95 North. . . The Newspaper

Howlin' Wolf certainly changed Bob Dylan's way of thinking about music . Importantly, Wolf's influence did not stop or begin with "Change my Way of Thinking". Above, there's a video of Howlin' Wolf tearing down an old blues classic: "Meet Me at the Bottom". Beneath a layer of a groovy horn and slick drums, Wolf lays down a story of escape between guitar licks that sound like a soul yearning to be heard. The refrain here-meet me at the bottom-indicates the singer's desire for escape. When trains, planes, and automobiles are nowhere in sight, sometimes you have to strap on your running shoes and take to foot. It's easy to imagine that Bob Dylan's "Meet me in the Morning" is based off this ancient blues track. Blood on the Tracks did explore love and isolation from about 19 different angles, and the walking blues is one of them. Bob's desire to meet on a street corner- 56 and Wabasha , reinforces this walkin...

Happy Birthday to Bob Dylan, who turns 76 today. Hopefully he is celebrating with family and friends.

For the theologically minded, some quotes from Abraham Joshua Heschel: On Biblical Literalism: "The surest way of misunderstanding revelation is to take it literally, to imagine that God spoke to the prophet on a long distance telephone. The error or literal mindedness is in assuming that things and words have only one meaning. " Judaism & the Everyday: “This is one of the goals of the Jewish way of living: to experience commonplace deeds as spiritual adventures, to feel the hidden love and wisdom in all things.”  Lastly: As always, I feel like it is important to paraphrase Rabbi Harold Kushner when thinking about God: God is an abstract idea, not a person or a thing or a singular entity. If we ask when is God, not where is God, then we are asking the right question. 

Intro Part 1 Part 2 7. "Tonight I'll be Staying Here With You" Bob immediately implores us to toss our tickets out the window, and give it all to abandon over a groovy country riff. This song was often featured as the opening cut during 1975's Rolling Thunder Tour, so it's certainly one that can get the party started and is in many ways a cousin to "On a Night Like This". A bit of sparkling, bluesy piano tops this track off and sends it down the tracks.   8. "This Evening So Soon" Traditionally done by Dave Von Ronk in the Greenwich Village folk scene, Bob put this one to take during his studio sessions for New Morning. The melody, especially as interpreted by Bob, is utterly engaging, as the lyrics weave together about a hard livin' husband who doesn't make it home for good. On this track from Another Self Portrait , it is exceedingly clear that Bob was still baptized in  the folk songs of his youth.the folk songs of...

For a review of "part 1" of Dylan's carefree period,  click here. PART II 4. "I Shall be Released" A true Dylan classic that is also covered by the Band, but the version released on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume II  is the real keeper. Under the guise of writing about a prisoner trapped in jail, Bob makes an argument for a sort of pessimistic optimism over a clear spread of acoustic guitars. It's sort of a wandering lullaby, a sing along song from the woods, as you wander around the corner and see that "light come shining". 5. "You Ain't Going Nowhere" Much like "I Shall be Released", this song was composed with the Band and represents yet another great collaborative sing-along penned by Dylan. The song's title aptly describes the music, here, as it meanders slowly, never veering off track from its sweet melody. It's a lazy, content song, basking in the sunshine of the countryside. Dylan's lyri...

I Love Country Music Related Poem Content Details  BY  PAUL KILLEBREW Sometimes we blubbered through the fallout of willful confusion in pants that didn’t fit the legs we sawed off. We looked at each other and fell forward and back, forward and back, a little bit like dancing and a little like aggravated assault. At times it seemed reasonable because it always seems reasonable to accept whatever anxieties or losses must accumulate in the face of what we really wanted all along. In buildings and on streets you could paint a few eyes on a face  and see the careless representation of brothers and sisters making a family out of paint and the gracious mistakes of seeing. Mistakes, the essence of sight, could have been all we had  to go on anyway, and not for us to leave behind what took us through the shower of dumbasses with tact and a breath of elegance, even the hope that later, when the streets cleared of agitated needl...

Jason Isbell, unquestionably one of the best songwriters today, has grown out of the songwriting factory of the band the Drive By Truckers to create his own legacy as a solo artist and with his band, the 400 Unit. You can see my first post about the Truckers  here  (although I've expanded Isbell's best songs to include 12 in total).  Without further ado, here are the best 12 songs from Jason Isbell, presented in ( roughly ) chronological order: 1. "Never Gonna Change" This song is pure grit, as Isbell documents the sentiments of hard livin' southerners. This sense of muscle and menacing toughness is emphasized by the loudness of the song, as the pull of the lead chords let the band rev it's engines. Beneath this tough veneer, however, is a kid who was abused by his dad and whose brother is wrapped up in a life of crime.  2. "Outfit" It's astounding that Isbell had the capacity to write a song like "Outfit" while i...

As noted  earlier , between 1967 and 1974,  Bob Dylan's songs took a left turn and went around the bend, disappearing in the trees only to emerge stripped down to their basic natures: country, folk, and roots-rock. Dylan exhaled rural and family life in many of these "carefree" songs that cared less about beat poetry and rock n' roll. Here are the twelve best tracks from this period, listed in the sequence they are best listened to in: Bobby's upstate 1. "New Morning" This song takes the roadhouse blues sound of Howlin' Wolf, strips it down, lightens the load, and delivers an uplifting, spirit-rising song about the magic of new beginnings. Images of rural life abound, as roosters crow and motors turn while Bob drives home an impassioned yet laid-back vocal. In much of the song, we not only hear some tasteful acoustic picking, but a sweet sounding organ that mimics the hum of the forest. There's something about the way Bob sings "automo...

Bob Dylan and Mavis Staples: They’ve toured together, cut studio tracks together, and have almost been married twice. It turns out that Bob asked Mavis to marry him in the early 1960's. . . and she said no. Years later, Mavis asked Bob, but this time he was already married. As Bob once wrote, “I don’t want to marry nobody/ if they already married”. Mavis has illuminated these proposals in a few interviews. They are lighthearted, funny, and touching at the same time: Interview 1- Boston Globe Q. How did this tour with Dylan come together? A. My manager called me one day and said, “Mavis, we got a call — Bob Dylan wants you to open.” And I said, You’ve gotta be kidding! I would love to do that! This is a month-and-a-half-long tour — that’s long for me. The other day Bobby said, [uses gravelly voice] “You gonna be all right? Not too much for you, is it, Mavis?” I said, “If it’s not too much for you, it’s not too much for me!” Because Bobby’s a little younger; he’s 75...