27 April 2012

 

Bob Dylan Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom

 

Bob Dylan has been named by President Barack Obama as one of 13 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Medal of Freedom is the United States of America’s highest civilian honour. The medal recognizes those individuals who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavours”. It was established in 1963 and replaced the earlier Medal of Freedom that was established by President Harry S. Truman in 1945.

 

President Obama said, “These extraordinary honourees come from different backgrounds and different walks of life, but each of them has made a lasting contribution to the life of our Nation. They’ve challenged us, they’ve inspired us, and they’ve made the world a better place. I look forward to recognizing them with this award.”

 

The announcement was made on April 26, 2012. The awards will be presented at the White House in late spring.

 

 

18 April 2012

 

The Minneapolis Hotel Tape & The Gaslight Café CD

 

Released in the UK on CD by BDA Records on May 8, 2012 (but available to pre order NOW from ISIS), “The Minneapolis Hotel Tape & The Gaslight Café” follows BDA’s releases of the Carnegie Chapter Hall concert and the Minneapolis Party Tape earlier this year (2012). Recorded in September and December 1961, both of these new recordings are presented in superb quality, especially considering the early dates of the recordings and the type of equipment used. The CD features all six songs from Dylan’s Gaslight Café set and 18 of the songs performed at the home of Bonnie Beecher in Minneapolis on December 22, 1961. For copyright reasons, BDA has omitted tracks previously released by Columbia Records. This release is presented in deluxe packaging with a booklet of notes. Order your copy HERE

 

New Tour Date Announced - July 16, 2012

 

After much talk about the possibility of Bob Dylan playing several festivals in Italy, confirmation has just arrived that he will appear at a literary and music festival in Barolo. The four-day “Collisioni Festival” (Collision Festival) runs from July 13-16 with Dylan appearing on the final evening. The event will take place in the Piazza Colbert in Barolo, Italy. Capacity 4,000. Tickets on sale April 18. This concert, the only Italian show, helps to fill the previous gap between shows in France on July 15 and 18.

 

Levon Helm

 

Levon Helm in the Final Stages of his Battle with Cancer

 

 

16 April 2012

 

Back On The Road

 

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Citibank Hall (April 15, 2012)

1. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat

2. It Ain't Me, Babe (Bob on guitar)

3. Things Have Changed

4. Tangled Up In Blue

5. The Levee's Gonna Break

6. Tryin' To Get To Heaven

7. Beyond Here Lies Nothin'

8. Desolation Row

9. Summer Days

10. Simple Twist Of Fate

11. Highway 61 Revisited

12. Forgetful Heart

13. Thunder On The Mountain

14. Ballad Of A Thin Man

(encore)

15. Like A Rolling Stone

16. All Along The Watchtower

 

The band remains unchanged.

 

 

12 April 2012

 

For The Love Of The Music: The Club 47 Folk Revival

 

ISIS has just been informed that a new documentary film celebrating the roots of the Cambridge, Massachusetts folk music scene will premiere at the 2012 Boston International Film Festival on Tuesday April 17, 2012.

 

ISIS subscribers will, I’m sure, remember a recent article written by James O’Brien and published in ISIS issue 159 (November 2011). The piece revealed information about a previously unknown reel-to-reel tape recording of Bob Dylan performing at Club 47 in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Sunday, April 21, 1963.

 

The tape includes ‘Talkin’ World War III Blues’, a Dylan duet with Eric von Schmidt on ‘Glory, Glory’, and a partial recording of Dylan singing ‘With God On Our Side’, which cuts off just before the last line of the sixth verse. Dylan refers to the song’s title as ‘With God On My Side’.

 

The lyric differences between the Club 47 performance of ‘Talkin’ World War III Blues’ (the earliest known recording of the song) and later performances are all covered in O’Brien’s article.

 

The new documentary film, entitled “For The Love Of The Music: The Club 47 Folk Revival”, centres around the iconic Harvard Square coffeehouse, now known as Club Passim, where Joan Baez, Tom Rush, Judy Collins and many others got their starts in the early years of the folk revival.

 

The 105-minute film features 30 on-camera interviews with Baez, Rush, Collins, Taj Mahal, Maria Muldaur, Geoff Muldaur, Jim Kweskin, Jackie Washington, Jim Rooney, Peter Rowan and many others. It also features previously unreleased music and rare photographs, featuring Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and others. Included in the film are the audio recordings of the three Dylan performances mentioned above and written about by O’Brien in his ISIS article.

 

Peter Coyote narrates the film, which documents the fateful day in 1958 when a young unknown singer named Joan Baez talked her way into becoming the first folk act to play the tiny Mount Auburn Street jazz club. From there, the film documents how the club came to play a major role in the American folk revival, which peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s.

 

“For The Love Of The Music” will premiere at 6pm at the Boston International Film Festival, April 17, 2012, at the Loews Theatre / AMC Boston Common. Tickets for the premiere are $12. The film will also screen at the SENE Film, Music and Arts Festival at Brooklyn Coffee and Tea House in Providence, RI on Friday April 13, 6:00 PM EST. Further screenings will hopefully be arranged for later this year and one would anticipate there will eventually be a DVD release.

 

check out the trailer http://bit.ly/Club47film

 

 

05 April 2012

 

Further Tour Dates Announced

 

July 7: Salzburg Arena, Salzburg, Austria

July 15: Festival De Nimes, Nimes, France.

 

 

March 30, 2012

 

ISIS 161

 

ISIS 161 is currently at the printer and will be mailed out to subscribers next week

 

Tour Update

 

June 30: Hop Farm Festival, Paddock Wood, Kent, England

July 2: Zitadelle Spandau, Berlin, Germany

July 3: Freilichtbühne Junge Garde, Dresden, Germany

July 4: Kunst!Rasen Gronau, Bonn, Germany  

July 6: Schlosshof, Bad Mergentheim, Germany

July 8: Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux, Switzerland

July 13: Festival Internacional de Benicàssim, Festival Grounds, Benicàssim, Spain

July 18: Les Nuits De Fourvière Festival, Grand Théatre, Lyon, France  

July 20:  Bayonne Arena, Bayonne, France  

July 22:  Festival des Vieilles Charrues, Vielles Charrues, Carhaix, France

August: Piazza Signorelli, Toscona, Cortona Art Festival, Cortona, Italy (not confirmed)

 

A clutch of new concerts dates, mainly in Germany, have just been announced for Bob Dylan’s Summer Tour of Europe. More dates are still to be announced, especially in and Spain and possibly also in Italy.

 

As expected, the date for Bob Dylan’s appearance at Hop Farm Festival has been confirmed as Saturday June 30th.

 

Priced at £150.00, Weekend Tickets are now on sale. This ticket includes the three-day festival plus four days of camping and car parking. Currently, there are no Day Tickets for sale, though these were made available for the 2010 festival. Day Tickets being made available will depend on sales of the full Weekend Tickets. In other words, if they can sell the festival out with Weekend Tickets only, no Day Tickets will be issued.    

 

 

March 29, 2012

 

Even More Tour News

 

June 29-1: Hop Farm Festival, Paddock Wood, Kent, England (exact date to be confirmed)    

July 4: Kunst!Rasen Gronau, Bonn, Germany  (not confirmed)  

July 12-15: Festival Internacional de Benicàssim, Festival Grounds, Benicàssim, Spain (exact date to be confirmed)  

July 18:  Fourviere Nights Festival, Lyon, France  

July 20:  Bayonne Arena, Bayonne, France - (not confirmed)  

July 22:  Festival des Vieilles Charrues, Vielles Charrues, Carhaix, France

 

Many more dates to be announced, especially in Germany and Spain.

 

 

March 27, 2012

 

More Tour News

 

Vince Power has announced that Bob Dylan will again headline the Hop Farm Festival. The festival will be staged over the weekend of Friday, June 29 – Sunday July 1, 2012 at Hop Farm, Paddock Wood, Kent. The UK promoter had said that Dylan would not play the Britain in 2012 (as in concerts proper) however, as I state in our “Something’s Happening” pages in ISIS Magazine, “festivals are always tempting”.

 

Thanks to Wiebke for spotting this.

 

Visit Hop Farm website 

 

Dylan will also headline at the Benicassim festival (FIB). The Benicassim International Festival will be held from 12 to 15 July in the coastal town of Castellón in Spain.

 

 

March 21, 2012

 

Just Announced...

 

05 May Heredia, Costa Rica – Palacio de Deportes – Capacity 6,000

 

 

March 16, 2012

 

Even More On South America

 

Two further shows are now booked for the Mexican leg of Bob Dylan’s South American tour. These are May 7, Monterrey at the Auditorio Banamex, and May 9, Guadalajara at the Auditorio Telmex. A second show in Mexico City (May 12) should be confirmed shortly.

 

15 April Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Citibank Hall – Capacity 9,600

17 April Brasília – Ginásio Nilson, Nelson – Capacity 16,600

19 April Belo Horizonte, Brazil – Chevrolet Hall – Capacity 6,700 (Sold Out)

21 April São Paulo, Brazil – Credicard Hall – Capacity 7,500

22 April São Paulo, Brazil – Credicard Hall – Capacity 7,500

24 April Porto Alegre, Brazil – Pepsi On Stage – Capacity 7,200 (Sold Out)

26 April Buenos Aires, Argentina – Teatro Gran Rex – Capacity 3,500 (Sold Out)

27 April Buenos Aires, Argentina – Teatro Gran Rex – Capacity 3,500 (Sold Out)

28 April Buenos Aires, Argentina – Teatro Gran Rex – Capacity 3,500

30 April Buenos Aires, Argentina – Teatro Gran Rex – Capacity 3,500

02 May Santiago, Chile – Movistar Arena – Capacity 15,000

07 May Monterrey, Mexico – Fundidora Park, Auditorio Banamex – Capacity 7,000

09 May Guadalajara, Mexico – Auditorio Telmex – Maximum Capacity 11,500

11 May Mexico City, Mexico – Pepsi Center

12 May Mexico City, Mexico – Pepsi Center (to be confirmed)

 

 

March 15, 2012

 

No Knopfler

 

Guy Fletcher (a long-term member of Mark Knopfler’s band) has dismissed talk that Knopfler might have been in the studio with Bob Dylan as “nonsense”. This confirms what ISIS thought. It was our understanding that after delaying post-production work on his own album by two months to participate in the joint Dylan / Knopfler European tour that Knopfler was mixing his own album in British Grove Studios, a semi-private facility which he owns in Chiswick, West London, at the time Dylan was working on his album.

 

More On South America

 

Although not yet confirmed (March 14), it is understood that Bob Dylan will play a concert in Mexico City on May 11, 2012 as one of the opening events to launch the Pepsi Center, which is located in the World Trade Center building. Further South American dates are still to be announced.

 

Bob Dylan And The Band DVD

 

A documentary DVD focusing on Bob Dylan and The Band is scheduled for release later this year. Those taking part include Garth Hudson, Mickey Jones, Band producer John Simon, and singer Ronnie Hawkins.

 

March 14, 2012

 

Additions And a Change To South American Tour

 

Bob Dylan will now play a fourth show in the Teatro Gran Rex in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This fourth concert will take place on April 30, 2012. This date was previously allocated to a show in Santiago, Chile, which has now been rescheduled to May 2. The strange thing is, tickets for the original Santiago show on April 30 were supposed to have gone on sale on March 4, ten days before the date change.    

There is also a very strong rumour that Dylan will play the Palacio de Deportes in Heredia, Costa Rica in early May. The venue, with a capacity of about 10,000, is likely to play host to both Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney in May– though obviously not on the same bill. Both artists’ concerts are likely to be confirmed later this week. 

 

26 April Buenos Aires, Argentina – Teatro Gran Rex – Capacity 3,500 (Sold Out)

27 April Buenos Aires, Argentina – Teatro Gran Rex – Capacity 3,500 (Sold Out)

28 April Buenos Aires, Argentina – Teatro Gran Rex – Capacity 3,500

30 April Buenos Aires, Argentina – Teatro Gran Rex – Capacity 3,500

02 May Santiago, Chile – Movistar Arena – Capacity 15,000

 

 

March 12, 2012

 

New Dylan Album In The Works (Update)

 

ISIS heard a little while back that Bob Dylan had been working on a new studio album but I decided to keep this under wraps until I could positively confirm the report(s). In any event, on Friday March 9 The Aspen Times published an interview with multi-instrumentalist David Hidalgo who revealed that he had recently finished recording sessions for a new Bob Dylan album.

 

The sessions took place at Groove Masters, a semi-private studio facility owned by Jackson Browne. The studio, on Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica, is where Dylan recorded both “Christmas In The Heart” and “Together Through Life”, not too far from his home.

 

Hidalgo, who was brought in primarily to play accordion and guitar, ended up adding Mexican instruments to the album. The instruments, including tres (a guitar like instrument), were around the studio and Hidalgo says “He [Dylan] liked the sound. So we’d get it in there.” Hidalgo said the recording sessions were nothing like the earlier ones he had done with Dylan.

 

Sources have indicated that Dylan went into the studio with members of his tour band in January and may have spent up to two months working on the album, though whether this refers to recording or recording and mixing is not clear. It has been rumoured that Dylan might have used an outside producer on the sessions! It has also been rumoured that Mark Knopfler may have joined Dylan in the studio. However, it is my understanding that Knopfler was mixing his own album in Britain at around this time. Make of all of this what you will; only time will tell. 

 

 

 

March 09, 2012

 

New Album News

 

Those who subscribe to the ISIS newsletter (mailed today) will undoubtedly recognize the veiled references to a new Bob Dylan album. We heard a little while back that Dylan has spent some considerable time earlier this year recording a new studio album in Los Angeles. This information was confirmed today by David Hidalgo in an interview with the Aspen Times, in which Hidalgo states he has recently finished recording sessions with Bob Dylan at Jackson Browne's LA Studio.

 

The studio in question, Groove Masters, a semi-private facility with a great reputation, is on Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica, where Dylan recorded “Christmas In The Heart” and "Together Through Life",  not far from his home.

 

The interview can be read in full HERE

 

Thanks to Wiebke for the link

 

 

March 04, 2012

 

ISIS 2012 Subscriptions

 

The first newsletter of 2012 will be posted out to subscribers next week. If you have not already renewed your subscription, you may do so HERE

 

A Crash Course on Reading Tarantula

 

Tarantula expert Robin Witting has just produced the most wonderful easy to read, step-by-step introduction for the lay reader to Bob Dylan’s masterwork Tarantula.

 

How many Dylan fans have reached the end of Tarantula yet alone understood it? Most reviewers toss the book aside insisting it’s nothing more than long piece of “stream-of-consciousness” writing– an easy copout by those who have failed to grasp the nettle. Stream-of-consciousness it most definitely is not. As Witting says in the introduction to his new book, “A Crash Course on Reading Tarantula”, Dylan’s writing is “razor sharp, the language paced and precise ... as multi-layered as a wedding cake ... complex, but all the more rewarding for all that.” Rewarding, yes, but only if you can penetrate the seemingly nonsensical prose.

 

“A Crash Course on Reading Tarantula” will help with that. The book does exactly what it says on the tin– or in this case the cover. Witting provides a series of stepping-stones guiding the reader through the flash-flood prose in Dylan’s novel, demonstrating how it is held together by consistent themes and motifs. Witting piles up his argument in easy to understand neat pill-size bytes and loaded bullet points in this pocket-sized introduction to Dylan’s masterwork. If you didn’t get Tarantula the first, or even the fourth time around, you owe it to yourself to try again.

 

“A Crash Course on Reading Tarantula” is a 71-page, A-5 size paperback with glossy cover.

 

Available now to order from our online store

 

NEW TOUR DATE ADDED

 

28 April Buenos Aires, Argentina – Teatro Gran Rex – Capacity 3,500 –  On Sale March 5

 

(see below for full listing)

 

Dylan Sells Out

 

Tickets for the first two South American shows to go on sale on February 27 (Belo Horizonte, Brazil and Porto Alegre, Brazil) sold out very quickly.

 

 

SPECIAL BOB DYLAN NIGHT 9 and 10 MARCH 2012

 

Throughout the night of 9-10 March, from 9.00 p.m. to 7.00 a.m., Fip will devote its programming to the great Bob Dylan.

 

Below is the translation from the original site (Thanks to Ian Woodward)

 

Did you like our special night Pink Floyd in 2011? Get ready for our night dedicated to Bob Dylan ... Robert Allen Zimmerman alias Bob Dylan has just celebrated his 70th birthday The songwriter from Minnesota has chronicled American society for over 50 years in his unique voice. Singer-songwriter, musician, painter, poet, the artist, of course, started in a folk music but has constantly renewed himself musically, navigating between blues, country, gospel, jazz or , above all, rock. With titles like "Blowin in the Wind," "Mr. Tambourine Man" or "Like a Rolling Stone", Bob Dylan became the spokesman of a changing society in the '60s.

 

These are the years that the Cité de la Musique in Paris will mark with an exhibition entitled "Bob Dylan, the rock explosion" (March 6 to June 13, 2012), an event that will celebrate the artist through photographs, symposia, film screenings and, of course a programme of concerts: Syd Matters, Sophie Hunger, Moriarty or Herman Dune.

 

Taking this opportunity, programmers Fip have prepared a night of fun for you, with 10 hours of broadcasts entirely devoted to Bob Dylan, classics, rarities, concerts (Live at Royal Albert Hall Manchester in 1966), news reports, interviews, covers (Nina Simone, Etta James ...), and songs from artists who influenced him (Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson and Pete Seeger).

 

Full details can be found Here

 

Sixty Photographs by Daniel Kramer

 

As part of the "Bob Dylan: The Rock Explosion 1961-66" Paris exhibition New York photographer Daniel Kramer will exhibit 60 of his Dylan images.

 

Full details HERE

 

 

 

Feb 24, 2012

 

Bob Dylan Lucca, Italy Festival Summer 2012 (Rumour)

 

"Lucca, February 19, 2012: Bob Dylan will return to the Summer Festival: its presence was confirmed by the artistic director Mimmo D'Alessandro, who needs only to define the date." Further details HERE

 

Although this date is unconfirmed it does fit with what ISIS heard earlier this year, which was Spring in South America, possible Summer Festivals in Europe and an October / November tour in the States, possibly with Mark Knopfler.

 

Feb 20, 2012 (Updated March 4, 2012)

 

2012 Tour of South America Update

 

15 April Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Citibank Hall – Capacity 9,600 – On Sale March 5

17 April Brasília – Ginásio Nilson, Nelson – Capacity 16,600 –  On Sale March 5

19 April Belo Horizonte, Brazil – Chevrolet Hall – Capacity 6,700 –  On Sale February 27

21 April São Paulo, Brazil – Credicard Hall – Capacity 7,500 –  On Sale March 5

22 April São Paulo, Brazil – Credicard Hall – Capacity 7,500 –  On Sale March 5

24 April Porto Alegre, Brazil – Pepsi On Stage – Capacity 7,200 –  On Sale February 27

26 April Buenos Aires, Argentina – Teatro Gran Rex – Capacity 3,500 –  On Sale March 2

27 April Buenos Aires, Argentina – Teatro Gran Rex – Capacity 3,500 –  On Sale March 2

28 April Buenos Aires, Argentina – Teatro Gran Rex – Capacity 3,500 –  On Sale March 5

30 April Santiago, Chile – Movistar Arena – Capacity 15,000 –  On Sale March 4

 

Bob Dylan last toured Argentina, Brazil, and Chile in 2008. He last played the Movistar Arena when he  performed in Chile in 1998.

 

These concerts are not double-headers and do not include Mark Knopfler. As previously stated in ISIS magazine, shows to include Mark Knopfler are being talked about for North America in late (October / November) 2012. However, these dates are still very much at the planning stage.

 

 

Feb 17, 2012

 

2012 Tour of South America

 

15 April Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Citibank Hall

17 April Brasília, Brazil – Ginásio Nilson Nelson

19 April Belo Horizonte, Brazil – Chevrolet Hall

21 April São Paulo, Brazil – Credicard Hall

22 April São Paulo, Brazil – Credicard Hall

24 April Porto Alegre, Brazil – Pepsi On Stage

26 April Buenos Aires, Argentina – Teatro Gran Rex

27 April Buenos Aires, Argentina – Teatro Gran Rex

30 April Santiago, Chile – venue not yet confirmed

 

More dates to be announced.

 

Ticket should go on sale later this month (February)

 

 

 

Feb 14, 2012

 

BOB DYLAN - MINNEAPOLIS PARTY TAPE CD

 

Released in the UK on CD by BDA Records in March 2012 (but available NOW from ISIS), “The Minneapolis Party Tape” follows BDA’s release of the Carnegie Chapter Hall concert. Recorded in May 1961 in the apartment of Bonnie Jean Beecher, the quality of this home recording falls short of “Carnegie Chapter Hall” CD. Nevertheless this is an important historical document of what Dylan had learned during his first five months in Greenwich Village, New York.

 

1 Ramblin’ Round (Guthrie/Ledbetter/Lomax) / 2 Death Don’t Have No Mercy (Davis) / 3 It’s Hard To Be Blind (trad.) / 4 This Train (Is Bound For Glory) (Guthrie) / 5 Harmonica solo (Dylan) / 6 Talking Fish (trad. Guthrie) / 7 Pastures Of Plenty (trad. Guthrie) / 8 This Land Is Your Land (Guthrie) / 9 Two Trains Runnin’ (Morganfield) / 10 Wild Mountain Thyme (trad. McPeake) / 11 Howdido (Guthrie) / 12 Car, Car (Riding In My Car) (Guthrie) / 13 Don’t Push Me Down (Guthrie) / 14 Come See (Guthrie) / 15 I Want My Milk (Guthrie) / 16 San Francisco Bay Blues (Fuller) / 17 A Long Time A-Growin’ (trad.) / 18 Devilish Mary (trad.) / 19 Railroad Bill (trad.) / 20 Will The Circle Be Unbroken (Gabriel/Haberschon/arr Carter) / 21 Man Of Constant Sorrow (trad. arr Dylan) / 22 Pretty Polly (trad.) / 23 Railroad Boy (trad.) / 24 James Alley Blues (Brown) / 25 Bonnie, Why’d You Cut My Hair? (Dylan)

 

Available to order HERE

 

 

 

Feb 11, 2012

 

ISIS Magazine - Issue #160

 

Latest issue of ISIS Magazine has been mailed today.

 

 

2012 Tour News

 

 

As reported in the new issue of ISIS, which was mailed out to subscribers today (Saturday 11) Bob Dylan looks certain to play concerts in South America, probably during April and May, 2012. Argentina, Brazil and Chile seem fairly certain but a news report of Peru might be wishful thinking.

 

http://virgula.uol.com.br/ver/noticia/musica/2012/02/08/293860-bob-dylan-pode-tocar-no-brasil-em-abril

 

http://disclosure-vintage.blogspot.com/2012/02/noticias-bob-dylan-vira-fazer-show-no.html

 

http://diario.latercera.com/2012/02/10/01/contenido/cultura-entretencion/30-100101-9-bob-dylan-fija-regreso-a-santiago-para-mayo.shtml 

 

http://aeronoticias.com.pe/noticiero/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24431:bob-dylan-confirma-gira-por-sudamerica-en-mayo&catid=52:52&Itemid=583

 

Thanks to Ian Woodward