Ride Me High

Presenting six inspired covers to celebrate the bard's birthday. Eighty as we speak! Many happy returns, Bob.

 Barbara Keith - All Along The Watchtower
 Will Beeley - You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
 Roger Tillison - Down In The Flood 
 Yo La Tengo - I Threw It All Away
 Scott Hirsch - Ain't No More Cane
 Nathan Salsburg & Joan Shelley - Dark Eyes

Rough Times

 

Alright alright, we're finally ready: presenting FTSOTS's best trappmusik of annus horribilis 2020. Fifteen highlights no amigo da musica should be without. From elder statesmen to postpunk heroes, from spiritual jazzcats to Americana masters, with masked freaks making a surprise appearance... Be prepared: we're travellin' from Texas to Stockholm to Taiwan and all the way back again, and boarding starts now. Voluminous artwork (what, no eleven?) by that mysterious shawoman called Tinca. A musical wish for 2021: the return of live music. Pretty please?

• Ak'chamel, The Giver Of Illness - The Totemist
• Bob Dylan - Rough And Rowdy Ways
• Bob Mould - Blue Hearts
• Bonny Light Horseman - s/t
• Coriky - s/t
• Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - All The Good Times
• Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids - Shaman!
• Jason Isbell - Reunions
• Jerry David DeCicca - The Unlikely Optimist
• Jerry Joseph - The Beautiful Madness
• Kungens Män - Trappmusik
• Mong Tong - Mystery
• Rose City Band - Summerlong
• The Third Mind - s/t
• Wire - Mind Hive

Bob Dylan - Key West (Philosopher Pirate)

Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids - Eternity

Kungens Män - Senvägen

Always Be Sung

Many happy returns to the poet laureate of rock & roll. 79 today with a new album on the way. Forever young indeed.

Bob Dylan - Forever Young (live Paris '02)

Some Kind Of Pain

Since that dumbass virus going round forced our man to cancel the Japan leg of his Never Ending Tour, chances are you Bobcats are in bad need of a Dylan live fix. In that case, why not check out Flagging Down The Double E's, a recent series of well-written and fun essays on Bob's live recordings through the years. You can even sign up and receive all new installments straight to your inbox. Go for it; it's not dark yet after all.

Bob Dylan - Not Dark Yet (live Santa Cruz '00)

Groovy Thunder

It's nearly time for the inevitable FTSOTS end of year list, but let's get the finest reissues and archival albums of 2019 out of the way first ok? You'll come alive when the band starts swinging... With stocking stuffing artwork by the almighty Tinca, it's ho ho ho and here we go.

1. Peter Laughner - The Peter Laughner Box
2. Bob Dylan - The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings
3. Jimi Hendrix - Songs For Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts
4. v/a - If You're Not Part Of The Solution: Soul, Politics And Spirituality In Jazz '67-'75
5. Jim Sullivan - If The Evening Were Dawn
6. Neil Young & The Stray Gators - Tuscaloosa
7. Sachiko Kanenobu - Misora
8. Grateful Dead - Dave's Picks Vol. 30: Fillmore East 1970
9. v/a - Black Man's Pride 3: None Shall Escape The Judgement Of The Almighty
10. Tunng - This Is Tunng... Magpie Bites And Other Cuts

Peter Laughner - Fat City Jive

Have You Seen

A bit underwhelming, this new volume of Bob's Bootleg Series. Has a lot to do with the incredible riches of previous installments of course. Most of the charming sessions with Johnny Cash have been circulating for a long time already, and the alternate takes from John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline are nice to have but not really that special. Still, there are plenty nuggets to be found here, like this previously unknown outtake from the Nashville Skyline sessions.

Bob Dylan - Western Road (take 1)

Your Cities I Will Burn

Back online, and there's trouble on the road to Fennario. Always loved this old Scottish folk song, also known as The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie. "The captain fell in love with a lady like a dove..." Dylan recorded it for his eponymous debut album, and reinstated it in his Never Ending Tour setlists in the nineties at times, basing his new arrangement on the way Jerry Garcia & co tackled it some two decades earlier. Two excellent examples below.

Grateful Dead - Peggy O (live Springfield '74)
Bob Dylan - Pretty Peggy-O (live Frankfurt '96)

Rolled Back My Sleeve

He's spoiling us... When the poet laureate of rock & roll is involved, overkill never comes into it, and a grand total of ten Rolling Thunder '75 gigs in pristine sound quality is always welcome. For dedicated Bobcats who have already worn out these shows in bootleg form however, the rehearsals and rarities presented here are the real treat of course. Take a wonderful interpretation of the Irish folk ballad Easy And Slow for instance, from the Seacrest Motel rehearsals. Or how about a slow-burning, drastically rewritten If You See Her, Say Hello from the S.I.R. rehearsals? "She might be in Babylon..." Right on.

Bob Dylan - Easy And Slow
Bob Dylan - If You See Her, Say Hello

Rode On Ahead

78 candles to blow out today today for the poet laureate of rock & roll. Many happy returns, Bob! In feverish anticipacion of next June's Rolling Thunder extravaganza - a Marty Scorcese Netflix documentary and a huge live '75 box set - we're celebrating things with a steaming soundboard recording of Isis from the Revue's stint in Lowell, a town in Massachusetts known for its motto 'art is the handmaid of human good'.

Bob Dylan - Isis (live Lowell '75)

Lucky Star

Peter Hammill all inspired by an old Dylan classic? Sure seems like it. An intense performance this, proving that Mr. Van Der Graaf hasn't lost that magic touch. "And just like that, she's gone..."

Peter Hammill - Girl To The North Country

Behind The Sun

In search of a good read? Musician Peter Case peels back some layers of the onion and proves in a personal memoir that he's a true member of the Incredible Stringband appreciation society. Fun fact: even Bobby D. dug their October Song. "I met a man whose name was Time, and he said, I must be goin'..."

The Incredible String Band - October Song
Peter Case - Entella Hotel

Blood & Wealth

The famous FTSOTS end of year list will be with you shortly, but let's get the old stuff out of the way first. Here are the reissues and compilations of the year, in all their raging glory. Out of a ton of goodies, and with exclusive fine art by Tinca, I picked the following.

1. John Coltrane - Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album
2. Bob Dylan - More Blood, More Tracks: The Bootleg Series Vol. 14
3. Neil Young - Roxy: Tonight's The Night Live
4. Thelonious Monk - Mønk (Live In Copenhagen '63)
5. Van Morrison - Live In Boston '72
6. Grateful Dead - Pacific Northwest '73-'74: Believe It If You Need It
7. v/a - Basement Beehive: The Girl Group Underground
8. The Louvin Brothers - Love And Wealth: The Lost Recordings
9. Songs: Ohia - Love & Work: The Lioness Sessions
10. v/a - Black Man's Pride 2: Righteous Are The Sons And Daughters Of Jah

John Coltrane - Untitled Original 11386 (Take 1)

Tryin' To Be So Quiet

From the aptly but rather unimaginatively titled Live 1962-1966 - Rare Performances From The Copyright Collections, here's a delicate Visions, recorded live in Belfast back in '66. If this doesn't keep you up past the dawn I don't know what will.

Bob Dylan - Visions Of Johanna (Live Belfast '66)

Recorded Facts

Another Bootleg Series collection, another copious treasure trove. The versions that ended up on Blood On The Tracks may remain the cream of the crop, but it's fascinating to follow how Dylan got there, to be able to track his creative process up close, false starts and all, for what would turn out to be one of his tour de force albums. I haven't even begun to properly digest it all of course, but this delicate, unfinished first stab at Idiot Wind, with just guitar and bass, caught my fancy immediately.

Bob Dylan - Idiot Wind (Take 1)

Smoke On You

The Jerry Garcia Band tackles a deep cut from the Dylan songbook at Berkeley's Keystone back in '75. Funky but clean, if you know what I mean...

Jerry Garcia Band - Tough Mama

Learning To Crawl

Congrats to our birthday boy from Duluth, as the one and only Robert Zimmerman turns 77 today. Many happy returns, Bob. "And I've picked up a couple more years on you babe and that's all..."

Bob Dylan - A Couple More Years (live Portland '80)

Say It Again

Soul survivor Bettye sings Bob. Her brand new Things Have Changed, produced by Keef sidekick Steve Jordan, is a bit of a mixed bag to be honest. The rollicking title track and the funky, New Orleans-flavoured beauty below - say hi to Trombone Shorty - sure are hot stuff though.

Bettye LaVette - What Was It You Wanted

Deepest Ocean

"From the mountains of Madrid to the coast of Barcelona..." Gonna be in the presence of greatness tonight, as we've got tickets to see the Nobel-winning legend from Hibbing perform in our Ciudad Condal, and in the classy Liceu opera house at that. It's the 30th year of the Never Ending Tour already, ain't that something? And wouldn't it be awesome if he pulled out this fitting old chestnut once again for a change? Cherry on top, Bob...

Bob Dylan - Boots Of Spanish Leather (live Glasgow '98)

A Concept

"Things went on; Lennon got shot, Dylan got religion. He could never decide which depressed him most..." Just a quote from The Bridge by Iain Banks, my fave Scottish writer of all time.

John Lennon - God
Bob Dylan - Blessed Is The Name (Live '79)

Crowed For Me

Our famous end-of-year list is nearly ready, but patience please, let's put the old stuff to the test first. 'Cause hell yeah, 2017 sure was a great year for reissues and compilations of all kinds. Here's the top of the iceberg, already starting to melt. Suitcase of Songs artwork by the wonderful Tinca. It's flashback time, my amigos da musica...

1. Lal & Mike Waterson - Bright Phoebus
Lal & Mike Waterson - The Scarecrow
2. Bob Dylan - Trouble No More: The Bootleg Series Vol. 13
3. Neil Young - Hitchhiker
4. v/a - Even A Tree Can Shed Tears: Japanese Folk & Rock '69 - '73
Ryo Kagawa - Zeni No Kouryouryoku Ni Tsuite
5. Erasmo Carlos - Carlos, Erasmo...
6. Lynn Castle - Rose Colored Corner
7. Grateful Dead - Cornell '77 & Dave's Picks Vol. 24: Live In Berkeley '72
8. Lloyd Parks - Time A Go Dread
LLoyd Parks - Shake Up Yu Dread
9. v/a - Warfaring Strangers: Acid Nightmares
10. Alice Coltrane - The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda