Almanac Music: The Wallflowers @JazzFest 2024

 

‘Hey, come on, try a little
Nothing is forever
There’s got to be something
better than in the middle’

 

 

 

The Off The Record New Orleans Tour 2024: The Wallflowers @ JazzFest

 

 

Jakob Dylan

 

Any band with Bob Dylan’s son playing in it is sure to attract attention whether out of curiosity or precisely because the band has many fans of Jakob Dylan and The Wallflowers.

To be honest, I’d only heard tracks from the first album of the band many years ago when it was released, the sound and the songs appealed to me but did not go beyond that. Name a song I am unable to do.

 

 

With The Wallflowers headlining the last day of JazzFest on the Fais Do Do stage I knew I had to be among the crowd to witness the performance of Bob’s son and his band. And obviously considering the size of the crowd flowing to that stage there were either a lot of fans of the band and/or many curious onlookers wanting to determine if he and the band were any good or not.

 

 

It did not take too long to realise The Wallflowers were a red-hot band of accomplished players cranking out a fantastic sound of melodic and tuneful songs mainly composed by the Dylan and the band with the occassional cover. For the sound think Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, even The Byrds but all underpinned by the amazing Hammond B3 sound such as his old man utilised to great effect in the mid 60s. And master guitar player Chris Masterson was on lead guitar.

 

Chris Masterson

 

Like his old man Jacob Dylan oozed charisma but unlike Bob, Jakob’s charisma oozed outwardly. Bob rarely smiles or chats on stage but there were plenty of smiles and banter from Jakob throughout The Wallflowers performance. Lots of hand gestures to emphasise aspects of the lyrics suggested Jakob has spent time in theatre, his movements were profound and very graceful. Another thing Jakob did a lot of was to make eye contact with selected audience members whom he continued to return to and play to.

 

Great version of the Cat Stevens song ‘Wild World’

 

Don’t know who he is but he plays a mean organ!

 

There is no doubting he is his father’s son. His voice is recognisable as very similar to Bob’s and at times you felt with the intonations and phrasing used in his speech and singing it could have very easily been Bob singing or speaking!

 

There was much love in the audience for The Wallflowers, happy faces, singing along, feeling the goodtimes vibes all around, it was fabulous to be a part of the experience.

 

 

 

This is what happens when you ask The Wallflowers to play a Bob Dylan song!

 

 

More from Col Ritchie can be read Here

 

 

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