vegas show. Locals won't have to wait long to catch Haggard, however, with Texas Station scheduled to host him on July 1.

Amos Lee, a Philadelphia-born singer-songwriter, is slated to open Saturday's show. Described as the "male Norah Jones" by the All Music Guide, Lee released his self-titled debut album last July.

Who: Bob Dylan.

Where: Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets: $55, $65, $85, $95, $125.

Call: 785-5000.

Opening act: Amos Lee.

Personnel: Bob Dylan (vocals, piano, harmonica), Denny Freeman (guitar), Elana Fremerman (violin), Tony Garnier (bass), Donnie Herron (guitar), Stu Kimball (guitar), George Recile (drums).

Latest release: "Bootleg Series, Vol. 6: Live 1964 -- Concert at Philharmonic Hall" (Sony/Legacy, 2004).

Essential releases: "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)," "The Times They Are A-Changin' " (1964), "Another Side of Bob Dylan" (1964), "Bringing it All Back Home" (1965), "Highway 61 Revisited" (1965), "Blonde on Blonde" (1966), "John Wesley Harding" (1967), "Nashville Skyline" (1969), "Blood on the Tracks" (1975), "The Basement Tapes" (1975), "Desire" (1976), "The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4: The 'Royal Albert Hall' Concert" (1998).

What to expect: Dylan has consistently kept his set to 12 songs, plus a two-song encore, throughout the early part of the tour. Those dates have featured Haggard along with Lee, however, so it stands to reason the headliner will expand his portion of the bill somewhat. Then again, this is Bob Dylan we're talking about, so 10 or 11 songs are just as likely as 20.

Recent set list: Paramount Theatre, Oakland, Calif., Monday: "Drifter's Escape," "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," "Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum," "The Man in Me," "Highway 61 Revisited," "Can't Wait," "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again," "Under the Red Sky," "Bye and Bye," "Honest With Me," "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Summer Days." Encore: "A-11," "All Along the Watchtower."

Tour feedback: "Now that he's a piano player, he has adopted a new singing style, too. Crooning and pushing his voice hard at the same time, Dylan made little turns into his upper register tiny melodic burnishes that finished lines unexpectedly ... He pushes at the boundaries of expectation and, if the result is sometimes chaos, it's impossible to tell if he's the master of his own destiny onstage or just hanging on for dear life." (San Francisco Chronicle).

Previous Las Vegas appearances: May 23, 1992 (Bally's); May 12, 1995 (Hard Rock); May 13, 1995 (Hard Rock); Oct. 10, 1995 (Hard Rock); Nov. 11, 1995 (Hard Rock); May 2, 1999 (House of Blues); June 26, 1999 (MGM Grand, with Paul Simon); June 27, 2000 (House of Blues); Aug. 24, 2001 (Hard Rock); Oct. 20, 2002 (Hard Rock).

Says Dylan: "It was like being in an Edgar Allan Poe story. And you're just not that person everybody thinks you are, though they call you that all the time. 'You're the prophet. You're the savior.' I never wanted to be a prophet or savior. Elvis, maybe. I could easily see myself becoming him. But prophet? No." ("60 Minutes," December 2004)