Rough and Rowdy Ways is the thirty-ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on June 19, 2020, through Columbia Records.

When asked in an interview in 2021 if there was anything he wanted to share about his 30+ years of playing with Dylan, Garnier responded, "The last gigs we did before the pandemic hit were, I think, the best shows ever ...

[10] It is not known when Dylan wrote the songs for Rough and Rowdy Ways although it is possible, as with his previous album of original material, Tempest, that he may have been working on them with his band during soundchecks on the last tour before they went into the studio to record.

[12] It mixes acoustic folk songs ("I Contain Multitudes", "Black Rider", "Mother of Muses", "Key West (Philosopher Pirate)") with electric blues stomps ("False Prophet", "Goodbye Jimmy Reed", "Crossing the Rubicon"), a torch ballad ("I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You"), and a couple of unconventional songs that are more difficult to classify ("My Own Version of You", "Murder Most Foul").

Some of the music was apparently written in the studio: as drummer Matt Chamberlain explained in an interview, "[Dylan] might have like a reference point for a groove or a feel and then we'll just kind of jam on that.

[26] In addition to Matt Chamberlain, Bob Britt and Tony Garnier, mentioned above, the group included Never Ending Tour band mainstays Charlie Sexton on guitar and multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron.

The sessions also featured contributions from "additional musicians" Blake Mills, Fiona Apple, Benmont Tench, Alan Pasqua and Tommy Rhodes.

[27] Fiona Apple and Alan Pasqua both played piano on the nearly 17-minute "Murder Most Foul", the only track on which either musician appears, and recorded their parts in a single day.

[32] Mills wrote on Instagram on the day of the album's release that working with Dylan was "the one thing I have always dreamt of doing, and it turned out to be better than the dream",[33] and posted videos of himself playing instrumental versions of seven of the Rough and Rowdy Ways songs solo on guitar.

[35] Dylan had contacted his former collaborator Robbie Robertson of the Band in late 2019 about possibly playing on the album, even reading him new song lyrics over the phone.

Robertson regretted having to turn the opportunity down, noting that he was "slammed" with work on various other projects at the time and that Dylan "felt like it was cooked and he needed to bring it out of the oven.

In a transcript of their wide-ranging conversation, which appeared in The New York Times on June 12, 2020, Dylan discussed the composition of the Rough and Rowdy Ways songs (which he claims were written in a "trance state") and offered his thoughts on everything from the COVID-19 pandemic ("Maybe we are on the eve of destruction.

[51] The first leg of the tour consisted of 21 dates in the midwestern and eastern United States, the first live shows Dylan had played since the album's release.

[52] Dylan played eight of the 10 songs from Rough and Rowdy Ways at every show on this leg of the tour,[53] which was acclaimed by critics,[54] some of whom noted that it was rare for a "legacy artist" to focus so extensively on recent material in live performance.

On assignment from the Observer, Berry was tasked with capturing images of "black culture in England" when he snapped a picture of a well-dressed couple dancing while a man leans on a jukebox behind them.

Describing the album cover in Rolling Stone, music journalist Andy Greene wrote that "the image crackles with intrigue and romance".

[56] The only text to appear on the cover is the album's title, which is widely believed to be a reference to the 1929 Jimmie Rodgers song "My Rough and Rowdy Ways".

[57] The inside covers of the vinyl album and the CD both feature a cropped, colorized version of a famous photograph of Rodgers and the Carter Family that was originally taken in Louisville, Kentucky, on June 10, 1931.

[76] Reviewing for The Daily Telegraph in June 2020, Neil McCormick hailed the album as "one long, magnificent ride for his most loyal fans" and declared, "The wise old poet has stirred up a cryptic cauldron of truths and clues, philosophy, myths and magic".

[82] Sam Sodomsky, in a 9.0/10 review at Pitchfork, wrote that the vaudevillian spirit that ran through Love and Theft and Modern Times (2006) is mostly limited to the Frankenstein-themed "My Own Version of You" and that Dylan's "biting, absurdist humor is not the focus.

's Kerry Doole gave the album a perfect rating of 10, praising its allusions to "old blues songs, Shakespeare, classical mythology ('Crossing the Rubicon'), the Bible and pop culture", drawing literary parallels between Dylan's work and that of authors Don DeLillo and James Ellroy, and asking "why intellectual references are so rare in contemporary music".

[67] Although not released as a single, the penultimate track, the nine-and-a-half minute "Key West (Philosopher Pirate)", inspired substantial critical commentary.

[88] In an article accompanying the latter list, music journalist Rob Sheffield extrapolated from the impressionistic lyrics a narrative about "a grizzled outlaw, hiding out in Florida, hounded by his memories".

[88] Authors Adam Selzer and Michael Glover Smith have drawn thematic parallels between "Key West" and Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg's "Over the Rainbow"[89] and Dylan's own "Murder Most Foul",[90] respectively.

[91] A 2021 WhatCulture article ranking all of Dylan's albums placed Rough and Rowdy Ways ninth (out of 39 total) and summarized it thusly: "A lyrically dense, brooding and beautifully balanced record, Rough And Rowdy Ways is yet another spotless masterclass in storytelling, best listened to in one sitting to make the most of its purposefully repetitive, circular composition ...

[92] Ian O'Riordan, in a 2021 Irish Times article, also placed Rough and Rowdy Ways ninth in the Dylan pantheon and cited "Key West (Philosopher Pirate)" as his favourite track.

[95] In addition to being widely acclaimed by critics, Rough and Rowdy Ways and its individual tracks have also been highly praised by many of Dylan's fellow artists including Paul McCartney,[96] Neil Young,[97] Keith Richards,[98] Joan Baez,[99] Robert Plant,[100] Chrissie Hynde,[101] Nick Cave,[102] Phoebe Bridgers,[103] David Byrne,[104] Bruce Springsteen,[105] Joan Osborne,[106] Sharon Van Etten,[107] Iggy Pop,[108] Ann Wilson,[109] Jarvis Cocker,[104] Alison Mosshart,[104] Wilco,[110] Eleanor Friedberger,[111] Elvis Costello,[112] Margo Price,[113] and Todd Haynes, director of the Dylan biopic I'm Not There.