Bob Dylan Swaps Keyboard for Grand Piano on First Date of New Tour

Throughout his more than 50-year career, Bob Dylan has repeatedly defied expectations. As he opened his summer tour of Europe at the Hop Farm Festival in Paddock Wood, England on Saturday (June 30), fans saw an unfamiliar sight on stage — a grand piano.

As reported by Rolling Stone, for much of the past ten years, Dylan has been playing a keyboard instead of guitar for the majority of his concerts, reportedly due to arthritis in his hands. However, an actual grand piano is something new for him. According to Boblinks, Dylan sat down at the piano for eight of the 16 songs he performed at Hop Farm. He played the keyboard for the opener (‘Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat’), guitar for another (‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’) and spent the other six at the center of the stage with his harmonica.

Dylan will remain in Europe through July 22 before beginning a tour of North America on Aug. 10 in Lloydminster, Albert, Canada. He is expected to release his 35th studio album in the fall.

Bob Dylan Set List – Hop Farm Festival

1. ‘Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat’
2. ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’
3. ‘Things Have Changed’
4. ‘Tangled Up in Blue’
5. ‘Cry A While’
6. ‘Love Sick’
7. ‘Ballad of Hollis Brown’
8. ‘Spirit on the Water’
9. ‘High Water (For Charley Patton)’
10.’ A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’
11. ‘Highway 61 Revisited’
12. ‘Can’t Wait’
13. ‘Thunder on the Mountain’
14. ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’
15. ‘Like a Rolling Stone’
16. ‘All Along the Watchtower’