The (In)Complete History of Bob Dylan and the Accordion

 

"It’s a perfect instrument in a lot of ways. It’s orchestrative and percussive at the same time. Actually accordion players were the first musicians that I had seen a lot of growing up." - Bob Dylan, 2009

Did you know that the diatonic accordion is the official instrument of the state of Louisiana? That’s just one of several fairly useless facts I’ve picked up since I became obsessed with the accordion, thanks in no small part to its prominent role on Bob Dylan's song 'Key West' and in his concert film Shadow Kingdom. I’d love to share more accordion facts with you, but this blog is called Talkin’ Bob Dylan, not Talkin’ Accordions (note to self: start blog called ‘Talkin’ Accordions’). So, as a compromise, let’s take a look at Bob Dylan’s history with the accordion.

The accordion’s first appearance on a Dylan album is ‘On a Night Like This’ from Planet Waves, played by The Band’s Garth Hudson (who, three years earlier, had also played accordion on The Band’s version of Bob's ‘When I Paint My Masterpiece’). However, ‘On a Night Like This’ wasn’t the first time Bob had been backed by an accordionist on record. That honour goes to Doug Sahm’s Doug Sahm and Band (1973), where Bob appears as co-lead vocalist on three songs, two of which - '(Is Anybody Going) to San Antone' and the Dylan original 'Wallflower' - include  an accordion.

The accordion here is played by Flaco Jiminez, who would reunite with Dylan at the 1990 Montreux Jazz Festival to play ‘Across the Borderline’:

The next appearance of the accordion on a Dylan record comes on ‘Joey’, track 6 of Desire (1976). In a great musical moment, the accordion drifts into the song just after Bob sings “Opened up his eyes, to the tune of an accordion”. On this album, the instrument (which can also be heard on ‘Romance in Durango’) is played by Dominic Cortese, a musician whom Allmusic.com describes as “the quintessential Italian accordion player”. Here he is in action:

The accordion took an extended absence from Dylan’s albums for the rest of the '70s and most of the 1980s, with the exception of ‘Where Teardrops Fall’ from 1989’s Oh Mercy. On this track, Dylan is accompanied by legendary New Orleans zydeco accordionist and singer Rockin’ Dopsie and his band. Unfortunately, although Dopsie is credited with accordion on the track, his playing seems to have been removed from the final mix. Hopefully there’s an alternate take/mix somewhere in the vaults where Dopsie can be heard. Here he is playing in 1984, with several of the same players who appear on 'Where Teardrops Fall' (including saxophonist John Hart, whom Dylan describes so vividly in Chronicles).

(Update 21/02/2022 - After listening very, very closely to 'Where Teardrops Fall' on headphones, I believe you can just about make out a few faint snippets of Rockin' Dopsie's accordion on the far right of the mix.)

Fans clamouring for more accordion on Dylan’s albums didn’t have to wait long, and this time they were in for a special treat. 1990’s Under the Red Sky is the first (and, to date, only) album to feature Bob himself on the accordion. He’s only credited on ‘Born in Time’, but you can pick out his playing on ‘Under the Red Sky’, ‘Handy Dandy’ and ‘Cat’s in the Well’, too. I wonder if he still plays.

(Update 13/08/22 - In Song & Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan, Michael Gray writes: "At the 1990 sessions for "Under the Red Sky, [Dylan] had this unexplained box in the corner of the studio day after day; then one day, producing from it a new accordion still in its sealed polythene bag, he unwrapped it and recorded the accordion part to 'Born in Time' in one take. No one knew it was an instrument he could even half-play." p.860)

As Dylan entered the 1990s, he began to occasionally incorporate the accordion into his live sound, too. In April 1991, Dylan was joined onstage in New Orleans by accordionist Jo-El Sonnier, who played accordion on 'Maggie's Farm' (Bob had performed Sonnier's hit song 'No More One More Time' several times in 1990). 

During Dylan’s Winter 1993 tour of Europe, Bob's resident multi-instrumentalist Bucky Baxter began playing occasional accordion during the acoustic numbers. I’ve mentioned the glorious accordion version of ‘Jim Jones’ from Pentange, Luxembourg before, but Bucky sometimes played the instrument on other songs too – including the performance of ‘Hard Times’ during Willie Nelson’s 60th Birthday TV special. During the same show, Nelson’s harmonica player Mickey Raphael can be seen playing accordion during Willie and Bob’s ‘Pancho and Lefty’ duet.

The next person to play the accordion live with Bob was none other than Sheryl Crowe, who sat in with Dylan and his band to play four songs in New Orleans on 16th October 1995. She would reappear two years later in Los Angeles, playing accordion on 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' at the fourth show of Dylan's El Ray Theater Residency. Speaking to Sirius XM in 2019, Crowe recalled sending a taxi back to her hotel to retrieve the accordion at Bob’s request.

Meanwhile, back in the studio, keyboardist Augie Meyers contributed subtle accordion to the tracks ‘High Water (For Charley Patton)’ and ‘Sugar Baby’ on Dylan’s 2001 album “Love and Theft”. Meyers had also played on Time Out of Mind in 1997 - there was no accordion on that record, but Meyers did play the instrument on the outtake ‘Red River Shore’. Two takes of the track appeared on The Bootleg Series Volume 8: Tell Tale Signs in 2008.

The following year saw Bob unveil his most accordion-centric work yet: Together Through Life, which features David Hidalgo of Los Lobos playing the instrument on almost every track. The accordion on this album is the lead instrument, playing the same role occupied by Scarlet Rivera’s violin on Desire. Dylan spoke a little about his decision to use the accordion so prominently in the interview with Bill Flanagan that accompanied the album:

A lot of accordion on this record – in places where we might expect to hear harmonica or organ or lead guitar.

Yeah, I guess so. The accordion can sound like all those instruments. Actually, I wished I had used it more on some of my past records.

Who’s playing that?

David Hidalgo.

Have you guys ever played together before?

I think so. Los Lobos played some shows with me in Mexico a while back. I remember playing some things with David and Cesar then.*

Is there a chance you’ll add an accordion on stage?

Well sure, if I could fit it into my rhythm section.

Did you write any of these songs with the accordion in mind or did it come up during the sessions?

I use an accordion player when I play off-road shows. It’s a perfect instrument in a lot of ways. It’s orchestrative and percussive at the same time. Actually accordion players were the first musicians that I had seen a lot of growing up.

“Opened his eyes to the tune of the accordion.”

Precisely.

 

(* The shows in Mexico Bob refers to here took place on 1st and 2nd March 1991, where Los Lobos were the opening act. Unfortunately, no tapes circulate from either show, so it's unclear whether any Los Lobos members - or accordions - appeared during Bob's set.) 

 

Hidalgo returned for Christmas in the Heart (2009) and Tempest (2012), but only plays 'lead' accordion on a couple of tracks (‘Must Be Santa’ on Christmas, and ‘Early Roman Kings’ on Tempest.)

Although Hidalgo played on Christmas in the Heart, he did not appear in the music video for ‘Must Be Santa’. The accordion player in the video is Robert ‘Smokey’ Miles, who might be better known as Count Smokula, the accordion-playing vampire. Here’s an excerpt from the bio on the Count’s official website:

Count Smokula, it is believed, was born 496 years ago in the town of Yabatubursk, near Glipsch, in Smokesylvania. Yet through an old series of family remedies, medicinal plants and herbs, he has retained his boyish vigor, and most people can't imagine he is a day over 380.

Even as a boy, The Count was known to possess miraculous powers of entertainment and was much in demand as a singer of Smokesylvanian songs of joy and for his exquisite playing of the SqveezeBox, which he performed at many Shlabans and other social events throughout the Shmear Province.

And here’s the Count in action:

The only live appearance of Bob with an accordion player in the 2010s came at the 2011 Grammys, when Mumford & Sons accordionist Ben Lovett played as part of the huge crowd of people backing Bob on ‘Maggie’s Farm’. However, nine years later, Dylan’s decision to feature the accordion on 'Key West' appears to have sparked a renewed interest in the instrument on his part. When Bob devised Shadow Kingdom, the streamed concert film that combined pre-recorded audio with separately filmed visuals, the accordion assumed a prominent position throughout. Some of the most effective playing is on this version of ‘Queen Jane Approximately’ where the accordion (as it does on 'Key West') acts almost like a drone, similarly to how its relative the shruti box is used. 

All of this leads us to the first leg of Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways World Tour, and the long-awaited live performances of ‘Key West’. Donnie Herron’s accordion didn’t make an appearance until the third show of the tour, and since then it has taken on a noticeably different role than on the album version – as James Adams put it in his must-read tour diary, “circl[ing] the song like a curious bird”. Part of me would like to see Donnie play accordion on other songs too, but, on the other hand, saving it for ‘Key West’ just makes the song feel even more special. 

I stopped short of calling this post 'The Complete History of Bob Dylan and the Accordion' because a) I've probably missed something, and b) I'm hoping that Bob will continue to feature the instrument in his live shows. Maybe - if he's been listening to Under the Red Sky over  Christmas - he'll get the urge to play some accordion onstage! You never know...

UPDATE - 25/01/2022: Some things I missed...

'I Pity the Poor Immigrant', Live at the Isle of Wight Festival, 30/08/1969 - Many thanks to reader Robert who told me about this performance, which may be the first time Bob was accompanied by an accordion. Dylan is backed by The Band, and the accordionist is, of course, the legendary Garth Hudson.

Mr. Tambourine Man, Live at The Forum, Inglewood, Los Angeles CA, 14/02/1974 - I was delighted to discover something I'd never heard before while listening to Ray Padgett's recent compilation of 1974 performances: a version of 'Mr. Tambourine Man' where Bob is accompanied by Garth Hudson on accordion. According to Wikipedia, Dylan performed this song (which was only played on one other occasion that year) as a Valentine's Day present for his wife.

Another reader commented to draw attention to the 2008 album Bob Dylan: Artist's Choice, a collection of Dylan's favourite tracks compiled by Bob himself for Starbucks. Bob chose to highlight not one but two accordionists on the collection: Belgian-French musician Gus Viseur, and the aforementioned Flaco Jiminez.

The Gus Viseur track is 'Flambee Montalbanaise', which was released on Columbia Records in 1940. Says Bob in the liner notes, "Whenever I hear a song like this, it doesn't matter where I am or what the weather is like. Suddenly I'm on a rain-soaked street in Paris underneath an awning drinking an espresso noir with a beautiful raven-haired Parisian."

The Flaco Jiminez track is 'Victimas Del Huracan Beulah', a tribute to the victims of the 1967 natural disaster. In the liner notes, Bob explains that Flaco is a second-generation accordionist following in the footsteps of his father, Flaco Sr., whom Dylan identifies as "the father of cojunto music". Of the younger Flaco, Bob simply writes, "I love Flaco Jiminez."

UPDATE 2 - 08/02/2022: Some more things I missed...

In Ray Padgett's recent interview with original Never Ending Tour drummer Christopher Parker, Parker mentions that the initial choice for bass player was T-Bone Wolk, also (along with Parker and G.E. Smith) a member of the Saturday Night Live house band. Parker reveals that early rehearsals in 1988 frequently featured Wolk switching to accordion, and that recordings of these sessions do exist in the Columbia vaults. Unfortunately, no tapes have found their way into circulation, so we'll just have to hope they get released someday.

There is, however, a bootleg from the previous year circulating called 'The G.E. Smith Audition Tape', featuring one of the guitarist's early jams with Dylan (backed by Steve Jordan on drums and Randy Jackson on bass). The biggest surprise on the tape arrives when G.E. picks up an accordion for 'Trail of the Buffalo' - I didn't know he was an accordion player, but he plays very well.

Another possible accordion appearance can be found on the colossal Dylan/Grateful Dead rehearsal bootleg, also from 1987, where keyboardist Brent Mydland is credited with accordion on 'Folsom Prison Blues'. I'm pretty sure it is an accordion, but there are moments when it sounds more like a synthesiser. Perhaps an accordion with some kind of effect on it? Anyway, here it is: you be the judge. 

Lastly, what would you say is the Dylan song that should feature an accordion, but doesn't? My pick would be the take of 'Tell Me' that appears on The Bootleg Series Volume 16: Springtime in New York. Can't you just hear it?

UPDATE 3 - 10/02/2023: More Time, More Mind

The recent release of The Bootleg Series Volume 17: Fragments - The Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997) yielded another accordion-based performance. This time it's 'Mississippi' - one of at least five different versions that didn't make the cut for that album. As was the case with 'Red River Shore', the accordion here is played by San Antonio's own Augie Meyers.