Tag Archives: Bob Dylan

Chrissie’s Still Got It

The Pretenders will release their eleventh studio album, Hate for Sale, this coming Friday, 40 years after their eponymous first album.  And at 68 Chrissie Hynde is still one of the most compelling voices in rock & roll. We’re not talking “can still sort of sing the old stuff”, we’re talking “good as ever”.

The line-up for this album includes Chrissie and drummer Martin Chambers from the original Pretenders line-up.  It’s guitarist James Walbourne’s third album with the band since he joined the group in 2008.  Every one of the tracks released so far are great.   The title track has old school punk attitude,  “Didn’t Want To Be This Lonely” has the Bo Diddley beat, and “The Buzz” sounds like classic-era Pretenders to my ear.   But this post is about Chrissie’s singing, so give a listen to “You Can’t Hurt a Fool”.

Had it not been for the pandemic, the album would have been released earlier this year, and the Pretenders would be on tour. But making the best of a bad situation, Hynde and Walbourne took inspiration from Bob Dylan’s release of his new album to do some home recordings of Dylan covers.   This cover of “Standing in the Doorway” is gorgeous.  I think Bob should give this song to Chrissie and James for keeps.

After this year’s cancelled tour, the Pretender’s website teases at concert date in late September 2021.  To get you ready for their return, here’s Chrissie belting out the anthem “I’ll Stand by You” just 12 months ago.

Artists at Home

There have been a zillion at home performances created over the last several weeks by artists famous and undiscovered, young and old, solo and synced-up with bandmates.   Stripped down as they are, the performances reveal just how good – or not so good – voices and musicianship are.  Below are a few performances that succeed on both counts – for the most part.

Pink begins this clip by admitting that playing piano is a new part of her repertoire.  Bob Dylan wrote “Make You Feel My Love” for his 1997 album Time Out of Mind.  A cover of the song by Garth Brooks was a huge hit for him in 1998, as it was for Adele a decade later.  Pink gives us a very pretty version for this decade, showing off her fantastic voice and the fruits of all those hours of piano practice.

The Doobie Brothers prove they still have it on both counts with this performance of “Black Water” Live in Isolation.  I’m just sorry I didn’t get tapped for the amateur harmonies at the end.  And Patrick Simmons is as cool a grandpa as a kid could have.

This one is a comical group effort (I’ve never seen air drumming, and I have no idea what the heck Keith is doing).  But Mick is incredible!  His voice hasn’t lost anything, and he even anchors the guitar work.

 

Aspiring Artists Cover the Classics

In a bit of pre-March Madness, I’ve been binging on “The Voice”.  While the show’s been criticized for not producing huge new artists in its ten years on the air, it is great fun.

This year, three aspiring, young artists dug deep into the vaults of classic rock and folk to find 90-seconds of magic that would feature their talents and get the celebrity judges to turn their chairs.

Fifteen-year-old Caroline Burns chose the Carole King classic “So Far Away ” from “Tapestry” released in 1971.  Enjoy her snippet, and then this amazing live performance by Carole King with James Taylor, accompanying on guitar as he did on the album.

Digging slightly farther back in the annals of rock was Ryan Quinn who chose Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home”. The tune is from the 1969 one-and-only-album released by the super-group that featured Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker post-Cream, and Stevie Winwood post-Traffic. Here is Ryan’s condensed version, and a very nice solo acoustic version by the composer – Winwood himself.

The award for the deepest dig goes to Owen Danoff who covered my favorite Dylan song, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”. Here’s the performance that got Owen a spot on “The Voice”, and the original, written in 1962, from “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”. That album, by the way, was the legend’s second, and where his eponymous debut album was mostly covers, “Freewheelin'” was mostly original material. I promise that listening to the whole Dylan track won’t be a waste of your precious time.

New Music from the Titans of Rock and Roll

Over the past few weeks, and continuing into the next couple of months, a host of big name rock and roll artists are releasing new albums.  From Prince to the Foo Fighters, U2 to Weezer, and John Mellencamp to Jeff Tweedy, there is plenty already here or on the way.

A few days ago Robert Plant put out his first new album in four years, “lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar”.  While there are official music videos out for a few tracks, Plant is at his most engaging on stage.  Here are recent live performances of the album’s first two songs, “Little Maggie” and “Rainbow”.

In November Bob Dylan’s “The Basement Tapes Complete” will be released, apparently collecting every audible shred of material from the legendary 1967 sessions – a total of 138 tracks on 6 CDs. But possibly more interesting will be another November release, “Lost On The River – The New Basement Tapes”. In the fall of last year, producer T Bone Burnett received a stack of recently discovered, hand-written Dylan lyrics from Dylan’s publisher. They were written in 1967 during the time of the Basement Tape sessions but were never set to music. Burnett pulled together an all-star team including Elvis Costello, Marcus Mumford, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, and Grammy winning folk artist Rhiannon Giddens to write music for the lyrics and perform the songs for a new album. Of the album’s 20 tracks recorded in the space of only two weeks, videos for two have now been released, “Nothing to It” and “Married to My Hack”.

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Jake Bugg Crosses the Atlantic

Jake Bugg’s eponymous debut album hit #1 on the British charts shortly after its release in October 2012.   Mining a different folk rock vein than his countrymen, Mumford & Sons, the 19-year-old singer-songwriter claims influences that include Johnny Cash, the Everly Brothers and Don McLean.  The album is now availabe in the U.S., and Bugg will be performing throughout the States later this year.

Give a listen to these tracks, and his website (Jake Bugg) features videos covering a good part of his debut release if you want to hear more.

While Bugg dismisses comparisons to a young Bob Dylan, pretty much every music writer has gone there.  If you want to make your own judgment, “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” was released shortly after Dylan’s 22nd birthday and also reached #1 on the British charts.  We won’t hold Jake to writing the next “Blowin’ in the Wind” yet, but here are two pure acoustic performances to consider.

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