From Eugene to Redding June 6th.
I take AMTRAK from Eugene to Redding.
A nice trip through beautiful green; water, trees... Oregon. I like it as a tourist.
But it's wet and grey most of the time.
I snooze a bit before reaching Redding at 2.35 AM. My couchsurfing host, 
Corey, is waiting for me. How nice of him to get up in the middle of the night 
to rescue me.!
A soft couch in the middle of music instruments is waiting for me. I crash until 
7am.

Redding June 7th.
Corey drives me to the Turtle park. I walk the Bridge and stroll in the 
garden/park for two hours. Beautiful weather and so calm and relaxing
Then I start to be hungry and the only open restaurant is by the Sheraton 
Hotel. As I pass by I recognize the musicians bus and Bobby's bus. So 
certainly he is staying there.
I retrieve inside the cool air restaurant to have a coffee and a vegan dish. 
I spot Bob Dylan's New security man eating his lunch there.
I don't know him.
If he would have been Barron...I would have said hello. And it makes me 
feel sad...I miss the "Samurai"
By 5pm I turn around the venue. But it's empty. Not even a car inside 
the parking lot.
Where are the People?
For one hour I feel disconnected. What in the hell am I doing here?
Not that I feel homeless. But just dis- connected.
For another hour I observe the patrons slowly arriving and queing to 
get in. Doors open at 6.30pm. This is not GA. So why in the hell Fans 
are queing so early?
They all look...old! Not that I am so young...but they are past their 70's 
even!
Some wear Dylan shirt, some wear dye shirt, some wear cowboy 
shirt... cowboy hat...
And...they are totally indifferent to my sign.
Even they make that remark "Is the show sold out?". Never heard of 
the "Miracle ticket"?
Corey told me Redding attracts the retired people from the big cities like 
Sacramento or San Francisco. Must be the retired Fan club
Later younger folks will pass by my sign.
One will want to sell a ticket for ...250$
Another one looking like a Hippy wants to sell for...150$
They walk inside WITH their tickets
My spirit is so low that I don't even want to get in...
When a "normal" gentleman offers me two tickets. 
-"how much?"
-"Nothing. I have two extras"
Woah!
-"I need only one"
Immediately I take the line.
Security is light.
Bobby's security man asks about my prints in my bag. Not sure what to say. 
He asks my name. Not sure what to say
I walk in. I bump into a gentleman talking to Bobby's security man. So I ask 
-"And what is YOUR name?"
He is wearing a badge that says Erik.
So , Erik he is. 
The volunteer guy is nice. We have a chat. The only "intelligent conversation" 
of the day. Not that I am thrilled to learn that a lot of Redding people 
voted...Trump! The Bob Dylan fans??
Who knows?
I take my seat next to my good Samaritan and his wife. We chat for a while.
He says the last time he saw Dylan was in...1968. Good man. Sweet and kind.
Five minutes before show time his wife wants to go to the bathroom.  I'll 
never see them again! I have 5 seats for myself.
8.05pm. They take the stage all in black , in the dark. Bob wearing a red shirt 
and a cream color hat and..
He picks up his guitar in the back and moves center stage. For half of 
"Watching the river flow" he will be center. Then moves towards the piano 
and seats on the stool , his body turns towards Tony and Charley. woah
He'll do the entire song on guitar.
The public is wild!
"When I paint my masterpiece" is mainly a-capella. Really strong. My highlight 
for tonight.
The show is almost as the Portland show. Re-arangement for most of the songs. 
Even " Key west" is different. I like it.
I truly enjoy myself. Looking at a young Asian guy above me in the balcony I 
feel that I also want to stand up there and dance. But that would be foolish
Bob is talkative saying "thank you" about 7 times. Mentioning the public being 
ATTENTIVE."I love attention"he says. Murmuring other things I can't understand.
He will be center stage for " Melancholy mood".
"Jimmy Reed" is a must.
I can clearly hear and see Charley's drums. Beautiful!
That was a great show. 
I don't know how many fans knew about  "Rough and rowdy ways". 
At least Bob enjoyed himself.
Me also and the young fellow above me
I try , discreetly, to sell prints out.
Erik is gone.
Fans are packed by the buses parking lot.
An ovation can be heard loud when Bobby's bus pulls out.
Bye bye Bobby.
See you in the Bay Area.

I went into this concert not fully knowing what to expect. But I love Bob
Dylan. He is in my DNA. I have loved him through all of his stages and
ages through all of my stages and ages. LOL

I have not listened much to his last few albums. I knew from looking at
past setlists recently that he wasn't going to do a lot of his old stuff.
In fact, the setlist was the same that he's been doing for the last few
months. My brother named Dylan and I noticed this,  so we more or less
knew the setlist going in. We were hoping he might change it up a little
but he did not.

He was quintessential Bob Dylan. Lights were dim. He was behind an upright
piano pretty much the whole time. He came out into the center stage a few
times-- I always felt like it was kind of just to prove to us that it was
really him--upright, like the piano.   ;)

He wore one of his trademark hats that kind of looked like an old Straw
Hat Pizza hat. Black pants with white piping down the sides. A colorful
shirt, maybe a paisley pattern. His voice sounded great. We could totally
understand his lyrics. He was not as gravelly as he's been in past years.
I was just amazed that he was right there in front of us. We were in the
7th row.

Amazed that he's 81 years old. Even amazed that I was sitting next to my
brother Dylan named after the sage on the stage. Originally my brother
named Michael was supposed to go but unfortunately, he got sick. :(

Dylan's band was spectacular. That was one of the highlights. Two amazing
guitar players, a drummer who mostly played with the brushes. So, the
drums were never too overpowering. A bass player who played both upright
and standard bass. Another musician who played different instruments
throughout different songs; he played pedal steel, electric mandolin and
violin. So, the music backing Dylan was eclectic. Dylan on the keys was...
I'm trying to think of another adjective... he was superlative! He was
fantastic. Such a seasoned musician in front of us.

You could tell that the band was tight and as much as we wanted him to do
an encore, alas he did not. He came to center stage after the last song
and we all clapped like crazy, continuing after he exited but then the
house lights came up.  It was a small venue, only held 2,200 people. The
sound was really good. We were right in front of the left-hand speaker. I
wish we could have seen his face better. I wish the lights would have come
up brighter on him at least once. I am very grateful that he is gracious
enough to continue to do shows at all. :)

Another plus, it was a phone free show. You had to put your cell phone
into a little locked soft case and you got to hold it with you but you had
to have them unlock it at the end of the night. There were designated
areas outside the music area where you could go make a phone call if you
needed to. I felt there was a lot of freedom in not being tied to my
phone. I was in the moment the whole time. You also didn't have everybody
around you holding up their phone, recording the show. It was also a
sit-down show. Mostly an older crowd (meaning ages 50-80) with some
younger fans scattered throughout. It was a sold-out show. We were a very
appreciative crowd.

Dylan, who you know never has talked a lot between songs made a couple of
cracks like he said something about humans having a short attention span
and he got a good laugh. He said thank you several times after songs. He
mostly went right into one song after the other. He played an hour and a
half straight through. No intermission. I never left my seat.

I'm still sitting here kind of in awe that I was even there last night.
There was an energy in the air that was beautiful. He definitely is a
legend. An icon. I encourage anyone and everyone to go see him. I've been
wanting him to tour California again or even just the West Coast in
general and here he is. I might even seek out one of the other dates
although right now I don't know if I could swing getting to one of those
other cities on said dates. I noticed that he is playing a lot of smaller
venues which is awesome.

Song-wise, a highlight was definitely Every Grain of Sand that he played
last. The other two I'm familiar with are,  You Gotta Serve Somebody and
You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine. I also recognized False Prophet and
Rubicon. Oh, and of course! When I Paint My Masterpiece was excellent. Two
others I really enjoyed were Black Rider and Give Myself to You.

My brother Dylan and I commented how we felt like it was like a New
Orleans band feel. Like we half expected 20s flapper girls to come out or
something. We really enjoyed the sound and the overall vibe of the whole
night.

Tanya Renee Hunt