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Seven Days: June 4 – 10, 2023 (The Week in Bob Dylan News)

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Dylan.FM

[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1654295754149{margin-top: -40px !important;border-top-width: 1px !important;border-right-width: 1px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;border-left-width: 1px !important;}”][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”June 4 – 10, 2023″ font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:38|text_align:left|color:%23aaaaaa” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%3A300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C600%2C600italic%2C700%2C700italic%2C800%2C800italic|font_style:300%20light%20regular%3A300%3Anormal” css=”.vc_custom_1686521262887{margin-top: 20px !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”Seven Days in Dylan News” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:38|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%3A300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C600%2C600italic%2C700%2C700italic%2C800%2C800italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal” css=”.vc_custom_1671990723380{margin-top: 5px !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” gap=”35″ css=”.vc_custom_1669589654602{margin-top: -20px !important;border-top-width: 1px !important;border-right-width: 1px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;border-left-width: 1px !important;}”][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_custom_heading text=”Bob Dylan on Tour” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:26|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%20Condensed%3A300%2C300italic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1686509626427{margin-bottom: 20px !important;}”]

[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Tour Press” font_container=”tag:h3|font_size:20|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%20Condensed%3A300%2C300italic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1686518548376{margin-top: 20px !important;padding-left: 30px !important;}”]

  • Dylan: Sullen, Resilient and Unique in Madrid (The Limited Times)
    • “Dylan does not want what happens in his recitals to be told in a schizoid attitude that provides more eccentricity to the character. But even if he does not want to, we must narrate this twilight Dylan, nothing complacent, intimate, bluesy, aged (82 years), in some phase even playful.”
  • Nobel Prize Winner Says Goodbye to Spain (California18)
    • “The parish silently respected the great of the greats, in a thrill-killing concert with some tedious section, where Dylan seemed like a child playing focused on polishing the cerebral savagery of his wit interspersed with pretty songs.”
  • Dylan Avoids Playing Classics in Madrid (EuroWeekly)
    • “His voice is lower, with more of a croak than a twang as he is remembered on many of the avoided classics and maybe that is the point. Dylan has always been a storyteller and his messages always rang true. He is no longer that young man and his always thoughtful worldview might well be at a different place.”
  • Dylan in Madrid: Nostalia, Squawking, No Songs (Teller Report)
    • “Nostalgia is a word that annoys artists, they avoid it as if it reeks of sulfur. It makes them feel weak and decadent. Bob Dylan doesn’t give a damn about all that, not because at 82 years old he doesn’t care about everything; On the contrary, the future of the modern world matters so much to him that he has dedicated a poetic and dark album to it, which is a masterpiece as a reflection of reality. Rude and rowdy, this is how Bob Dylan, who titled his latest studio album ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways’, seems to find life today. That’s why he’s not afraid to say implicitly (he stopped being explicit in 1964) that the old days were not only good, but better.”
  • Dylan Enthralls Madrid (BNN)

    • “Dylan’s performance was far from disappointing. As always, he commanded the stage with a distinct presence that only he could bring. Instead of leaning on his famed classics, he navigated the crowd through a musical journey that was rich with storytelling and intermittent flashes of brilliance. The concert reminded fans of Dylan’s resilience and uniqueness in the music world.

[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”News Items About Bob Dylan” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:26|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%20Condensed%3A300%2C300italic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1686509704262{margin-top: 20px !important;padding-left: 30px !important;}”]

  • Dylan Led Ondara to Minneapolis (SLT Today)
    • “While in Kenya, Ondara heard Guns N’ Roses’ cover of Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and bet a friend that it was a GNR original. The friend knew better, and once Ondara was set straight, “I fell into this rabbit hole of Dylan, and I just haven’t been able to come out of it yet,” he says.”
  • The Professor Went To Dylan (Pacific University Oregon)
    • “The first minutes did not go so well. Dylan was of a sour disposition because earlier in the day he bought a leather jacket, which during the concert was stolen. This aggravated him immensely, yet despite his crankiness and tiredness, we chatted pretty much without interruption for 45 minutes.”

[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”The World of Bob Dylan 2023″ font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:26|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%20Condensed%3A300%2C300italic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1686510311242{margin-top: 20px !important;padding-left: 30px !important;}”]Last week’s World of Bob Dylan 2023 Conference in Tulsa hosted 32 panel discussions, 4 Keynotes (Cass Sunstein, Jeff Slate w/Margo Price, Greil Marcus, and Happy Traum), and 4 concerts at Cain’s Ballroom (Jeff Slate, Rodney Crowell, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams + Robbie Fulks, John Fullbright) and thousands if interesting conversations among Dylan fans. It lacked the buzz of 2019, nothing from The Dylan Archives was played or shown, and attendance was clearly down by 50% or more. But the keynotes were excellent, the concerts were fantastic, and the vast majority of the presentations were interesting, fun, and worthwhile. Tulsa was again a wonderful host.

There isn’t an organized repository of papers and presentations, here are a few:

  • Foster & Poe & Dylan (Shadow Chasing)
    • WOBD Presentation from Graley Herren on The Philosophy of Modern Song.
  • Bob Dylan (Critical Provisions)
    • WOBD Presentation from oboynton
  • Dylan, Cain’s, Switchyard, Tulsa (Lincoln Journal Star)
    • “I spent four evenings last week at Cain’s Ballroom…stood next to the leather jacket Bob Dylan wore when he went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival…got to touch the Neve 808 console that Daniel Lanois used to record Dylan’s “Time Out of Mind”…All that came around Switchyard, a new festival from the University of Tulsa that folds into its annual The World of Bob Dylan conference, which features panels and presentations about Dylan’s life, work, legacy, literary examination.”

[/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/JooimWc7Kis” title=”Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams – Wallflower (WOBD23)”][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKwQwZJp8oY&t=1s” title=”Happy Traum – Farewell (WOBD23)”][vc_custom_heading text=”Blog Posts About Bob Dylan” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:26|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%20Condensed%3A300%2C300italic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1686510380633{margin-top: 20px !important;padding-left: 30px !important;}”]

  • Dylan in Cincinnati Oct 1978 (Shadow Chasing)
    • “Dylan takes the stage during the final bars of “My Back Pages”—there’s no mistaking his entrance from the rapturous cheers—and launches into “I’m Ready.” Again, he seems intent upon defying expectations from the start. Here is the most legendary songwriter in popular music, yet he begins with a song written by Willie Dixon and popularized by Muddy Waters.”
  • A Hidden Ship (Dylan At The End of Time)
    • “The schooner is visible in the very first shot, before the words Shadow Kingdom appear on the screen. We see it to Dylan’s left and to the left of the masked guitarist. It’s only a golden sheen floating in space; you can’t really tell what it is, and anyway, you’re looking at Bob, and these players, and the mystery of it all. But it’s there.”
  • I Contain Multitudes Pt.3 (Untold Dylan)
    • “Not too informed guesswork, of course. By his own admission, even Dylan himself does not know where the words come from. “They just fall down from space,” as he says. But the option that the words do bubble up from his own catalogue is still more appealing than the theory that a ferociously attractive song like “I Contain Multitudes” is made up of scrapped-together space junk.”
  • Drifter’s Escape – Lyrics and Music (Untold Dylan)
    • “As for the lyrics, the point is that the drifter in the song goes nowhere and does nothing, and judging by the line “my time it isn’t long” he knows he is about to pass away.   But above all, as far as he can see, the world around him is completely out of his control.  He’s like a child at school endlessly being punished for being naughty, without any real grasp of how this keeps on happening.”
  • Dylan’s Opening Lines (Untold Dylan)
    • “And in looking again at Dylan’s opening lines I am struck by the fact that (and of course this is just my opinion) they are not all good.”
  • Tell Me Momma EP (Untold Dylan)
    • “Dylan was moving so fast in ‘66 that some incredible songs got forgotten. Because Dylan is such a touchstone for the three of us, I thought it would be fun to start with him as a way to kick off the project. It also allowed me to pay homage to some music that the podcast—which starts in 1969—hasn’t covered. It feels like the perfect beginning for this project.”
  • Tour of Europe: The Songs He Might Play Pt.3 Pt.4 (Untold Dylan)
    • “The songs Dylan might play:  This series looks at 23 songs Dylan could be induced to play, and the reasons why, with musical examples.
  • Noir Tunes in 21st Century Dylan (Letter In The Ether – Greil Marcus)
    • “Dylan’s “High Water” could be happening in 1927, or in 2012, with just downtown New York blacked out from Hurricane Sandy, or the whole country under a dome of terror eleven years before, or anytime in the future.”
  • Compilation Corner: Dylan’s Cold-Feed Blues (Flagging Down The Double E’s)
    • “Introducing Bob Dylan’s Corporate Cold-Feet Blues, the live album which could have been.”
  • Dylan, Baez, and the 2,000$
    • “Halfway into the song, I felt tormented by the soul-destroying way in which Dylan had sung the beautiful words he had written. I immediately switched to listening to Joan Baez’s beautiful rendition of the song.”

[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_custom_heading text=”Shadow Kingdom Reviews” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:26|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%20Condensed%3A300%2C300italic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1686520429388{margin-top: 20px !important;padding-left: 30px !important;}”]

  • Review (Spill)
    • “Overall, the whole album seems designed to make each song more wistful and melancholic and spare, which has the effect for any long-time listener of putting his age (and our own, perhaps, aging alongside him) in conflict with earlier versions of the songs and ourselves and ultimately Dylan himself.”
  • Review (Washington Examiner)
    • “He’s searching for the perfect version, as are his fans, and the magic happens on the journey to that unattainable perfection. Will this chord change or this lyrical tweak get us there?”
  • Review (Best Classic Bands)
    • “What makes Shadow Kingdom so compelling is not just the consistent excellence of these compositions, many (though not all) of which are available in concert versions on other Dylan albums. It’s the winning way in which he reimagines virtually all of them here, with the ostensible help of a five-piece band.”
  • Review (Spectrum Culture)
    • “Each song on the album deserves a careful breakdown, whether the new twists in the spry “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)” or the heavy re-writes for “To Be Alone with You.” Less famous cuts like “The Wicked Messenger” or “Watching the River Flow” suggest revisits to the originals may be in order. The album’s final vocal comes on “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” the sadness lingering.”
  • Review (Big Takeover)
    • “In any case, Shadow Kingdom is a vital addition to the canon. Dylan puts a refreshing spin on material drawn mostly from his first decade of recording, backed by a nimble, understated band lacking both drums and keyboards. Loose and polished at once, the vibe is hushed like a 3:00 a.m. recital, with the electric guitars turned down to suit the unplugged sensibility, while the wistful accordion conjures hints of Music from Big Pink, the debut album from his old pals The Band.”
  • Review (Christian Music Musings)
    • “The first thing you notice when listening to Shadow Kingdom is the “missing” drums. All of the recordings, which prominently feature accordion and upright bass, have a stripped-back feel to them. “
  • Review (Sputnik Music)
    • “The results are mixed – I’d be hard-pressed to identify a single song whose updated rendition surpasses the original studio recording (although the slowed-down version of “Tombstone Blues” and the moody and spacious take on “What Was It You Wanted” come close, and “Forever Young” is a stunner here) – but it’s still intriguing to see the oft-dramatic transformations Dylan applies to each, and his ever more wizened voice manages to bring another distinguishing feature to the tunes.”
  • Review (American Songwriter)
    • “Given Dylan’s recent much-publicized deal to sell his songs to the sprawling Universal Music Group, Shadow Kingdom could be seen as a generous gesture to his catalog’s new caretakers. It finds the Bobster offering new reimagined versions of songs from said catalog, mostly recast in stripped-down settings sans the arcane arrangements they were given originally.”

  • Review (Paul Leslie)

    • “Some of the songs sound like they have a jug band or skiffle feel to them. “Tombstone Blues” is delivered like spoken word art, with the band accompanying. Bob Dylan delivers each lyric with emphasis, while keeping his different style of song-delivery. I wouldn’t want it any other way. His singing is especially noteworthy: more impressive than the Rough and Rowdy Ways record that preceded this.

  • Review (TheSolute)
    • “I find it pretty funny that he’s randomly decided to release an album of Bob Dylan covers – and that’s not a joke, these legitimately feel like him treating his own songs the same way he treats covers.”
  • Review (Rollason)

    • “Musically the concert is excellent, occupying a terrain somewhere between the worlds of country and electric blues. Above all, Dylan’s singing is remarkably good. No blurred vocals this time round: every one of those words rang true, with the clearest of enunciation and the sensation of a Bob Dylan no longer tired of his creations and revelling in the power of his own wordcraft.”

  • Review (Greenville Sun / AP)
    • “Even with this official release, plenty of mystery remains about the aptly-titled “Shadow Kingdom.” None of the band members who appear with Dylan are credited and there are no liner notes. It’s too bad those details are left in the shadows.
  • Review (McAlester News-Capital)
    • “With Dylan, there’s always something in the shadows, even when he’s presenting his songs in a new, if somewhat hazy, light.”

[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Reviews and New Releases” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:26|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%20Condensed%3A300%2C300italic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1686518234592{margin-top: 20px !important;padding-left: 30px !important;}”]

  • Alphabet Jazz and Dylan in Minnesota (Ennyman’s Territory)
    • “…So begins Paul Metsa in his Foreword to the latest release in the Troubadour Series, Bob Dylan In Minnesota: Troubadour Tales from Duluth, Hibbing and Dinkytown.”
  • Cat Power Sings Dylan (The Music)
    • “Marshall’s sultry Southern voice added a soul Dylan could never quite achieve. The drop on “How does it feel?” has this ineffable emancipatory atmosphere made all the more immersive without the nasal drone of the original.”
  • Inside Freewheelin’ Dylan – the album that Radicalized America (The Telegraph/MSN)
    • “Not that there was a shortage of things to be radical about. America’s overseas adventures saw teenagers from Battery Park to Berkeley pulled from the streets to fight in Vietnam, the country’s original unwinnable war. (In fact, Rotolo only learned that her boyfriend’s real last name was Zimmerman after seeing his draft card.)”
  • New Book Pre-Order: The Politics and Power of Bob Dylan’s Live Performances: Play a Song for Me (Amazon)
    • “Ephemeral by nature, the concert setlist is a rich, if underexplored, text for scholarly research. How an artist curates a show is a significant aspect of any concert’s appeal. Through the placement of songs, variations in order, or the omission of material, Bob Dylan’s setlists form a meta-narrative speaking to the power and significance of his music. These essays use the setlists from concerts throughout Dylan’s career to study his approach to his material from the 1960s to the 2020s.”

[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Song & Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:26|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%20Condensed%3A300%2C300italic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1686514869236{margin-top: 20px !important;padding-left: 30px !important;}”]We’re pleased to have worked with Michael Gray to help put the venerable Song & Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan back into print after over a decade. Originally published in 1972 (UK) and 1973 (US) this book has been updated twice and grew to over 900 pages. Many huge Dylan fans will tell you this was the pivotal book for them, as it illuminates Dylan and his writing by looking at how he uses language, and how his work fits within the traditions of folk, rock, blues and more.

There has never been a Dylan book as well and widely reviewed. Rolling Stone called it: “Monumental, endlessly illuminating.” Christopher Ricks said it was: “Immense and immensely illuminating… It is wonderfully comic and serious and sharp. I am enjoying it hugely and learning from every page.” And recently Keith Miles said: “Song & Dance Man is probably one of the most important books written about Dylan. People forget that the road to the Nobel Prize was very long, took many years, and began with that book; it began with Michael Gray.” Last week Greil Marcus shared some thoughts on the book:

[/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/D6dq05I9j5s”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1686517192416{margin-top: 20px !important;padding-left: 30px !important;}”]The full contents of the 900 page 3rd Edition is now coming out as a three book series. Vol. 1 is now shipping in paperback and on Kindle. You can order it at Amazon by clicking here. Vol. 2 and 3 will be released later this year.

The latest Dylan.FM Podcast features a talk with Michael Gray about Chapter One. And a series of videos telling the story of the book has begun: Pt.1 Why Write The Book, Pt. 2 Early Reactions, Pt. 3 Getting Permission from Dylan, Pt. 4 Dylan Wants to Meet You – and there will be more (Follow us on YouTube for notifications.)

[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”17101″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” css=”.vc_custom_1686517149298{margin-top: 40px !important;}” link=”https://amzn.to/3qCpxW6″][vc_separator][vc_custom_heading text=”Photo Of The Week” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:26|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%20Condensed%3A300%2C300italic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_single_image image=”17100″ img_size=”full”][vc_custom_heading text=”NEW PODCASTS” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:26|text_align:left|color:%23ffffff” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%20Condensed%3A300%2C300italic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal” css=”.vc_custom_1656898202381{margin-bottom: 15px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-left: 5px !important;background-image: url(https://thefm.club/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/podcast-smallheader-1.jpg?id=15930) !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1686509298420{margin-top: -10px !important;padding-left: 30px !important;}”]

[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”17069″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” css=”.vc_custom_1684701563241{margin-top: 40px !important;}” link=”http://www.fmpods.com”][vc_custom_heading text=”NEW VIDEO” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:26|text_align:left|color:%23ffffff” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%20Condensed%3A300%2C300italic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal” css=”.vc_custom_1684702829145{margin-top: 25px !important;margin-bottom: 15px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-left: 5px !important;background-image: url(https://thefm.club/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Video-Header-FtQE89f3EXA-unsplash.webp?id=17075) !important;}”][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlJToxL-oZM” title=”Vampire Weekend – Jokerman”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1654542553362{background-color: #efefef !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”Prior Weeks” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:26|text_align:left|color:%23ffffff” google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%20Condensed%3A300%2C300italic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal” css=”.vc_custom_1654542433138{margin-bottom: 30px !important;padding-left: 10px !important;background-color: #000000 !important;}”][ult_layout grid_style=”4″ image_size=”full” s_icon_lightbox_image=”0″ s_icon_link=”0″ s_excerpt=”0″ s_categories=”0″ s_metas_o=”0″ s_metas_t=”0″ query_types=”1″ query_include_children=”0″ title_font_weight=”800″ d_i_filter=”79″ e_taxonomies=”77, 80″ query_offset=”1″ title_font_size=”12px” post_count=”8″][/ult_layout][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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