A figure in a suit and fedora hat takes the stage. His name is Jakob Dylan, son of Bob. The album he's promoting is his April release Women and Country. On that album, the backing included horns, some strings and other traditional instruments, framing Jakob's voice, sonorous and clear.
The album was produced by T-Bone Burnett, and the songs are more western than country, almost like Jakob has tried soaking up the history and culture of the American Southwest that surrounds his native Los Angeles.
Live, Jakob sheds the traditional instruments - minus the mandolin - and has a standard rock backing band, and when he sings the opening song 'Nothing But the Whole Wild World' he sounds like his father - shades of Nashville Skyline - but Jakob doesn't explore the genre so much as wander outside of it. The songs are sometimes light meditations about horses and love, sometimes dark, like 'Evil is Alive and Well' with its tales of the old west mood, while songs like 'Will it Grow' and 'We Don't Live Here Anymore' evoke Tom Waits (although the latter sounds a lot like 'Ballad of a Thin Man.)
Before Jakob took the stage, Shay Cotter opened. Cotter's an exciting finger-picker who sings funny songs. A nice combination.