(LENOX, Mass.) – Legendary rock poet Bob Dylan will return to Tanglewood on Saturday, July 2 at 7pm, headlining a concert in the Koussevitzky Music Shed also featuring gospel/R&B legend Mavis Staples. The concert will mark the third time Dylan has played Tanglewood, where he made his debut in summer 1991 and performed again in 1997.

The date with Mavis Staples is presumably part of a U.S. summer tour by the two, who first met and performed together in the early 1960s, when they played Civil Rights gatherings alongside each other. As the story goes, Dylan allegedly asked Staples’s father, Roebuck “Pops” Staples, for her hand in marriage, and was turned down. The perhaps apocryphal story sometimes has Dylan directly being turned down by Mavis Staples, who at the time was a young a member of the family group, the Staple Singers.

Bob Dylan’s recording career began with the release of his eponymous debut album on March 19, 1962. Since that time, he has revolutionized folk music and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing everyone from the Beatles to the Rolling Stones to the Byrds, the Band, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Wilco, and the late David Bowie.

Dylan will be 75 years old when he performs at Tanglewood. His most recent album, last year’s “Shadows in the Night,” consisted entirely of songs associated with Frank Sinatra, was nominated for a Grammy Award. Dylan is said to have recently returned to Capitol Studios, where the album was recorded, to lay down tracks for a similar, follow-up album.

Just this past week, Bob Dylan was in the headlines again, after word leaked out that a significant collection of archival material, including notebooks, lyric sheets, correspondence, recordings, films, and photographs has recently been acquired by a group of institutions in Oklahoma for an estimated $15 million to $20 million, and is set to become a resource for academic study, in Tulsa, where the archive of one of Dylan’s early heroes, Woody Guthrie, is already located.

After decades of infrequent concert tours, Dylan fully committed himself to the road in summer 1988. Since that time, he has consistently played over 100 concert dates a year – more than anyone of his generation – on what has been called the “Never Ending Tour.”

After several albums produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Mavis Staples released “Livin’ on a High Note” just last month. The album, produced by rock songwriter M. Ward, features songs written specifically for Staples by Nick Cave, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), tUnE-yArds, Neko Case, Aloe Blacc, and others.

Tickets for the Bob Dylan with Mavis Staples concert range from $37.50 to $149.50 and will go on sale on Friday, March 18, by phone at 888-266-1200 or online at Tanglewood.

 

 

Seth Rogovoy is the author of Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet (Scribner, 2009).