By Kath Gannaway
Dylan is back. And he’s in excellent company!
The success of Healesville musician Jeff Jenkins’ ‘DYLANesque’ has been phenomenal … but like an author of a first blockbuster novel, it left the obvious question … “what next”.
It was a question Jenkins and his team have answered with their new show ‘True Confessions Revisted’, set to rock The Memo in Healesville on Saturday, 18 August.
Jenkins says the answer was as obvious as the question … – you add a couple more rock legends into the mix. So, Dylan, Petty and Nicks.
Bob Dylan and Tom Petty made history when they joined forces for one of the greatest concerts of all time, on their True Confessions tour in 1986 and Jenkins leaves fans (and future fans) in no doubt about the impact that tour had on him, both as a fan and a musician.
“It was an incredible coupling of two of the greatest artists coming together on one bill that the world has ever seen,” he says.
“If you were there at Kooyong in ’86, you should see our show; if you weren’t there in ’86, you should see our show,” he adds with some of the humour audiences have enjoyed in DYLANesque.
“32 years on, and people still refer to the True Confessions Tour as one of the most remarkable gigs they’ve ever been to – it holds legendary status,” Jenkins says.
Taking inspiration from those ‘86 concerts, Jenkins opens the show as Tom Petty, with backing band The Heartbreakers, and Healesville’s Sarah Highgate as Stevie Nicks.
After the interval, there’s a short solo as Dylan, before bringing the band and Stevie Nicks back out for the final set of rocking Dylan songs.
Audiences can re-live the incredible line up at True Confessions Revisited, and rock out to Running Down a Dream, American Girl, Don’t Come Around Here No More, The Waiting, Refugee, Like a Rolling Stone, All Along the Watchtower, Hard Rain, Tombstone Blues, House of the Rising Sun and many other classic Dylan/Petty hits.
Is it a tribute show? “Technically yes,” Jenkins says. “But, it’s unlike any tribute show you’ve been to, it’s more of a stage show. We’ve done our research, we introduce each song with a story about how it was written, or what influences it, what was happening at the time; we put the songs into context.
“People love the anecdotes, they leave feeling they know more about Dylan or Tom Petty, which is great.
“We’re celebrating these immensely talented artists and people are intrigued about what makes them tick and how they came to be so extraordinary.
Book for True Confessions Revisted at dylanesque.com.au.
