Willie Nelson has recorded, and continues to record, so many albums at what seems like an incredible rate of speed that it is not only difficult to keep up, but discern which albums are worth it. However, every once in a while and sometimes more than once in a while, he’ll deliver a new album...
(Written for a U.K Newspaper to coincide with the 1998 Glastonbury Festival) Maybe you know Bob Dylan as someone your parents listened to and wonder what the fuss is still about. After all, the guy’s been around forever and why should he be different than any other oldies act, singing songs he wrote 30...
It was Flag Day 1981, and I found myself driving south on I-95, taking a friend to see Bob Dylan at some place called the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. It was her first Dylan concert and my tenth. During the ride, I was trying to explain to my friend what she may or...
It is now almost six and a half years since Johnny Cash left the planet, and not surprisingly, he still remains a vital force, not only as a singer, but as an inspirational figure who’s reach extends far beyond music. Cash was an American giant, and the designation of “American” is important, because in...
It was sometime in the first few months of 1970, I was living in some sixth floor walkup on the Lower East Side, and late one night, listening to Bob Fass’ “Radio Unnamable,” when this mysterious song came on that sounded like something from The Basement Tapes but the recording quality was too good and...
On June 8th, 1970, Bob Dylan released his tenth album (not counting Greatest Hits), and his second 2-Lp set, Self Portrait. It was the first Dylan album to be unabashedly and resoundingly panned by virtually every music critic in the country, most notably by Greil Marcus, who led what amounted to an assassination squad of...
First, a disclaimer in the interest of open journalism. Seth Rogovoy is a friend, and during the course of writing this book, he’d occasionally run ideas, questions or facts by me. As such, I am thanked in this book. One of the reasons Bob Dylan’s entire body of work has been the subject of discussion...
In June of 1963, my parents took me to a Pete Seeger concert in Lambertville, New Jersey. I’d seen Seeger twice before, but this concert was different because he sang a bunch of new songs, introducing me to the music of Bob Dylan, with “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and “Who Killed Davey Moore,” and...
(Ed. – Peter Stone Brown wrote this remembrance in response to a previous article of mine in Muddy Water, about the song “Restless Farewell.” In that piece, the issue of Lorre Wyatt was brought up, as well the Newsweek article claiming Dylan bought “Blowin’ in the Wind” from Wyatt, who had once claimed to be...
We knew we we’re in for a special night when they rolled the organ on stage. Then Bob came out wearing, jeans, Beatle boots, an old sports jacket and his black wayfarer shades accompanied by none other than Jim Dickinson on keyboards! A guitar-less Bob blew one wailing note on the harp and they launched...
Hard Rain : by Tim Riley Alfred A. Knopf $23 Reviewed by Peter Stone Brown Tim Riley starts this book, (subtitled “A Dylan Commentary”) with such a rush of words — much like his subject — describing the layers of meaning Dylan’s voice gives to his songs that I had high hopes for it. But...
Of all the musicians in The Band, the most interesting and intriguing is Garth Hudson. The Band was a special group of extraordinary musicians to begin with, but Hudson’s keyboard work took them even higher. Hudson’s unique gospel-oriented sound partially came from his use of the Lowrey organ. But it was his amazing technique as...
