Rolling Thunder Revue - The Spring Tour of 1976

The Spring Tour of 1976

A second Hurricane Carter benefit was held at the Astrodome Houston, Texas on January 25. Before the Concert, Dylan chose to meet with the man that discovered him, Roy Silver, and Silver's partner, manager Richard Flanzer for some advice. Silver and Flanzer quickly provided artists including Stevie Wonder, Ringo Starr and Dr. John, to make this concert the most successful event of the tour, with Dylan at his best.

Dylan then tried to recreate the Rolling Thunder Revue's success in the spring of 1976. Rehearsals were held in Clearwater, Florida during April, and the first show was on April 18 at the Civic Center in Lakeland, Florida. The tour continued throughout April and May in the American South and Southwest.

The penultimate show of the tour took place on May 23 at Hughes Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado. Comments about it typified the feeling about the spring tour: "Although the band has been playing together longer, the charm has gone out of their exchanges," wrote Tim Riley. "The Rolling Thunder Revue, so joyful and electrifying in its first performances, had just plain run out of steam," wrote music critic Janet Maslin for Rolling Stone.

The final Rolling Thunder show took place on May 25. Held at a half-empty, 17,000 seat Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah, it would be Dylan's last performance for twenty-one months (except for The Last Waltz in November 1976 for The Band), and it would be another two years before Dylan recorded another album of new material.

In recent years, the second leg of the tour has been held in higher regard by fans and critics.