As of 2020, Bob Dylan has performed 3,787 official shows since 1961, the year Robert Shelton hailed Dylan as “a bright new face in folk music” in a New York Times review of a show he performed at Gerdes Folk City. Shelton’s landmark review gave Dylan a firm boost onto the public stage just eight months after he arrived in New York. Notably, his review describes Dylan’s conscious dramatic style: “Mr. Dylan is both comedian and tragedian. Like a vaudeville actor on the rural circuit, he offers a variety of droll musical monologues.” These deadpan comedic “monologues” spoken over guitar accompaniment were Dylan compositions in the talking-blues style he picked up from Woody Guthrie. Notably, the key to performances like these is not the singing but the “droll” delivery and timing. “In his serious vein,” Shelton continues, “Mr. Dylan seems to be performing in a slow-motion film. Elasticized phrases are drawn out until you think they may snap. He rocks his head and body closes his eyes in reverie and seems to be groping for a word or a mood, then resolves the tension benevolently by finding the word and the mood.” Again, attention to performance style dominates Shelton’s description, not just the singing, but also the physical dramatic delivery.1