As far as double bills go, they don't get more potent than this.
After Merle Haggard and The Strangers warm up the crowd on April 7 at the Aladdin, Bob Dylan and His Band will close things out. The two musicians are fans of each other -- friends, too -- and this isn't the first tour they've done together.
While the pairing isn't obvious, it is smart and on-point. Both artists date back to the '60s, and they each heavily draw from the roots of American music, both folk and country. The old "Okie From Muskogee" hasn't lost a step and still plays like a man who wrote a song called "I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink." But he's also the singer who wrapped it all up so succinctly with "Mama Tried" and "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers."
And if you think about it, that sets you up nicely for Dylan, whose tracks such as "Blowin' in the Wind," "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues" documented the times, which were -- and continue to be -- "a-changin'."
Two American music icons, so disparate but so close. And Dylan, who continues to write intriguing music, wouldn't have it any other way.