Here on Bob Dylan’s 85th birthday, there has been a full weekend of tributes around the Twin Cities for the Minnesota native. Over at Lincoln Center of the Block, the kickoff of their outdoor summer series had Dan Israel and friends performing on a great summer evening in Saint Paul. This is an annual series in its seventh year that has grown into quite the thing, with the neighborhood blocked off and over a hundred people in a semi-circle all the way up the lawns of the opposite side of the street. And Dan Israel was the perfect front man for the evening, as someone who self-describes as “jangly folk-rock”. Israel has been at it since the late 1990’s playing in a variety of band configurations and has a lot of music you can find, including 2022’s Seriously.

The Amazing Hondo started with a magic trick that had a 60’s music theme that of course magically led back to Dylan. With a final introduction, the band got going and went right into Maggie’s Farm. The quintet (vocals/guitar/harmonica, guitar/vocals, bass, keyboards, and drums) were perfectly in that mid-60’s electric sound. With that full band, the sound was perfect and I was impressed by the way the set up really let it play in the neighborhood without distorting or falling into weird mixes across the instruments. An introduction of the band and guitarist Steve Bransteg got lead on One More Cup of Coffee, a slower tempo & bleaker song with a great guitar solo to close. It was also an early signal that this wasn’t only going the be the jukebox hits, which I appreciated. From a Buick 6 let Israel croon, with just a hint of that Dylan tone and I appreciated that we weren’t getting an attempt at full vocal impersonation. As they rolled into Lay Lady Lay, the sequencing of the higher flying rock songs offset with the more introspective numbers was well done. We jumped all the way to the late 80’s with Most of the Time, another moody and blusier piece that had Israel down at the bottom of his register. A quick tuning and Israel and the band were back into quicker and janglier stuff on Isis, getting hefty cheer at its conclusion. The required harmonica appeared for It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry with Bransteg providing backing harmonies towards the end. Gotta Serve Somebody got an extended keys feature and Dan Israel and friends had surfed across a pretty broad spread of the Dylan oeuvre.

Having rolled past the hour mark, there was clearly going to be no break and Subterranean Homesick Blues punched things up another level. The first banter in a while included “we’re going to do another Dylan song”, and then clarified as a George Harrison cover of a Dylan song in If Not For You, again with Bransteg on lead vocals. The bassist came to the mic for a growled vocal on the 90’s number Cold Iron Bounds, shaking things up yet again. We were starting the slow ride to the end and Sweetheart Like You was a great song for the band, with all of the pieces coming together on that one. Complete with siren whistle, Highway 61 Revisited was pure fun and had the keyboards slamming. I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight was a completely different musical sound as a straight country feel from the band. Blind Willie McTell was a new one to me (it was released on The Bootleg Series 1-3 in the 90’s) and was the quietest number of the evening and coincided with the start of a light rain. Kicking back up with Everything Is Broken, Dan Israel and Friends hit the finish hard as the crowd started to disperse with the rapid change in weather. We hit the very popular songs to close with Tangled Up in Blue and of course ending with Like a Rolling Stone. Dan Israel and friends had kicked off the summer series well and had played a nice birthday tribute with their own take on things.