Bob Dylan announces 1st shows in Canada in over 6 years
Bob Dylan on Monday announced 17 new tour dates taking place in October in North America, including his first shows in Canada in over six years.
The legendary singer-songwriter, now 82, will play with his touring band at Toronto’s Massey Hall on Oct. 26 and 27, with an Oct. 29 date set for Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier in Montreal. Tickets go on sale on Friday through Ticketmaster.
Since the pandemic-imposed halt to live performance, Dylan has kept up a regular schedule of dates since late 2021, playing so far this year in Japan and across western Europe.
He last played in Canada in summer 2017 in over 15 shows across six provinces, including an appearance as part of that year’s Montreal Jazz Festival. He previously performed at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier in 2007.
First Massey Hall show nearly 60 years ago
Dylan has an extensive history with Massey Hall, first appearing solo there in November 1964.
The following year Dylan played the same venue on a world tour that angered some fans who were used to his protest and folk songs. It featured Dylan playing electric guitar and backed by the Canadian musicians who would later go on to form the Band.
Earlier this month, Dylan mourned the death of Band guitarist Robbie Robertson, who died on Aug. 9 at age 80.
“Robbie was a lifelong friend,” Dylan said. “His passing leaves a vacancy in the world.”
Dylan’s history with Massey Hall also includes a four-show run in April 1980 that was widely bootlegged, when he was in between albums of gospel-themed material, Slow Train Coming and Saved.
More shows on this tour in the near future were promised on Dylan’s website. The dates are still considered part of the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour — named after the last studio album of original material he released, in 2020.
A soundtrack album called Shadow Kingdom, of a live streaming event Dylan performed in mid-2021, was released in June.
Last year saw the publication of The Philosophy of Modern Song, featuring Dylan’s ruminations on 66 songs stretching back decades by artists ranging from the Who, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Willie Nelson, Bobby Darin and Rosemary Clooney.
Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2012 and in 2016 was the first musician to be honoured with the Nobel Prize in Literature.
