The Outlaw Music Festival tour hit the road with its most recent leg last week, featuring performances by Willie Nelson, Wilco and Bob Dylan. During Dylan’s set on July 29th in Virginia Beach, Bob added a few new wrinkles to his setlist. On the 29th Dylan busted out his “Highway 61 Revisited” for a tour debut. But more interesting for our purposes was the 16th song in the set. For the first time since 2002, Dylan covered “Searching For a Soldier’s Grave.”
The song, which is a tribute to a fallen soldier, was first performed by The Bailes Brothers in 1945, but the version by Hank Williams is likely the best known take. The song was written by Jim Anglin, but sold to Roy Acuff, who demanded credit for writing it.
The version below is from a few nights later at Jones Beach in Wantagh Beach, New York, but the emotion is the same. With guitarists Doug Lancio and Bob Britt, bass guitarist Tony Garnier and Anton Fig on drums, Dylan takes on a pretty faithful version, but, all the instruments hang back and, if they do play, play in service to Dylan’s voice. While written originally to pay tribute to those killed in fighting during World War II, the tale of looking to pay tribute and honor those killed during battle defies specificity.
The Outlaw Music Festival, with a rotating cast of supporting performers, but featuring Nelson and Dylan on all dates, wraps up mid-September.
