Our 10 Greatest Hopes and Fears for 2012

Hope: Bob Dylan has been on tour since 1988. The show used to go through significant changes every few years, but things have felt rather stagnant since the mid-2000s. Even the return of guitar virtuoso Charlie Sexton failed to shake things up a couple of years ago. In 2002 Dylan played 128 different songs during the course of the year. In 2011 he was down to 64. We hope that next year Dylan shakes up his band line-up a bit, lets some of the members actually harmonize with him again and start playing a more diverse bunch of songs. Also, a killer new album or a Basement Tapes box set would be pretty cool.

Fear: Bob Dylan has earned the right to do whatever he wants, but it would be a bummer if he continued to drastically limit his repertoire of songs and play similar shows year after year.