Bob Dylan could never be called a Celtic artist but some Celtic musical influences show up on early Dylan bootlegs and recordings.
Dylan’s roots are strongly entrenched in the early protest and folk music movements of 1960s America. Although early works are reminiscent of Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams and Pete Seegar, he draws from country, Blues, Appalachian and Celtic music too.
While the Celtic influences don’t stand out on his early official albums, it can be found in the grooves of some early bootlegs. These recordings of his early experiments with music show how he took all of his influences and molded them into his own sound.
There is no question that Bob Dylan is a poet of the highest order and a Celtic poet influenced his name. He changed from Robert Zimmerman to Bob Dylan in 1959 when he started performing taking his new last name from Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.