95 North. . . The Newspaper

Bob Dylan once sang that he was "listening to Neil Young". The proper response? You gotta turn up the sound. Young posing for Rolling Stone in 2016 Neil Young: the dinosaur hippie, is made up of the quiet, windswept Canadian plains, dark L.A nights on the beach, and foot stompin' chaos (via his sloppy, choppy, and heavy band Crazy Horse) in equal parts. There's much so to Neil Young's 40 plus year discography that deserves exploring, but here, we'll zoom in on three of Neil's "working models" that provide some insight into the man's musical output. The quiet, starkly beautiful, and windswept Canadian plains offer the impetus for Neil Young's best and most focused acoustic offerings. These Young tunes are best exemplified by albums like Harvest , Comes a Time , Harvest Moon , and Prairie Wind . " Old Man ", off of 1972's  Harvest , sets the gold standard for Young's slower, more meditative offerings. Written for a...

Recently, I had the pleasure of listening to an entire John Prine album all the way through (for the first time). You'll be glad to know I came out the other end with a generous feeling- no doubt brought on by the sly humor and gentle tenderness of the songs featured on Fair and Square . There's something incredibly life-affirming about Prine's songs. Whether he is doing so purposely or not, Prine seems to propose that the answer to life challenges is to 1) acknowledge they exist, and 2) laugh about them.  So these songs . . .what've we got?  Prine favors simple, folk and country based arrangements. His vocal delivery is the exact opposite of Bob Dylan's: there's no intensity, but there's also no quiet resignation, either. It's midwestern matter-of-fact that'll blow your mind.  Here are my favorite songs: " The Glory of True Love ": You can have your lunch in London, and your dinner in St. Paul, but no momentary, material...

On his 1973 album Planet Waves , Bob Dylan seems to be caught in between two words: the domestic tranquility represented by New Morning  and the dark sad night of Blood on the Tracks . Songs like " On a Night Like This " represent that maybe the party with friends far and wide isn't quite over, while " Forever Young " serves as a touching tribute to his children, a truly moving and heartfelt song that uplifts the sacred duty of parenthood to the spiritual. We've got friends, children, and big dreams, but what else? The romance. There are four major songs of romantic involvement from this era that also are worth mentioning: "Nobody 'Cept You", "The Wedding Song", "Dirge", and "Going, Going, Gone". " Nobody 'Cept You ", a tune recorded for  Planet Waves that didn't see the light of day until the first Bootleg Series in 1991. Everything about the song, from the sound to the lyrical content, sug...

MetroNorth Train in the snow.  Hard Night BY  CHRISTIAN WIMAN What words or harder gift does the light require of me carving from the dark of this difficult tree? What place or farther peace do I almost see emerging from the night and heart of me? The sky whitens, it goes on and on. Fields wrinkle into rows of cotton, go on and on. Night like a fling of crows disperses and is gone. What song, what home, what calm or one clarity can I not quite come to, never quite see: this field, this sky, this tree. My former stomping grounds: Beverly, MA (Dane St. Beach, at the end of Atlantic Ave) O'Rourke's Diner, Middletown, CT "Hammer is the Prayer" by Christian Wiman There is no consolation in the thought of God, he said, slamming another nail in another house another havoc had half-taken. Grace is not consciousness, nor is it beyond. To hell with remembrance, to hell with heaven, ham...

In Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign , author Jonathan Allen presents a highly readable and compelling political narrative underlining the myriad of deficiencies in Hillary Clinton's 2016 Presidential campaign. Allen places much of the blame for Clinton's loss on the shoulders of millennial big-data champion Robby Mook. Accordingly, the larger lesson here suggests that the overuse of analytics and big data over gut, human instinct, and common sense can lead to utter failure. You can't poll-test everything. Mook wanted to put in place a "strategy" to show the American public the real Hillary Clinton. When it is called a strategy, well, it rings hollow. Authenticity can't be contrived. There is still place in the world for business, government, and other organizations to construct visions and act effectively without reducing human beings en masse to a collection of data points that can be sold and tossed around by the elites. Clinton...

Scholar Richard F. Thomas's recent book Why Dylan Matters has a title that invites Dylan fans everywhere to ask themselves the same question. While it seems that Thomas has presented an argument that Dylan is a major western cultural figure in the tradition of the ancient Greek and Roman poets, it'd be fascinating to see a sampling of reflections that speak to the highly diverse nature of Dylan fans. Here is one from Dr. Ernie Panscofar, which you can also view on his blog  here . Many of his songs have a nice, easy beat to walk to during my daily exercise on the treadmill; I like using his tunes to write alternative lyrics to convey thoughts and events that are on my mind; The cover songs by other artists allow me to appreciate his lyrics in new ways; I can share my interest with Dylan's work with friends; Individual segments of prose, to me, are worth more than the composite whole of the entire set of lyrics; He brings out my creativity in expressing myself us...

"Beyond the Horizon" is the 7th track off of Bob Dylan's 2006 masterpiece Modern Times . The song is anything but modern. Embedded in it is a melody from the 30's, as the song "Red Snails in the Sunset" serves provides the melodic framework for Bob to explore his own wistful, blissful, and melancholy hope. The music, here, is a pure joy to the ears. Bob's vocals are focused, and fit the song like an easy glove. The woozy chord change right after Bobby sings "beyond the horizon. . ." is irresistible. I was slow to jump into Modern Times. . but it seems to be coming at just the right time! At the end of the day. . .

Bob Dylan's 1970 masterpiece New Morning  encapsulates exactly what the title implies. The old barn doors are cracked open and sunshine is peeking through. A deep blue sky is juxtaposed against a winters landscape, opening up new beginnings. Life changes- and if art imitates life- then documenting those miraculous shifts life takes can make them all the more worthwhile. I think Richard Wilbur's poem, "The Beautiful Changes"- jives with Bob's song, here. Wilbur contends that beautiful changes are amplified by the way one holds something beautiful- "your hands hold roses in a way that says there not only yours"-affirming that the best changes in life are shared. I'll post a Spotify link to the song and Wilbur's poem below. Happy new year! https://open.spotify.com/track/1FIrnH3Dme6EyYNnd96svn The Beautiful Changes BY  RICHARD WILBUR One wading a Fall meadow finds on all sides    The Queen Anne’s Lace lying like lilies  On wat...