T Bone Burnett To Present A Tribute Concert To Bob Dylan At The Town Hall In New York Tonight

The Town Hall in New York and T Bone Burnett, the Oscar and Grammy-winning songwriter and producer, are jointly presenting a tribute concert to Bob Dylan at the hall tonight at 8 p.m.

The concert will feature the McCrary Sisters, Lizz Wright, Mumu Fresh, Sara Bareilles, Bill Frisell, Margaret Glaspy, Joy Harjo, Joe Henry, Julian Lage and Punch Brothers performing songs spanning Dylan’s decades-long career. It will also commemorate his 1963 debut at the Town Hall.

According to the Town Hall, Dylan’s 1963 performance “marked an important milestone in both his career and the trajectory of the hall. Dylan’s Town Hall debut moved the young Greenwich Village based singer-songwriter uptown and to the largest hall he had performed in at that time. For the Town Hall, it is a major milestone of the hall’s turn to protest music and the folk revival of the ‘60s and ‘70s. After Dylan came performances at the Town Hall by Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Leonard Cohen” and others.

Burnett’s relationship with Dylan goes back to the 1970’s, when he performed as a guitarist on Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour. He has also performed many times at the Town Hall.

“Town Hall has been the location of many fateful moments, and I’m grateful for the invitation to celebrate one of those historic evenings on the 60^th anniversary of Bob Dylan’s first concert there,” said Burnett. “He sang 24 songs that night, all of which have been woven into the fabric of our culture. We are going to play a few of those songs, and we are also going to celebrate the sixty years of songs that have followed that night.”

“As the Town Hall reflects on its role in New York City and the world, we are turning to the great artists and movements that have shaped who we’ve become,” said the Town Hall’s artistic director Melay Araya. “There’s no one more befitting of celebration than Bob Dylan, whose lyrics have carried us through personal and social tragedies and transformation repeatedly over the last six decades. We can think of no one better to partner with than Dylan’s close collaborator and friend of our hall: the legendary artist T Bone Burnett.”

The Town Hall partnered with the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on the concert, which is the center’s first public event out of state.

A group of Suffragists fighting for the 19th Amendment built the Town Hall as a meeting space to educate people on the top issues of the day. During its construction, the 19th Amendment was passed; the Town Hall opened on January 12, 1921.

The German composer Richard Strauss performed a series of concerts there that year; it has also seen the U.S. debut of Isaac Stern; Marian Anderson’s first New York recital in 1945; and the introduction of Dizzy Gillespie’s and Charlie Parker’s bebop.

A Tribute to Bob Dylan is a benefit for the Town Hall, which kicked off its centennial celebrations last summer with a concert at Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan featuring Chris Thile. Zakir Hussain, Cécile McLorin Salvant and Emily King. This concert is currently airing on PBS All Arts and NJ PBS; it is also available online.