Subversive Strumming: Fear and Loathing of the American Folk Music Revival
For the American political right of the post-war era, folk music more than rock ‘n’ roll was regarded as a national threat – but not because of the songs’ lyrics.
For the American political right of the post-war era, folk music more than rock ‘n’ roll was regarded as a national threat – but not because of the songs’ lyrics.
Bob Dylan’s third album The Times They Are A-Changin’ was his darkest and most political, a modern folk landmark that remains a template for socially conscious music.
Cat Power’s version Bob Dylan’s 1966 concert with the Band in Manchester is reverential but not literal and honors the legend more than the facts.
Are Bob Dylan’s improved vocals in his later years a deliberate aesthetic choice? Has he re-focused his attention on the art of singing?
As Bob Dylan learned, only through baring of one’s soul does one show the way forward, providing both a glimpse into the other and perhaps the shape of things to come.
The great “songster” Dom Flemons has pandemic stories to tell, but also shares his new album’s inspirations, including a love of Bob Dylan and Black cowboy narratives.
Bob Dylan’s 1967 album John Wesley Harding is more about what it is not than what it is. Does that hold true for the mythology of John Wesley Hardin himself?
How American folk songs of the Earth, from Woody Guthrie to Neil Young, tilled the soil for the rise of ‘Green Pop’.
Good As I Been To You was warmly received by critics, but a Bob Dylan album of covers with a stripped-down, rough-edged acoustic aesthetic did not satisfy fans’ hunger for new Dylan material.
In The Philosophy of Modern Song, Bob Dylan conveys his thoughts in his signature styles, as in his lyrics, he can be plainspoken, gnomic, and over the top.
Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song is an awful book, awash with misogyny and crusty old man rants like a drunken, MAGA hat-wearing uncle.
Legendary producer Daniel Lanois discusses U2, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, his new instrumental album, and how he still lets the music guide him.