Bob Dylan Opens Woodinville Show With ‘You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere’ for First Time Since 2012

The Basement Tapes track hadn’t been heard in a Dylan setlist since 2012, and guitarists Doug Lancio and Bob Britt added harmony vocals for the occasion.

Bob Dylan opened his Saturday night show at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville, Washington on June 7 with ‘You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,’ performing the 1967 Basement Tapes track live for the first time in 14 years. Guitarists Doug Lancio and Bob Britt provided light harmony vocals on the song, a notable touch that itself marks a departure from how Dylan’s band has operated for more than two decades.

A Rare Basement Tapes Revival in Woodinville

The Woodinville performance came just two nights after Dylan had stunned audiences at the opening show of his summer run by playing ‘Baby, Won’t You Be My Baby,’ a song he hadn’t touched since recording it 59 years ago. The back-to-back Basement Tapes excavations have given hardcore fans plenty to talk about heading into the rest of the tour.

‘You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere’ carries a different kind of weight than the more obscure ‘Baby, Won’t You Be My Baby.’ The song became widely known through cover versions, most notably by The Byrds, whose 1968 rendition reached No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100, and later by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Dylan’s own live relationship with the track has been sparse by comparison, making the Woodinville opener a genuine surprise even if the song itself is familiar territory for rock listeners.

The harmony vocals from Lancio and Britt added another layer of interest. According to reporting on the show, bandmate sing-alongs were common during the Larry Campbell and Charlie Sexton period of the late 1990s and early 2000s but were phased out well over 20 years ago. Their reappearance here, however brief, signals Dylan may be loosening the format of his live presentation on this run.

The Long Hot Summer Tour and a Shifting Setlist

The tour was nameless when originally announced, but merchandise at the venue identifies it as the Long Hot Summer Tour 2026. The run is an extension of what has been billed as the Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour, which launched in late 2021 and has now stretched more than five years. Dylan recently added North American dates pushing the itinerary into late 2026.

The rest of the June 7 setlist tracked closely with the opening night, though Dylan dropped his cover of Bo Diddley’s ‘I Can Tell’ and added ‘Love Sick,’ with minor adjustments to the running order. Support came from Lucinda Williams and the John Doe Folk Trio. Williams performed ‘Car Wheels on a Grave Road,’ ‘Joy,’ and other material from her catalog. Doe drew from his band X, playing ‘See How We Are,’ ‘Burning House of Love,’ and ‘The New World,’ and also performed the Judy Garland standard ‘Over the Rainbow.’

The tour is scheduled to wrap August 1 in Nashville, with a second Chateau Ste. Michelle date on June 7 serving as the immediate next stop on the itinerary.

Dylan’s Catalog Surprises on the Rough and Rowdy Ways Run

The Woodinville deep cut fits a pattern Dylan has established across this extended touring cycle. During a Dublin show in November 2024, he covered The Pogues’ ‘A Rainy Night in Soho’ as a tribute to the late Shane MacGowan. At an Irish show on the same run, he performed a traditional folk ballad that hadn’t appeared in his sets for 34 years.

Beyond the stage, Dylan has remained active in the studio. He co-wrote a song for Willie Nelson’s album Dream Chaser, released in May 2026, and was reported last year to be working on new music with members of his touring band in Albany, New York.

What we know

• Bob Dylan performed ‘You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere’ at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville, Washington on June 7, the first live performance of the song since 2012.
• Guitarists Doug Lancio and Bob Britt provided light harmony vocals on the track.
• Two nights earlier, Dylan had played ‘Baby, Won’t You Be My Baby,’ a song he had not performed since recording it 59 years ago.
• The Byrds’ 1968 cover of ‘You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere’ reached No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100.
• Merchandise at the venue identifies the current tour as the Long Hot Summer Tour 2026.
• The tour is scheduled to conclude August 1 in Nashville.
• Support acts for the Woodinville shows included Lucinda Williams and the John Doe Folk Trio.
• Dylan co-wrote a song for Willie Nelson’s album Dream Chaser, released in May 2026.

The take

What makes the Woodinville shows worth paying close attention to is the cumulative picture they paint. Dylan has always used his Never Ending Tour framework as a laboratory, but the Rough and Rowdy Ways era has pushed that tendency further than most periods in his post-2000 live career. Playing ‘Baby, Won’t You Be My Baby’ and ‘You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere’ on consecutive nights suggests a deliberate, if characteristically oblique, engagement with the Basement Tapes as a body of work rather than a random dip into the vault. The 1967 recordings made at Big Pink with The Band remain among the most mythologized sessions in rock history, and Dylan has historically kept most of that material off the stage, which makes any live appearance from that catalog genuinely newsworthy. The return of harmony vocals from his bandmates is equally telling. That practice defined the warmth of his late-1990s live sound and its disappearance for two decades was noticeable to anyone who followed the tours closely. Whether its reappearance here is a one-night experiment or a sign of a broader shift in how Dylan is staging these shows is worth watching as the Long Hot Summer Tour continues. For a touring artist now well into his sixth decade of live performance, the capacity to still generate genuine surprise is itself a kind of achievement.

Why it matters

For Classic Rock listeners, Dylan’s willingness to surface material this deep in his catalog after years of absence is a reminder of how vast and underperformed his songbook remains. The Basement Tapes occupy a singular place in rock mythology, and live performances from that era are rare enough to feel like events. The broader pattern on this tour, from the MacGowan tribute in Dublin to the 34-year-dormant folk ballad in Ireland, suggests Dylan is treating this extended run as something closer to a retrospective than a standard touring cycle, which makes each night’s setlist worth tracking.

What’s next

Dylan’s summer run continues with a second show at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville, Washington on June 7, before the tour moves through additional North American dates that now extend into late 2026. The run is currently scheduled to conclude August 1 in Nashville.

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