Article Contributed by Gabriel David Barkin
Published on November 8, 2025
Stu Allen | Mill Valley, CA | November 6th, 2025 | photos by Gabriel David Barkin
The storytellers inform us that one day in 1975, Bob Dylan stepped out of his limo to chat with a young redheaded woman he’d spotted carrying a violin case across a Greenwich Village street. On a Dylanesque whim, she was invited to join the bard in the studio where he was rehearsing songs for his next album. He must have liked what he heard that day, because Scarlet Rivera was asked to contribute the fiddle parts that define the seminal album Desire.
The violinist joined Dylan for his historic Rolling Thunder Revue tour later that year and into the next, cementing her legacy relative to the 20th century’s most celebrated lyricist and generational touchstone – all due to a simple twist of fate blowing in the wind that day in The Village. “If I had crossed the street seconds earlier,” Rivera reflected in 2012, “it never would have happened.”
We are SO glad it did happen!
Guitarist Stu Allen, an alumnus of countless appearances with Phil Lesh, Melvin Seals & JGB, and Mars Hotel (among many others), assembled a mighty collective of musicians Thursday night at The Junction in Mill Valley, CA, for a 50th anniversary celebration of The Rolling Thunder Revue tour. Rivera was the guest of honor, providing significant touches of authenticity and instrumental brilliance for two sets of songs performed during the original tour.
The ensemble was backed by drummer Greg Anton (Zero, Heart of Gold Band) and percussionist Wally Ingram (Timbuk 3 and countless other appearances including with Bob Weir and Phil Lesh on their 2018 “Duo Tour”). Also on board were Bay Area scene musicians and Terrapin Crossroads regulars bassist John-Paul McLean, keyboardist Mookie Siegel, and Dave Zirbel on pedal steel and guitar. Bo Putnam came on stage a few times to play mandolin and harmonica parts.
Vocalist Elliott Peck (Midnight North) sang harmonies and also played some acoustic guitar. Peck had big shoes to fill. Emmylou Harris recorded the harmonies on Desire and sang with Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Revue tour. Fortunately for all concerned, Peck is one of the Bay Area’s preeminent interpreters of Americana and country. Harris would be impressed.
The weather cooperated under just-past-full-moon skies in the outdoor area at The Junction. (Appropriate for a show with “thunder” in the title, the gig had to be rescheduled due to one of those “atmospheric rivers” we used to simple-mindedly call a storm earlier in the week.) Open pit fires and propane heat towers kept the crowd warm as they munched on some pretty-damn-good pizza and drank craft beers.
There were three notable elements to this show that deserve attention. First, as mentioned above, was Rivera’s contribution. Essentially, pretty much everything Stu Allen does is a variation of a cover band. (Some people might prefer “tribute band.” Your results will vary.) And yes, nobody does it better – from Allen’s myriad Grateful Dead configurations (including Mars Hotel, Cryptical Envelopment, and too-many-to-count appearances in lineups with the Terrapin Crossroads family) to his top-40 “Stu’s Days” weekly gigs at TXR, Allen has proven time and again that his guitar chop interpretations and vocal flexibility are cream of the crop.
But the inclusion of Rivera for this show lifted the three sets of Dylan songs out of “cover band” territory and into “Oh my God, this is the real thing” heights. This was true particularly of the material from Desire (which was played in its entirety except for the gangster biography “Joey”). The crowd felt that first in “Romance in Durango” midway through the first set, and later during back-to-back performances of “Mozambique” and “Isis.”
Perhaps the highest of highs came during the third set when Rivera’s scintillating fiddle drove the energy into the stratosphere on “Hurricane.” The enjoyment by the many Dylan aficionados in The Junction’s backyard was palpable. Despite the song never being a hit and clocking in at well over eight minutes (including nine lengthy verses with no repetitive lyrical hook), it’s somehow a fan favorite. And although it’s a sad tale about injustice and racism, Dylan’s song no doubt contributed to Rubin “Hurricane” Carter’s conviction being overturned – which makes it somewhat of a happy song in retrospect. Protest songs DO work sometimes!
Rivera had a turn on the mic for the encore too, singing “Not Dark Yet,” the only song of the night that was not included on any of the original Rolling Thunder Revue show setlists. “I hope it’s not too late for this one,” she said before delivering an appropriately heavy and sweet version of the late-90s song.
The second notable element of the night was Allen’s appearance for the second set sporting a variation of Dylan’s own white face paint and a flat-brim flowered hat. Dylan never explained why he chose to paint his face for the Rolling Thunder shows, but perhaps the answer lies in a response he gave during a Rolling Stone interview a few years later:
“When someone’s wearing a mask, he’s gonna tell you the truth — when he’s not wearing a mask, it’s highly unlikely.”
Allen told Dylan’s truths for a short mid-show acoustic set (just Allen on guitar and, on some songs, Putnam on harmonica). He remained on stage, in makeup and wearing that flowered hat, when the band returned for a third set.
And finally, we’d be remiss to not mention the star of the night – which was, of course, the music of Bob Dylan. Allen and Company hewed largely close to the arrangements of the Rolling Thunder era, albeit with some flourishes and alternate takes here and there.
Dylan wrote (or in a few cases, cowrote) every one of the 31 songs, and it’s hard to imagine that each of those songs was not among someone’s favorites among the audience.
Which brings us back again to the power of Rivera’s contribution, those soaring fiddle lines that so many of us hold so dear. Desire is among Dylan’s best-of-the-best albums, a collection of songs that run the gamut from populist poignancy to deeply personal, from fantasy to history. He wrote few songs that were overtly about his wife Sara, and two of them are on this record. And he kicked off each side of the album with stories about the unconquerable spirit of humanity derived directly from headlines, ever the preacher telling us who we really are.
To hear Rivera play her parts from Desire was a gift. Oh, Sister, we thank you!
(Silly nitpick: The poster for this event misspelled “Revue” as “Review.”)
SET LIST
Set One
(Full band)
Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You
It Ain’t Me, Babe
Tears of Rage
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
Romance in Durango
Maggie’s Farm
One Too Many Mornings
Mozambique
Isis
Set Two
(Stu Allen solo on acoustic guitar and/or with Bo Putnam on harmonica)
Mr. Tambourine Man
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
Love Minus Zero / No Limit
Tangled Up in Blue
Simple Twist of Fate
Blowin’ in the Wind
Set Three
(Full band, no break after Set Two)
Mama, You Been on My Mind
I Shall Be Released
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
Idiot Wind
I Threw It All Away
Shelter from the Storm
You’re a Big Girl Now
Hurricane
Oh, Sister
One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)
Lay Lady Lay
Sara
Just Like a Woman
Encore
(Full band)
Not Dark Yet (Scarlett Rivera vocal)
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
