Billy Strings and company on NPR's Tiny Desk last month performing four tunes, Red Daisy, a traditional bluegrass, and three originals by Billy from his recent Highway Prayers album, the Appalachia themed My Alice, Malfunction Junction an instrumental with a lot of changes, and my favorite, Gild The Lily.
A nice way to start off the New Year.
Bob Dylan recorded Forever Young in December 1973 and it appeared the following month on the album Planet Waves. One of his best known songs, he released another version in 2023 on the album Shadow Kingdom. Dylan was 32 when he wrote and recorded the song. He was 82 when he recorded it for the second time. It hits differently. I know it did for me listening to it at 72. The original is a song of aspiration and hope for his young ones. Fifty years later he knows how it turned out and it shows in his voice and informs how we react.
Dylan married Sarah Lownds in 1965 and four children were born between 1966 and 1969 (3 boys, one girl), while Bob also adopted his wife's daughter from a prior marriage. He had last toured in 1966, using the excuse of his injuries from a motorcycle accident that fall to stop his hectic recording and touring schedule. While releasing several albums in the following years he only played a couple of one-off concerts and become a mysterious, remote figure.
In his eccentric and revealing autobiography, Chronicles Vol. 1, Dylan describes the reasons for his withdrawal in two passages. The first in a conversation with The Band's Robbie Robertson while driving around Woodstock:
He says to me, 'Where do you think you're gonna take it?" I said, "Take what?". "You know, the whole music scene." The whole music scene! . . . No place was far enough away. I don't know what everybody else was fantasizing about, but what I was fantasizing about was a nine-to-five existence, a house on a tree-lined block with a white picket fence, pink roses in the backyard. That would have been nice. That was my deepest dream.
The second in which he writes of moving several times to avoid the plague of reporters seeking him out:
Even if these reporters had been allowed in the house, what would they find? A whole lotta stuff - stacking toys, push and pull toys, child-sized tables and chairs - big empty cardboard boxes - science kits, puzzles and toy drums.
Whatever the counterculture was, I'd seen enough of it. I was sick of the way my lyrics had been extrapolated, their meaning subverted into polemics and that I had been annointed as the Big Bubba of Rebellion, High Priest of Protest [etc] . . . What the hell are we talking about? Horrible titles any way you want to look at it . . . What mattered to me most was getting breathing room for my family.(1)
The lyrics, written for his young children:
May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.
May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong (Chorus)
May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
And may your song always be sung (Chorus)
Bob and Sarah divorced in 1977 (she is now 86 and has never spoken publicly about the marriage). I don't know anything about their children, but son Jacob said in a 2005 interview, "My father said it himself in an interview many years ago: 'Husband and wife failed, but mother and father didn't.' My ethics are high because my parents did a great job." (2)
Forever Young also reflects a different viewpoint than that expressed in some of his earliest recordings. From 1962 through 1964 Dylan developed a reputation as a "protest singer", a label he bitterly resented and ultimately rebelled against. Though he is still sometimes called the "voice of his generation", Dylan never spoke publicly about the Vietnam War, either in opposition or support, despite it being the rallying point of protest in the second half of the 60s into the early 70s.
The song that marked that transition was My Back Pages from Another Side of Bob Dylan, released in August 1964, with lyrics acknowledging that issues and life were more complicated than he had previously portrayed.
Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
"Rip down all hate, " I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull, I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that nowIn a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not I'd become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My existence led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now
A self-ordained professor’s tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
“Equality,” I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now
And you better start swimmin'Or you'll sink like a stoneFor the times they are a-changin'Your old road is rapidly agin'Please get out of the new oneIf you can't lend your handFor the times they are a-changin'
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(1) While rereading some of Chronicles in preparation for writing this post I came across another passage which explained something else I've written about - how terrible Dylan was in concert with Tom Petty during the 80s, the only time I've ever seen him perform in person:I'd been on an eighteen month tour with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. It would be my last. I had no connection to any kind of inspiration. . . . Tom was at the top of his game and I was at the bottom of mine. . . My own songs had become strangers to me. I didn't have the skill to touch their raw nerves, couldn't penetrate the surfaces. It wasn't my moment of history anymore. There was a hollow singing in my heart and I couldn't wait to retire and fold the tent. One more big payday with Petty and that would be it for me. I was what they called over the hill. If I wasn't careful I could end up ranting and raving in shouting matches with the wall.
I had written and recorded so many songs, but it wasn't like I was playing many of them. I think I was only up to the task of about twenty or so. The rest were too cryptic, too darkly driven, and I was no longer capable of doing anything radically creative with them. It was like carrying a package of heavy rotten meat. I couldn't understand where they came from. The glow was gone and the match had burned right to the end. I was going through the motions.
(2) Dylan wrote at least two songs about his marriage; Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands from Blonde On Blonde (1966) and Sara from Desire (1977), the latter as his marriage was collapsing, and which includes the lyric "Staying up for days in the Chelsea Hotel/Writing "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands' for you". Sara is searing and emotionally wrenching. On the other hand, Dylan makes a lot of stuff up, so did he really write Sad Eyed Lady for Sara, or did he make it up as part of his last ditch appeal to his wife?
Have a friend here in Phoenix who is a fellow music lover and also a fan of Bob Dylan. We'd talked about visiting the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa (Dylan's archives are in Tulsa because that's where Woody Guthrie's archive and museum is). Earlier this year he found out that Billy Strings (another mutual favorite) was playing a Tulsa concert on December 10 so we decided to make a road trip.
Fortunately, Southwest Airlines has direct flight to Tulsa, so on the afternoon of the 10th we flew there and attended Billy's concert that night. I'd seen him once before and have watched endless live videos on YouTube. Billy and his band don't have a warm up act. They start at 8 and end around 11, with a 20 minute break in the middle. One of the things I like best about his music is though I only recognized about a 1/3 of the songs, everything they played was incredible. The rest of the group; mandolin, bass, banjo, and fiddle are as talented as Billy. We, like most of the audience, spent most of the concert on our feet.
We were in the 12th row of seats but in front of us was an area without seats where fans can stand for the entire concert. At the end of the show, Billy slid off the stage and hung out with the folks in that area.
His shows are a magical experience. Will see him again. Upon returning to AZ realized the concert marked exactly 4 years since I first heard Billy Strings (read Away From The Mire).
One of the last songs Billy played was Don't Think Twice, It's Allright. Appropriate since we visited the Dylan Center the next morning.
The exhibits at the Dylan Center take you through Bob's career and are set up in an entertaining fashion. It includes previously unavailable photos, recording takes, letters, and drafts of lyrics, along with videos from Dylan interviews.
The special exhibit was Dylan Goes Electric, sparked by the movie A Complete Unknown and Elijah Wald's excellent book Dylan Goes Electric!, by itself worth visiting. The highlight was a film about the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, the first part of which consists of interviews with some of the surviving key players (and their conflicting memories) and culminates with Dylan's entire performance that night which consisted of three electric tunes (Maggie's Farm, Like A Rolling Stone, It Takes a Lot To Laugh It Takes a Train to Cry) and the two acoustic tunes he came back out to play to calm the audience down, It's All Over Now Baby Blue, and Mr Tambourine Man.
All the interviewees recount that the Newport sound system was awful and Dylan's vocals were inaudible during the electric set. However, in the film the sound has been remastered so you can clearly hear the vocals and, it turns out, Dylan was in fine form.
Listening to Baby Blue when Dylan returned to the stage, it's unmistakeably meant as a warning to the hardcore folkie contingent who disdained his turn to electric that The Times They Are a-Changin'.
Leave your steppingstones behind thereSomething calls for youForget the dead you've left, they will not follow youThe vagabond who's rapping at your doorIs standing in the clothes that you once woreStrike another match, go start anewAnd it's all over now, Baby Blue
We had enough time before our flight to make a brief visit to the Guthrie Center which is next door to Dylan.
Billy plays most of his solos with eyes closed.
Lyrics from Mr Tambourine Man with Dylan's handwritten changes inserting "in the jingle-jangle morning). Below is the Cash Box Top 100 for the week in September 1965 when Like A Rolling Stone displaced The Beatles Help! at Numero Uno. The Top Ten also includes another Dylan song, It Ain't Me Babe by The Turtles at 7.
Below: Pete Seeger is often portrayed as strongly objecting to Dylan's turn to electric. Pete's contention is that his objection to Dylan at Newport was that the electric music was so loud it drowned out Dylan's lyrics. This is a 1968 letter from Pete to his father about the recent release of Dylan's album John Wesley Harding. I really like the last paragraph: "Maybe Bob Dylan will be like Picasso, surprising us every few years with a new period. I hope he lives as long." He has done so. If you are in any doubt listen to Oh Mercy (1989), Time Out Of Mind (1997), Love and Theft (2001), and Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020).
Mrs THC and I had tickets tonight to see the Outlaw Tour with Sierra Hull, Billy Strings, Bob Dylan, and 92-year old Willie Nelson. Unfortunately, I've got a bit of a condition that makes us unable to attend but the THC Daughter and friend will use our tickets.
In lieu of that, here's a mini-concert I put together.
Boom by Sierra Hull from her new album, A Tip Toe High Wire.
Two from the Billy Strings album, Highway Prayers, released last fall, and hitting #1 on the charts (or whatever they call it nowadays). An instrumental, Escanaba, named after a town on Michigan's Upper Peninsula that the Mrs and I passed through a few years ago, and Gild the Lily.
A couple from Dylan. My Own Version of You from 2020's Rough and Rowdy Ways. Dylan's voice is shot but that he could produce an album with such amazing lyrics, nearly 60 years after his first recording, is remarkable. And Mississippi from 201's Love and Theft.
Finally, from Willie, an unusual choice. This is Willie performing a Brian Wilson song, The Warmth of the Sun, with the Beach Boys harmonizing behind him. Willie has an immediately recognizable voice.
Over the years he's played with everyone from the old blues artists to Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Joe Walsh, Cyndi Lauper, and Bonnie Raitt. Taj (real name Henry St Clair Fredericks Jr, but known as Taj since 1960) is now almost 82 and moving a lot slower than he used to but his voice and playing is as strong as ever. He played electric acoustic and steel guitar, ukelele, banjo, and keyboards. At a Taj concert you'll hear an eclectic mix of country blues, roots music, reggae and Hawaiian music. What a fun, relaxing, and upbeat show!
You can listen to some of his music in the linked post above; this is Take A Giant Step, the first song I ever heard from Taj and what he closed last night's show with, and below are a couple of more recent sessions:
I posted a version of this song in 2021 when first discovering Billy Strings. Since then, I've listened to 15 or 20 live versions of Away From The Mire and seen Billy and his band perform their dynamite live set. It remains my favorite with its strong melody, lyrics, and other-worldly guitar solo. This version is from Lollapolozza 2022.
Let go of the pain and hold onto the rhythmIt's consciously held back in youYou're drowning a sorrow that's long been at restThe past is a hell, it can creep up inside youSo let me remind you of thisIt's the reason your troubles exist
From West Virginia, we give you Sierra Ferrell, one of the new country and bluegrass artists on the scene. And here is a live studio version.
Last week saw Molly Tuttle and her band, Golden Highway. at the Musical Instruments Museum Theater, a 299 seat venue with splendid acoustics. Molly is part of the new bluegrass thing along with Billy Strings and Sierra Hull. A terrific show with a mixture of originals, bluegrass covers (lovely version of Shady Grove, for instance) and covers of rock, featuring She's A Rainbow by the Stones and Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit. None of the covers were straight; all introduced original elements. Couldn't take photos but here's a video from earlier in the tour.
Last night we attended a very enjoyable concert by the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain, done with their usual humor (along with paper airplanes being tossed). Covering everything from ZZ Top, Robert Palmer, The Clash, Willie Nelson, a medley of Life on Mars/My Way/For Once In My Life/Substitute/Born Free, The Muppet Show Theme, James Bond movie theme, to Black Sabbath's Paranoid intertwined with Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. They did a straight and beautiful version of The Cranberrie's Dreams, and closed with God Gave Rock n Roll To You from Kiss.
I've been a fan for years and it was a treat to finally see the group in person. This was part of the annual Arizona MusicFest and the venue was the Casa de Christo Lutheran Church in Scottsdale, which was perfect for the concert.
A live performance by Billy Strings and his band, along with Sierra Hull on harmonies and vocals. Billy and Sierra are two recent favorites of mine. The song is a cover of a massive hit by Post Malone from 2019. I know nothing about Post Malone other than what I've just written but this is a very good song.
The last song from The Beatles, released late last year. Simple and elegiac, based on a Lennon demo from the late 1970s, transformed into a tribute by Paul and Ringo to their missing mates. Tonight's the 60th anniversary of the band's US performance debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, watched by 73 million Americans, including almost 13 year old me. At the time, the outbreak of World War One seemed unfathomably distant to me, but it was much closer in time than today is to that night sixty years ago.
I very much liked Tracy Chapman's Fast Car when first released, but it quickly became overplayed and started turning it off whenever it came on my radio while commuting. Hadn't listened to it in years. Heard there was a popular cover recently that was the subject of yet another manufactured controversy.
Tracy and the cover artist, Luke Combs, performed at last night's Grammy Awards and it reminded me of the beauty and pathos of the song. I gather Chapman has rarely performed in recent years but she was in great form and the duet worked so well. Until I saw his name, I didn't realize Combs had done the cover - I first heard him in a duet with Bill Strings (on guitar and harmonies) on a song called The Great Divide which is now on my playlist.
Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs - Fast Car#GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/WWztcov2tJ
— Craig R. Brittain (@RealBrittain) February 5, 2024
UPDATE: Sadly the Chapman/Combs duet has been taken down. Here is Tracy Chapman's original.
FURTHER UPDATE: The Grammys have posted the duet.
Written by Roland Orzabal of Tears For Fears, it was the band's first hit in 1982. This version is by Sierra Hull and her group. Hull is a very talented singer and mandolin player - listen to her solo at the end.
What's a sweetheart like you
Doing in a dump like this?
Asks Chrissie Hynde in her warm and enveloping voice. Recorded in 2020. Composed by Bob Dylan and recorded on his 1983 album Infidels.
Last night, for the first time, I watched a live stream of a music concert; Billy Strings and his band at Red Rocks outside of Denver. Since coming across Billy last December (see Away From The Mire - still my favorite) I've been listening incessantly to him. While his records are good, it is as a live performer that he's at his best; my #1 concert priority is to see him. And while listening to him I've also come across other terrific artists he's worked with like Molly Tuttle.
Below is a great jam on the tune Hide & Seek (you can also listen to a fine truncated version done at the Grammys last month). This link takes you to the beginning of last night's concert. And it's not just Billy, as great as he is, the band he's put together is top notch.
I'd never heard of Billy Strings until yesterday when I came across a mention of him and a recommendation to Away From The Mire. This is an extraordinary song and performance. Billy's lyrics and voice are wonderful but it is his guitar playing that takes this over the top (even when he hits the wrong note about 8 minutes in). Am now listening to more from him. It's always exciting to find someone new to me that I enjoy so much. Also featured are the members of his touring band, Billy Failing (banjo), Royal Masat (bass), and Jarrod Walker (mandolin).
In his introduction to the song (not on the video) Billy explains he wrote it after a big argument with his brother and meant it as a message to others. Several weeks after starting to play the song in concerts he realized, while singing the tune, that it was really a message to himself.
I am a lineman for the county
And I drive the main roads
Searching in the sun for another overload
I hear you singing in the wires
I can hear you through the whine
And the Wichita lineman
Is still on the lineI know I need a small vacation
But it don’t look like rain
And if it snows that stretch down south won’t ever stand the strain
And I need you more than want you
And I want you for all time
And the Wichita lineman
Is still on the line
As the second step in my reintroduction to live music, last night I saw Elvis Costello for the ninth time since 1977. We go back a long way.
Elvis was backed up by the three-piece band, The Imposters, two-thirds of whom (Steve Nieve on keyboards and Pete Thomas on drums) have played with him since 1977. We all go back a long way.
First time at Arizona Federal Theater, a large venue with 5,000 seats. It wasn't a sellout but was pretty full. Good venue and I'd definitely go see other shows there.
No opening act. No encore. In between, Elvis and the Imposters played for 2 1/2 hours with more than 30 songs. A real hard rocking show. Eight of the songs were in the set list of that 1977 show:
Watching the Detectives (probably the finest version I've heard him do)
Alison
Mystery Dance
I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea
You Belong To Me
This Year's Model
Radio Radio
Pump It Up
Elvis' voice has lost some range and fullness since we last saw him in April 2016. Possibly attributable to age and/or his 2018 bout with aggressive prostate cancer requiring surgery and treatment, but he can still deliver a song.
Here's a clip from his Philadelphia show a couple of weeks ago. He closed with the same songs last night: Radio Radio, Alison, Pump It Up and What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love and Understanding? Sound quality is poor, it was much more powerful in person last night.
Tommy grew up in Australia, is self-taught and cannot read music. His idol was Chet Atkins with whom he later recorded, playing several of his tunes last night. He plays a mixture of originals and songs by other artists, including a Beatles medley (While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Day Tripper, Lady Madonna). He also uses the guitar as a percussion instrument and in one song made it sound like a harp.
Below is a clip from a few years ago of Tommy drumming and then performing Mason Williams' Classical Gas. Last night when he played Classical Gas he segued into it straight from The Beatles medley.
The enthusiasm, fun, and energy he brings to the stage could be felt throughout the venue and what he does with a guitar is amazing.
The Mesa Arts Center's acoustic design makes it one of the best venues to listen to music.
