Hard Rain & Slow Trains: Bob Dylan & Fellow Travelers

This week we continue our four-part series exploring Dylan's use of horns on record and in concert. Part two covers 1978 to 1985. This series delves into the producers, arrangers, and musicians with whom Dylan worked when adding horns to his song arrangements. This episode features Dylan's Gospel tour and highlights rehearsals that suggest what might have been if Dylan had taken horns on...

We begin a four-part series tonight exploring Dylan's use of horns on record and in concert. This first episode covers 1966 to 1976. This series delves into the producers, arrangers, and musicians with whom Dylan worked when adding horns to his song arrangements. This episode explains the difference between brass horns, reed wind instruments, and edgeblown wind instruments, considers why Dyla...

50 years ago George Harrison called some friends and put together afternoon and evening concerts at Madison Square Garden on August 1st, 1970. The results were assembled into both a 1971 3-LP album and a 1972 film, THE CONCERT FOR BANGLADESH. Bob Dylan, who performed in both shows (his first major concert appearances in two years) would feature heavily in the album and film, with his evening conce...

Sony just announced the September 17th release of SPRINGTIME IN NEW YORK: THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 16 (1980-1985). To mark the occasion, we are having a conversation with Terry Gans, author of SURVIVING IN A RUTHLESS WORLD: BOB DYLAN'S VOYAGE TO INFIDELS (Red Planet, 2020), who describes what it is like to work in the Bob Dylan Archive in Tulsa, reflects on the meaning of INFIDELS (1983), whic...

Dylan's new concert film, SHADOW KINGDOM, debuted yesterday and, twelve hours later, we have a special early episode of Hard Rain & Slow Trains for you reviewing it and playing music to supplement the film. In "Who Did It Better?" we ask you who did "What Was It You Wanted" better: Willie Nelson or Bettye LaVette?

The fifth episode featuring fellow travelers who first recorded in the 1950s and who are still with us (the previous ones are from 6/3/2021, 9/3/2020, 5/14/2020, and 5/7/2020). This episode features Quincy Jones, surveying his music, his arrangements, and his record productions. In "20 Pounds of Headlines," we round up news from the world of Bob Dylan and in "Who Did It Better?&quot...

As we continue to expectantly await Bob Dylan's July 18th online performance, SHADOW KINGDOM, we dedicate this episode to a "Shadow Miscellany": miscellaneous considerations about both the encroaching, shadowy night and also the position of the moon in Bob Dylan's work of the last thirty years. In "20 Pounds of Headlines," we round up news from the world of Bob Dylan...

Tonight we are celebrating the poetry Bob Dylan with some help from fellow travelers along the way. In this episode you will hear some of Dylan's free verse, some of his poetic prose, and, of course, some of his music. In "20 Pounds of Headlines," we give you the latest news about Bob Dylan's upcoming SHADOW KINGDOM performance and in "Who Did It Better?" we ask you w...

Last Wednesday, Bob Dylan announced that he will be producing a concert online (through Veeps.com) on July 18, 2021. The performance will showcase Dylan "in an intimate setting as he performs songs from his extensive body of work." This week we both consider the meaning of "Shadow Kingdom" and also revisit some of his live performances from the last few decades in anticipation...

50 years ago Bob Dylan was turning 30. He recorded four new songs in the studio, and a total of eight original songs (four were from previous years), but did not release a studio album, only Greatest Hits Vol. II. He performed in both Madison Square Garden performances for the Concert for Bangladesh, and joined The Band on stage at the New York Academy of Music at the end of the year, but did not...

On May 21st, Chrissie Hynde and Pretenders guitarist James Walbourne released STANDING IN THE DOORWAY: CHRISSIE HYNDE SINGS BOB DYLAN, an album that they recorded remotely last year during the pandemic. This episode of HARD RAIN & SLOW TRAINS: BOB DYLAN & FELLOW TRAVELERS celebrates the release of this album of Dylan covers by celebrating the music and story of fellow traveler Chrissie Hyn...

The fourth episode featuring fellow travelers who first recorded in the 1950s and who are still with us (the previous ones are from 9/3/2020, 5/14/2020, and 5/7/2020). This episode features Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Sixty-five years is a long time to have a recording career, and that is what the man born Elliot Charles Adnopoz on August 1st, 1931 has done. In "20 Pounds of Headlines,"...

This week we summarize the recent three-day "Dylan@80" online conference sponsored by the University of Tulsa's Institute for Bob Dylan Studies. There were many interesting panels and talks and I'll present the highlights. In "20 Pounds of Headlines," we round up news from the world of Bob Dylan and in "Who Did It Better?" we ask you, for the second bracket...

It's our annual Bob Dylan birthday episode and this year Dylan is 80, so we have brought along critic and author Michael Gray to mark the occasion. Gray is one of the most important literary critics to write about Dylan and has produced the landmark volumes SONG AND DANCE MAN: THE ART OF BOB DYLAN and THE BOB DYLAN ENCYCLOPEDIA, as well as books on Blind Willie McTell, Elvis Presley, and Fran...

The final episode of a two-part series featuring the music of cities where Dylan did not record his studio albums. Part two emphasizes important recording centers throughout the globe, whereas part one last week focused on cities in the United States. Who could summarize the wonderful sounds we play in this show? You'll just have to listen to find out! In "20 Pounds of Headlines," w...

The first of a short two-part series featuring the music of cities where Dylan did not record his studio albums. Part one emphasizes important recording centers in the United States and part two will emphasize important recording centers throughout the world. We start with Sun Records and then stay in Memphis for some Stax recordings. From there we go to Chicago and the Chess Recording Studio, bef...

We conclude our twelve-part series featuring the cities in which Dylan recorded his studio albums over the decades by ending where Dylan's professional career began: in New York City. Dylan made his greatest recordings in New York, whether his work from 1961-1965, half of BLOOD ON THE TRACKS in 1974, DESIRE in 1975, "LOVE & THEFT" and MODERN TIMES in the new century, or any numb...

We continue our twelve-part series featuring the cities where Dylan recorded his studio albums over the decades. Part eleven features Los Angeles, where Bob Dylan recorded twelve albums. We'll play songs from most of these albums, as well as a few prominent songs that feature L.A. as a subject. In "20 Pounds of Headlines," we round up news from the world of Bob Dylan and in "Wh...

We continue our twelve-part series featuring the cities where Dylan recorded his studio albums over the decades. Part ten features Malibu, where Bob Dylan recorded two albums in his garage studio: GOOD AS I BEEN TO YOU (1992) and WORLD GONE WRONG (1993). We'll play other songs recorded in Malibu, songs about Malibu, and an interview with one of only two people in the studio with Dylan when he...

We continue our twelve-part series featuring the cities where Dylan recorded his studio albums over the decades. Part nine features Topanga & Santa Monica -- our first stops in California during this series. You'll hear both some of the recordings that Dylan made in Topanga and Santa Monica, and also other recordings made in the same studios. In "20 Pounds of Headlines," we roun...

We continue our twelve-part series featuring the cities where Dylan recorded his studio albums over the decades. Part eight cheats a little because Dylan didn't actually record a studio album in Woodstock or Saugerties, New York. Yet, he wrote nearly 100 songs here and recorded scores of demos that were eventually released, eight years later, as THE BASEMENT TAPES. Because the influence and i...

We continue our twelve-part series featuring the cities where Dylan recorded his studio albums over the decades. Part seven features Nashville, Tennessee -- Music City, USA. Here Bob Dylan recorded BLONDE ON BLONDE (1966), JOHN WESLEY HARDING (1967), NASHVILLE SKYLINE (1969), and part of SELF PORTRAIT (1970). You'll hear about the famous Nashville sidemen, dubbed the Nashville Cats, and -- fo...

We continue our twelve-part series featuring the cities where Dylan recorded his studio albums over the decades. Part six features Sheffield, Alabama, home to Muscle Shoals Sound Studios where Bob Dylan recorded SLOW TRAIN COMING (1979) and SAVED (1980) with Barry Beckett and Jerry Wexler producing. You'll hear about the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm section, called the Swampers, you'll hea...

We continue our twelve-part series featuring the cities where Dylan recorded his studio albums over the decades. Part five features Miami, where Dylan recorded TIME OUT OF MIND at Criteria Studios in January of 1997. You'll hear songs about Miami, recordings made in Miami, and recordings made specifically at Criteria studios. In "20 Pounds of Headlines" we round up news from the wor...

We continue our twelve-part series featuring the cities where Dylan recorded his studio albums over the decades. Part four features New Orleans, where Dylan recorded OH MERCY in a house on Soniat Street in March of 1989. You'll hear a survey of New Orleans music, you'll learn who Dylan's two favorite singers are, you'll learn what legendary jazz and bluesman taught Dylan import...