Old friends Bob Dylan and Levon Helm shared a marquee once again Sunday night at Saratoga Springs, NYs S.P.A.C. as part of the first annual Saratoga Music Festival. The bill also featured next generation folk and roots-rock musicians like Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Steve Earle and The Swell Season and Conor Oberst, the latter of whom performed with his new Mystic Valley Band. But, while the Poughkeepsie Journal reports that Dylan and Helm took in each others performances, the former bandmates did not collaborate onstage.
Dylan and Helm first performed together in the mid-1960s when Dylan recruited the drummer as part of his electric band. The Bard later took on Helms entire group and brought the former Hawks to Woodstock to record the sessions documented on The Basement Tapes. The Band, of course, went on to have a highly successful career, but continued to collaborate with Dylan on occasion. Helm and Dylans most recent collaborations have by and large been at high profile events like Bill Clintons 1993 Inauguration.
Though Helm did not collaborate with Dylan, the former Band drummer did bring Earle, Welch, Rawlings and The Swell Season/The Frames vocalist Glen Hansard out for a sing-a-long version of The Weight. Be sure to checkout Dylans latest setlists each day in the Box Scores section of Jambands.com