Monthly Archives: February 2014

Audio: Ollabelle’s Beautiful Cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘You’re A Big GIrl Now’ + Live Dylan Versions

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Photo via Ollabelle’s Facebook page.

This is a terrific cover of Bob Dylan’s Blood On the Tracks song, “You’re A Big Girl Now” by the New York folk group, Ollabelle.

It was performed in 2004 at The Blood On The Tracks Project concert in York City’s Merkin Concert Hall and broadcast live on WFUV.

Some info about the concert from the concert producer’s website:

The Blood On The Tracks Project

In 2004 David Spelman was hired to curate and produce The Blood On The Tracks Project, a concert celebrating the 30th anniversary of Bob Dylan’s landmark album Blood On The Tracks. The sold-out event took place at New York City’s Merkin Concert Hall and was broadcast live on WFUV and later as a two-hour radio special, syndicated to over fifty NPR affiliates.

A distinctive roster of singer-songwriters, bands and instrumentalists performed their own arrangements of the album’s ten songs, as well as instrumental interludes. Featured artists included Joan Osborne, Citizen Cope, Jesse Harris, Vernon Reid, Chocolate Genius, Toshi Reagon, Alex de Grassi, Ollabelle, Jeffrey Gaines, Brandon Ross, Richard Barone, Tony Visconti, Joel Harrison, and Buddy Cage.

Located in the vibrant Lincoln Square business district just north of Lincoln Center, Merkin Concert Hall is well known for its unparalleled acoustics and has been hailed as an ideal venue for chamber music since its opening in 1978. Merkin Hall was twice awarded first prize for Adventurous Programming by ASCAP/Chamber Music America.

And here’s a version by Bob Dylan from his Rolling Thunder Review show in San Antonio, Texas, May 11, 1976:

You're A Big Girl Now by Bob Dylan on Grooveshark

Birmingham October 5, 2002:

Denver, Colorado, July 15, 1988:

You're A Big Girl Now by Bob Dylan on Grooveshark

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina Writes Powerful Opinion Piece for NY Times

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Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (L) and Maria Alyokhina (R). Photo via New York Times website.

Check out this op/ed piece by Maria Alyokhina in the New York Times:

SOCHI, Russia — ON Feb. 7, the opening day of the Olympics, several people walked out onto Red Square in Moscow. When they attempted to sing the Russian national anthem, all were arrested and taken to the nearest police station. “We were holding small rainbow flags to show support for the L.G.B.T. community,” wrote my protester friend, who found herself taken into custody for the first time in her life.

The following day, the police arrested a group that had gathered in Manezhnaya Square, in Moscow. The arrests came immediately after about 60 people unfurled umbrellas in support of Russia’s only independent television channel, Dozhd. The channel was recently dropped by all major cable operators under pressure from the government, which appeared to have been exacting revenge for a viewer poll question it didn’t like.

The question was: “Would it have been better to surrender Leningrad to the Nazis during World War II in order to save hundreds of thousands of lives?” One question — deemed “unpatriotic” — and the channel is on the verge of closing. Simply because President Vladimir V. Putin knows best how one should love one’s country.

Read the whole piece here.

New Pussy Riot video:

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Audio: Famed Folk-Rock Producer Joe Boyd Writes Essay on ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ for ‘The Believer’ + Rare Dylan Appearance

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Eric von Schmidt on the Tom Rush Radio Show, 1960. Photo via Logger.

Joy Boyd was where the actions was during the ’60s and ’70s. He produced Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, Richard & Linda Thompson, Sandy Denny, the Incredible String Band and plenty more.

Now he’s written an essay on “Inside Llewyn Davis” for Logger, The Believer‘s blog.

Boyd writes:

While it’s true that Inside Llewyn Davis takes some of its plot from The Mayor of MacDougal Street (Elijah Wald’s book about Dave Van Ronk), the Coen Brothers never intended the character portrayed by young, skinny Oscar Isaac to bear much resemblance to gruff, burly Van Ronk. This hasn’t prevented re-evaluations of Van Ronk’s music appearing in both The New York Times and The Guardian, explaining to younger generations his importance as a folk-blues singer and an influence on the young Bob Dylan.

Before proceeding further, I’d better declare my interest. I knew Van Ronk and heard him play a number of times, but was never a fan. From my youthfully opinionated 1962 perspective, I disliked the path he laid out for younger white folk singers to butcher the blues: scratchy voice, “red-hot-mama” clichés, plunky Josh-White-influenced guitar picking.

In White Bicycles, I wrote about waking on the morning of November 22, 1963, hearing about the killing of President Kennedy and rousing Dave, who was sleeping on my couch in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His reaction was to gloat that “chickens” were “coming home to roost,” and then to turn over and go back to sleep.

Read the whole thing here.

Eric von Schmidt backed by Dick Farina and Bob Dylan:

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Audio: Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan Records Acoustic ‘Watery Hands’

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Next Tuesday Superchunk’s out-of-print 1997 album Indoor Living will be reissued.

For the occasion Mac McCaughan recorded an acoustic version of “Watery Hands”:

Here’s the original video for “Watery Hands” with Janeane Garofalo & David Cross:

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Video: Here’s a Taste of Sharon Van Etten’s New Album – ‘Are We There’

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As I’ve posted previously, Sharon Van Etten has a new album, Are We There, out in May 2014.

Today she offered up a short video that makes me really want to hear the whole album.

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Audio: Spiritualized’s J. Spaceman & Oneida’s Kid Millions Make Experimental Sounds

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This recording is from a set at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge last September.

Listen to an improvisation between Spiritualized’s J. Spaceman & Oneida’s Kid Millions.

A recording of the show, Live at Le Poisson Rouge, will be released on Record Store Day (April 19, 2014) but right now you can hear the first track, “Misha.”

Here’s the PR info on the album:

On September 11, 2013, J. Spaceman (Jason Pierce of Spiritualized and Spacemen 3) and Kid Millions (Oneida, Man Forever, People of the North) took a night off of their US tour with Spiritualized to perform an improvised set at (Le) Poisson Rouge, in Greenwich Village. Northern Spy was there to document the show. The resulting 12″ LP with an accompanying 7″ will be limited to 3000 copies and released for Record Store Day 2014 (April 19).

Throughout their respective careers, both Spaceman and Millions have navigated the various sub-genres that fall within the rock and experimental labels, and, on this album, we find the two artists exploring elements of their counterparts’ prior work in a fresh and unique way. Spaceman uses Millions’ free style of drumming as a cue to eschew the pop melodies and structures he worked with on his last release, 2012′s, Sweet Heart, Sweet Light.

The record’s first side – titled “Misha” – features 24-minutes of Spaceman’s minimal guitar and piano parts along with Millions’ eclectic, yet subtle drumming. The pairing of these elements yields a dreamy and celestial atmosphere that could compare with anything from Spaceman’s famously mind-altering catalog.

Side two of the 12″ – titled “Han” – focuses more on the chaotic nature of the two musicians’ past. Spaceman makes use of his distortion, tremolo and wah-wah pedals, while Millions goes into full freakout mode on the drums, never allowing the audience to fully lock into a groove. The duo steadily builds and eases tension, keeping the listener fully engaged over the track’s 21-and-a-half minute runtime.

As mentioned before, accompanying the LP will be a 7″ featuring two cuts – “New York” and “London” – that showcase Spaceman’s more rock inspired noise stylings and Millions’ absolute disregard for consistency and predictability.

With this record, it is clear just how complementary this pairing is. In just under an hour, Spaceman and Millions explore the ethereal and tumultuous sides of music, showing the transfixing nature that both stylings possess. This is Spaceman’s first performance alone with Millions, and his first improvised duo release with a drummer. Lets hope this is just a small preview of what is to come from a Spaceman/Millions pairing.

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Audio: Bob Dylan 1976 S.I.R. Rehearsal – ‘Just Like A Woman,’ ‘Isis’ & More

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Bob Dylan rehearsed at S.I.R. studios in L.A. on January 23, 1976 prior to a Rolling Thunder Revue appearance at the Troubadour.

The version of “Just Like A Woman” is very cool.

“Just Like A Woman”:

“Isis” take two:

“One Too Many Mornings”:

“Mozambique”:

“Hurricane”:

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Video: Bruce Springsteen Sings ‘The Times They Are A-Changing’ – Finding Hope Where I Can

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Today I was thinking about the huge gap that now exists in the U.S. between the very very rich, the .01 percent, and everyone else, when I came across the beautiful rendition of “The Times They Are A-Changing” that Bruce Springsteen performed on December 7, 1997 when Bob Dylan was honored by President Bill Clinton at the Kennedy Center.

The last election in the U.S. was between a .01-percenter, Mitt Romney, and a man of the people, President Barack Obama.

The majority of Americans who voted, voted for President Obama despite attempts by Republicans to limit voting, in particular, to make it more difficult for people of color to vote. We’ve all seen the video of the long, long lines at the polls. Old people waiting for many hours to exercise their right.

And yet nothing really has changed since President Obama was reelected. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has stopped pretty much any meaningful legislation from getting passed.

The gap between the super rich and everyone else has only widened.

It is with the heavy weight of that knowledge upon us, that I listened to this song of hope and change today.

Sometimes it seems that the “darkness at the edge of town” that Springsteen sings about is covering everything.

Music is such a powerful force. We all know how one song can completely change our mood, turn a bad day to good. The corporate world we now live in wants to co-opt everything. They take music that meant something and turn it into a soundtrack for selling yogurt, or cars. It’s like they want to drain the meaning from the songs.

Yet songs remain powerful.

“The Times They Are A-Changing” is a song that gives us hope. Perhaps it’s a fool’s hope, but I’ll take it where I can get it.

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Watch: Pussy Riot’s New Video, ‘Putin Will Teach You How to Love,’ Attacks Putin, Olympics

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New Pussy Riot video attacks Russian President Putin, and the Sochi Olympics.

As Pitchfork reports, “The video includes footage of the collective in Sochi, including a clip of the recent Cossack whippings. The song is, in part, an act of support for Russian political prisoners.”

Check out the lyrics here. There’s an English translation below the Russian version.

Here’s the video:

Here’s a Washington Post report:

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Video: Neil Young’s Many Versions of ‘All Along the Watchtower ‘

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Neil Young has long been a fan of Bob Dylan. More than a fan. Neil’s whole trip is inspired by Bob Dylan.

Don’t misunderstand. Young has taken that inspiration and created his own art that is unique.

Young has performed a number of Dylan songs over the years, most recently “Blowin’ in the Wind” at Farm Aid last year and during his recent acoustic shows.

Below are a number of totally rockin’ versions of “All Along the Watchtower.”

Dylan’s 30th Anniversary Concert, Oct 16, 1992:


Neil Young – All Along the Watchtower by LeBalayeur

Tanzbrunnen, Köln, Germany, July 19, 1993 w/ Booker T And The MGs:

Neil Young, Torhout Festival, Belgium, 1993:

Neil Young, Willie Nelson and Crazy Horse at Farm Aid concert in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 18, 1994:

Neil Young with Frank “Poncho” Sampedro and Booker T & the MGs in Nürburg, Germany, on May 18, 2002.

Rock in the Ring, Germany with Poncho, Booker T. & The MGs, 2002:

Bruce Springsteen & Neil Young. Minneapolis, 2004:

Neil Young & Pearl Jam from the Vote for Change Tour 2004:

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-