“The backstage Dylan—dutifully practicing with harmonica and guitar—wouldn’t have predicted a portfolio that would include forty-five more albums.”

Dylan has a backstage smoke in ’63. Mississippi John Hurt sits with guitar case in hand the year before his death. Pete Seeger listens to a young Phil Ochs in ’64. Reverend Gary Davis sleeps on his seat, oblivious to festival revelry. Lightnin’ Hopkins relaxes with a drink and a cigar. And then there are the performers satisfying their audiences: B.B. with Lucille, feeling it in ’68; Mother Maybelle and Mike Seeger sharing the spotlight in ’65; Howlin’ Wolf, Jack Elliott, Dock Boggs, John Lee Hooker, Otha Turner, and others delighting crowds across the decades.