In September 1974, Bob Dylan recorded the tracks for his album “Blood on the Tracks” in New York.  During a visit home to Minneapolis, he was convinced that some of them needed to be redone, so his brother David assembled a group of local musicians.  That December, the Minneapolis musicians re-recorded several of the tracks, which were ultimately included on the album.  Those musicians were:  Kevin Odegard, Chris Weber, Billy Peterson, Gregg Inhofer, Bill Berg, Peter Ostroushko, and Jim Tardoff.  These musicians were not given credit on the record jacket, even after several repressings of the album have given the label multiple opportunities to do so.

The Blood on the Tracks Studio Band has reunited several times, beginning with the Million Dollar Bash commemorating Dylan’s 60th birthday at First Avenue in 2001, a sold-out concert at the Pantages Theater in 2004, and its induction into the Minnesota Rock/Country Hall of Fame (now the Mid-America Music Hall of Fame) in 2005.  Also in 2005, British journalist Andy Gill and Kevin Odegard co-authored a successful book  A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and The Making of Blood On The Tracks, distributed by HarperCollins, published by DaCapo Press/Perseus Books, Cambridge, MA. The book is available in local libraries or on websites such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

In 2009 Kevin Odegard initiated a “Blood on the Tracks Live” show at the Veterans’ Amphitheater in St. Louis Park, joined by fellow album mates Billy Peterson and Peter Ostroushko.  The response was incredible, and concerts have been presented every year since, with additional concerts in Maple Grove starting in 2011.  Throughout the years, numerous local musicians have joined “the family,” giving Blood on the Tracks Live a constantly changing look and sound. The band has evolved into a Dylan tribute band, not restricting artist song selections to any one album.  In 2011 Kevin turned the reigns of the show over to the very capable hands of longtime friend and fellow local musician Billy Hallquist.   Billy was diagnosed with colon cancer in late 2014 and his son Dan Hallquist produced the 2015 shows, along with Odegard and Marc Percansky.  Billy Hallquist died in October 2015 and the concerts came to an end.