Bob Dylan wrapped his U.S. summer tour on August 1 at the Ascend Federal Credit Union Amphitheater in Nashville, Tennessee, and marked the occasion by bringing opening act Jimmie Vaughan onto his stage for three songs across the set. Rolling Stone

Vaughan first appeared five songs into the show, joining Dylan on "False Prophet," a track from Dylan's 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways. He stayed on for Bo Diddley's 1961 number "I Can Tell," a song Dylan had already played 84 times over the previous two years. After stepping off for eight songs, Vaughan returned near the end of the set for "Goodbye Jimmy Reed," another Rough and Rowdy Ways cut. Henry Bernstein, host of the Dylan podcast Songs of Experience, reviewed the Nashville show for Ray Padgett's Flagging Down the Double E's newsletter, as reported by Rolling Stone.

The two guitarists go back further than this tour. Dylan and Vaughan's working relationship dates to the 1990 Under the Red Sky sessions, produced by Don Was, which also featured David Crosby, George Harrison, Elton John, and Slash. Jimmie Vaughan and his late brother Stevie Ray Vaughan both played on three tracks from that album — "10,000 Men," "God Knows," and "Cat's in the Well" — with Jimmie alone on "Handy Dandy." More recently, on April 6, 2024, Vaughan performed nine songs with Dylan at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas.

The Nashville finale closed out a summer run that had seen its share of backstage movement. Guitarist Doug Lancio left Dylan's band after a June 17 show at the Santa Barbara Bowl and was replaced by jazz guitarist Julian Lage. Guitarist Bob Britt, who had joined Dylan's band in 2019, departed the tour with a sudden "Sayonara Bobby" Facebook post. Chicago-based jazz and blues guitarist Joel Paterson came aboard on June 29, later joined by Memphis-based R&B guitarist Jad Tariq, with Lage reappearing as his schedule allowed. Rolling Stone noted in July that the guitarist chair in Dylan's band has turned over enough times to fill a 36-name listicle of every player who has ever held it. Rolling Stone

The tour itself is part of what has been called the Never Ending Tour, which began in 1988. Earlier this year, Rolling Stone reported that Dylan added new dates to the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour with special guests Lucinda Williams and Jimmie Vaughan at selected stops, including New York. Rolling Stone

Dylan's official site lists a July 21, 2026 date at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York, with Williams, Vaughan, and The Tilt-A-Whirl Band on the bill. That show's setlist, as documented by JamBase, included "To Be Alone With You," "Man in the Long Black Coat," "It Ain't Me, Babe," "False Prophet," "I Can Tell," "Black Rider," and "Share Your Love With Me" — the Bo Diddley cover appearing in the set well before Nashville. JamBase

For fans who have followed this run, the Nashville closer carried a particular charge: a Texas blues guitarist who first recorded with Dylan 36 years ago, back on stage for three songs on the last night of a tour that has cycled through half a dozen guitarists in two months. The catalogue did the talking — a Rough and Rowdy Ways number, a Bo Diddley cover, and a farewell to Jimmy Reed — and the tour, as ever, rolled on.