CHEST FEVER BRINGS BOB DYLAN’S ELECTRIC ERA TO LIFE

Chest Fever is a group who has built a reputation for bringing the music of The Band to life with passion and authenticity across stages in North America. Endorsed by the late Robbie Robertson and The Band’s official estate, the ensemble honors the legendary catalog through faithful performances, including their acclaimed recreation of the historic 1976 farewell concert, The Last Waltz. This April and May, the group expands that mission with a brand-new production, the How Does It Feel tour. “We’ve spent the last couple years dreaming up this concept and tour,” says Dude Cervantes, lead singer and guitarist. “We are very excited to finally put it into motion.”

This tour marks a departure from previous shows, shifting the focus to Bob Dylan’s groundbreaking electric period of 1965 and 1966. The show will unfold in three distinct sets: a set dedicated to The Band’s music, a Bob Dylan set, and a culminating set featuring Bob Dylan & The Band’s material together. “The Before The Flood album was the original catalyst,” says Cervantes. “Dylan and The Band are an inseparable union, and the juxtaposition of one another’s songs drove us to bring that to the stage. As fans of Dylan, we are super excited to get to hear these songs live ourselves, let alone dish 'em out with some incredible local artists live.”

To fully capture that pivotal moment in music history, Chest Fever set out to find the right performer to step into the role of Dylan and join them on stage. Enter Tyler Bagwell, Joe Grushecky, and Billy Rogers, who will be featured as guests on their tour in Buffalo, New York and Hamilton, Ontario, and Pittsburg, PA, respectively. “I’m putting it on myself to pay homage to the show and Bob Dylan himself,” says Rogers, “so I'm going to try to make it as close to the real thing as possible.”

Billy Rogers (top), Tyler Bagwell (bottom)

“For me,” says Bagwell, “I’ve been internalizing [these songs] for well over twenty years, so I think I have a good handle on them. I’m looking forward to just having the opportunity to do something exciting with the songs and all the guys in Chest Fever.”

Tyler Bagwell is a folk singer, historian, and songwriter based in Buffalo, New York. He plays in a duo with fiddler Sally Shaffer, performing historical local folk songs and Irish material, and also fronts the Travesties, an original project rooted in his own songwriting and described as “a synthesis of Buffalo folk history interpreted in a modern context.”

Billy Rogers is a Canadian songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Niagara Falls. Before switching into a solo career, he played drums in several original bands, citing Levon Helm as one of his greatest influences. Then, there was a change: “In my early twenties, I really sunk into Dylan’s work and realized that I didn't need to just play drums anymore.” Despite what genre of music he’s playing, Rogers says that “I always start off with a skeleton of a Bob Dylan song and then take it from there.”

Joe Grushecky will also step into the shoes of Bob Dylan, bringing decades of rock credibility to Chest Fever’s Pittsburgh stop. His upcoming appearance with Chest Fever feels like a natural extension of decades spent immersed in the music of Bob Dylan and The Band. “I’ve played with Dylan four times, and I played with The Band, and Levon was going to produce me at one point, so I have an affinity for that music,” he explains. “I got to sing ‘(I Don’t Want to) Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes’ with The Band, on the same microphone as Rick Danko. We sang “Happy Birthday” to Garth Hudson. It was just a spectacular moment.” 

     Joe Grushecky (left), with Bruce Springsteen (right)

Reflecting on his early days, he recalls, “the very first solo show I ever did was in front of Bob Dylan. I didn’t even have an acoustic guitar; I had to borrow one.” After the dissolution of his critically acclaimed band The Iron City Rockers in the mid 1980s, Grushecky carries the momentum forward under his own name, backed by his longtime group The Houserockers. Grushecky has also built a notable musical partnership with Bruce Springsteen, sharing both the stage and the studio. “I’ve played with him over 50–60 times,” he says. “He’s produced one of my records, and we wrote a bunch of songs together.”

The three musicians will be stepping into the role of Bob Dylan at Royal Albert Hall in 1966. The concert was “really important to me as a teenager,” says Bagwell. “It was the first Dylan album I ever owned.” The legendary concert—like the previous ones in Dylan’s controversial world tour—featured an acoustic set first, followed by a stark pivot into an electric set with the Hawks (who ended up becoming The Band). 

The shows with Bagwell, Grushecky, and Rogers will follow suit: they will begin with a solo acoustic set, followed by a louder, more rockin' set with Chest Fever. Most of the songs will be from Dylan’s 1965 and 1966 studio albums. Attendees can expect several standout tracks, including “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”, “Just Like a Woman”, and “Visions of Johanna”, with guitar and harmonica in tow. From then, Chest Fever will kick off into the songs that got Dylan in trouble in the first place: “Like a Rolling Stone”, “Ballad of a Thin Man” and more.

“Visions of Joanna” is the song that Bagwell is most excited to perform on stage. “It has maintained a spot as my favorite Bob Dylan song since the time I first heard it as the live version on this record [Royal Hall]. So I'm very excited about performing the song because it's not something I play a lot, but it's something that I greatly enjoy.” And Rogers? “I can’t pick a favorite one. Each one has something special that I can’t wait to present.”

“I’m really looking forward to doing ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ with these guys,” says Grushecky. “I think it’s going to be just a killer… And I love to do “Ballad of a Thin Man”. Looking ahead to the performance, Grushecky adds, “I think it’s going to be a really special night. That music has proved to be timeless over the years. Whatever you know, it’s always the audience that makes the performance special. We always give it our all, whether there’s two people or 20 people or 2000 people [...] But it’s the audience that always takes it to a different level.”

Audiences can experience the songs that defined a generation, brought to life on stage with the energy and soul they deserve. From timeless anthems to deep cuts, the tour dives into one of the most iconic musical partnerships in history, spotlighting the collaborative spirit between Bob Dylan and The Band while continuing Chest Fever’s commitment to reimagining a cornerstone of American roots music. “It’s going to be fun, it's going to be a riot, and it's going to be as close to the real thing as you can get,” says Rogers.

Join Chest Fever on their How Does It Feel? tour this April and May, and experience a performance that has left audiences stunned: “I couldn’t believe these were the same songs. Speechless is the best way to describe when they started playing.” (Roots Music Canada). Don’t miss special appearances by Tyler Bagwell on April 15 at Buffalo Iron Works in Buffalo, NY, Billy Rogers at Bridgeworks in Hamilton, Ontario on April 16th, and Joe Grushecky in Pittsburg, PA on April 17th. 

Click here for more tour information.