YOU NEVER KNOW JUST WHERE BOB DYLAN WILL TURN UP.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Staff Writer

Bob Dylan's Never-Ending Tour cranked up again this week, bypassing Los Angeles altogether in favor of a single show Wednesday in Bakersfield.

Dylan didn't pay tribute to local son Buck Owens, but he and his five-piece band - the same lineup that backed him during his five-night engagement at the Pantages last March, minus fiddle player Elana Fremerman - did turn the kind of crowd-pleasing show that would have made Owens proud.

After the one-two punch of the self-penned "Chronicles" and Martin Scorsese's documentary "No Direction Home," Dylan has kept a lower profile in recent months. But that doesn't mean he hasn't been busy.

In February, Dylan and his band spent four days at the Bardavon Opera House in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., rehearsing new songs for what would be Dylan's first album since 2001's "Love and Theft." Dylan then booked a Manhattan studio to record the material. No release date has been set, though one international Sony Music Web site had a Bob Dylan project listed for August.

The recording sessions pushed back the debut of Dylan's XM Satellite Radio show to May, though, again, as is the case with all things Dylan, there's a large degree of mystery surrounding the project. XM spokeswoman Anne Taylor-Griffith said Dylan has taped several episodes for the still-untitled program and that more details about the content and start date will be coming soon. Or not.

That leaves the concerts, which, like last year's Pantages run, concentrate on mid-'60s staples like "Just Like a Woman," "Highway 61 Revisited" and encore faves "Like a Rolling Stone" and "All Along the Watchtower" - and (relatively) recent songs from "Love and Theft." The most notable difference in the passage of a year is Dylan's singing. His voice is stronger, his singing more articulate and his phrasing sporting greater variety. He charmed the small arena crooning "Shooting Star," and was positively defiant spitting out the show-opening "Maggie's Farm." The night's greatest moments were a blistering swamp-blues rendition of "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" - that line, "Even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked," never fails to elicit a roar of approval, no matter who's in office - and the banjoinflected foot-stomper "High Water (For Charley Patton)," a "Love and Theft" track that has become a huge fan favorite in the past couple of years.

The Bakersfield crowd was notably free of L.A. industry types and was a pretty even mix of Dylan's boomer contemporaries and young'uns not far removed from high school. One girl, who couldn't have been much more than 5, sat on her father's shoulders during the celebratory "Like a Rolling Stone." How did it feeeeel? Judging from the little one's smiling face, pretty darned good.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

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(color) Bob Dylan's voice seems to be stronger on this leg of his Never-Ending Tour. His satellite radio show is still in limbo.

Matthew Peyton/Getty Images