Wynonna, Elle King, Boz Scaggs Set for Nashville Bob Dylan Tribute
Last May, Jason Isbell, Kacey Musgraves, Cory Chisel and Brothers Osborne celebrated Bob Dylan turning 75 at the Ryman Auditorium with interpretations of the bard’s varied catalogue. This year, the Best Fest will make heralding Dylan’s birthday in Nashville an annual tradition, with Dylan Fest: A Celebration of Bob Dylan’s 76th Birthday set for May 23rd and 24th. The two-night concert event will recruit everyone from Wynonna & the Big Noise, Shakey Graves and Anderson East to Elle King and local rockers the Weeks to tackle tracks from the now Noble Laureate.
Other acts paying tribute to Dylan include guitar great Duane Eddy, Boz Scaggs, Valerie June, Hamilton Leithauser, Moon Taxi, Richard Hawley, Shooter Jennings, Erika Wennerstrom of Heartless Bastards, Butch Walker, Karen Elson, Langhorne Slim, John Paul White, Rayland Baxter, Bones Owens, Danny Masterson, the Whigs, the Watson Twins, Jonathan Tyler, Paul Cauthen, Gill Landry, Lauren Shera, the Texas Gentlemen, Eric Pulido of Midlake, Shelly Colvin and Odessa, as well as special guests.
Dylan Fest’s hosts and ringleaders will be the Cabin Down Below Band – named after the Tom Petty song, and, in part, for the East Village bar co-owned by Jesse Malin and occasional Ryan Adams band mate Johnny T. Yerington – which comprises Austin Scaggs, Alex Levy, Matt Romano, Dave Moose Sherman, Reno Bo, Sadler Vaden, and Liam O’Neil.
The two-day celebration will benefit the Refuge Foundation for the Arts, a converted monastery in Appleton, Wisconsin, that now functions as a recording space, artist residence and creative sanctuary. Co-founded by Chisel and his partner Adriel Denae, the non-profit space is where Traveller (Chisel, Robert Ellis and Jonny Fritz) made their forthcoming debut LP, and embarks on a slew of innovative work to support and reinvent the musical community and how albums are created.
Tickets for Dylan Fest, which will also mark the anniversary of 1967’s John Wesley Harding, recorded 50 years ago at Columbia’s Studio A in Nashville, are on sale this Friday, April 21st, at 10 am CT.