Dylan ‘Bringing it all Back Home’ — again

FARGO — Bob Dylan’s “Never Ending Tour” is coming back around, making its fifth stop in Fargo.

According to the Ticketmaster website, the rock icon plays his fourth Fargo show in 13 years at 7:30 p.m., Aug. 19 at the Fargo Civic Center.

The site says tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at Ticketmaster locations. Tickets are $54 with $9.50 in fees and additional taxes.

Dylan last played in town in Aug., 2006, at Newman Outdoor Field, four years after first playing the Redhawks stadium.

He previously played the Fargo Civic Center in 2000 and 1990.

That wasn’t the singer/songwriter’s first trip to Fargo.

The Hibbing native, born Robert Zimmerman, lived here in the summer of 1959 under the name Elston Gunn, working at the long-gone Red Apple Café (600 block of Main Avenue) and hanging around the Bison Hotel.

He eventually hooked up with Bobby Vee and The Shadows for a short bit as a piano player, but was rumored to be fired because of his limited musicianship. Vee later denied the firing and said he simply couldn’t afford to keep Dylan on.

After that summer, Dylan left for New York and released his self-titled debut in 1962. Within four years he released a handful of classic songs, like, “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” “It Ain’t Me Babe,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35” and “I Want You”.

When he finally returned to Fargo for the 1990 show, Dylan met up with Vee and the Shadows front man recalls how Dylan, by then one of the most influential people in music, recalled so much about his time in Fargo.

A new studio album, is expected from the singer/songwriter later this summer or in early fall.

In May the 71-year-old Dylan was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, by President, and admitted Dylan fan, Barack Obama.

John Lamb is a reporter at

The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, which is owned by Forum Communications Co.

Tags: diversions, news, concert