I Can See You - by Paddy Summerfield c. 1986

Sunday, November 15, 2026

Flagging Down The Double E Newsletter November 26 | RAY PADGETT

 David Mansfield Remembers Touring with Bob Dylan on Rolling Thunder 1976

“He might have been miserable, but we all got the benefit of it.”

Dylan and Mansfield in Fort Collins. Screenshot from ‘Hard Rain’

Six years ago, David Mansfield was one of the very first musicians I interviewed for this newsletter. Mansfield played pedal steel, mandolin, violin, and a host of other stringed instruments for Bob Dylan during both legs of Rolling Thunder and 1978 too. Joan Baez introduces him as “Little Davy” a couple times on the new box set, and she wasn’t exaggerating—he was only 19 years old at the time, the youngest member of the band by some distance.

Our first interview, though, was exclusively focused on Rolling Thunder 1975, then celebrating its 45th anniversary. So, for my recent MOJO cover story on Rolling Thunder 1976 (still on stands!), I wanted to reconnect with Mansfield to talk about the second leg of Rolling Thunder. I used a half-dozen quotes in that MOJO article, but there was so much great stuff left on the cutting room floor. So here is the extended version of my conversation with Mansfield a few months back.


If you can’t find the new issue of MOJO on a newsstand, you can buy it online here. Read a short sample from it here.

Mojo issue Dec-26

Okay, on to my new interview with Rolling Thunder multi-instrumentalist David Mansfield…

Photo via IMDB
For Ray  . . . mostly
Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (Live 1976)


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