A vanguard is, by definition, a position at the forefront of new ideas or developments. And in the fertile musical stomping ground of the early 1960s, some of the newest, most avant-garde ideas were being espoused on the Vanguard Records label. Yet these so-called radical, even "dangerous" thoughts were being espoused in forms so traditional, they might have seemed as old as time. Vanguard was formed in 1950 by Maynard and Seymour Solomon as a classical label and later moved into jazz. The
"I cut off my hair and I rode straight away, for that wild unknown country where I could not go wrong." So sings Bob Dylan in "Isis." It's a line fitting for the mercurial Dylan, especially in 1975 as he and his merry cohorts - both friends and musicians - embarked on a tour of North American cities large and small on the circus-like Rolling Thunder Revue. Back in 2019, we told you about Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese. Part concert document and part
Fifty-one years ago this past weekend, a crowd of half a million converged at Max Yasgur's Farm in Bethel, New York for the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. The four-day event became a cultural touchstone and mythical ideal, strengthened even more by the Woodstock film and soundtracks that proliferated the marketplace during the early '70s and beyond. While performers, fans, and countless supposed attendees participated in even more myth-building, a small group of historians and researchers worked
As we continue to look back on the year that was, it's hard to disagree that Bob Dylan was 2019's king of the reissue. Since releasing More Blood, More Tracks in time for the holidays in 2018, Legacy Recordings and the Dylan team approved MoFi's deluxe audiophile version of Blood on the Tracks; celebrated the first leg of the famed Rolling Thunder Revue with a new film, CD box set, and LP reissue; delivered a new Bootleg Series installment focusing on his time in Nashville in the late '60s; and
The Newport Folk Festival was created in 1959 in Newport, Rhode Island as a response to the rising prominence of folk music in America. In 1961, one of the great groups of the genre was formed when Peter Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers lifted their voices in song as Peter, Paul and Mary. The trio frequently took the stage at Newport with many of their classic songs, and now, Shout! Factory is collecting eighteen such performances on a new set coming to CD, DVD, and digital formats
For fans of Woodstock, Friday was a big day. For the physical media-minded, the giant 38-CD/1-Blu-ray box began shipping out, and Craft's standalone Creedence Clearwater Revival Live At Woodstock album was released. Those who may have been unable to purchase the big set have reason to rejoice as several individual acts' sets from Woodstock have begun to pop up on digital download and streaming services. Last week saw the release of Woodstock recordings from Tim Hardin; Melanie; Mountain;
Fifty years ago this summer, more than 400,000 fans convened at Max Yasgur's farm for a music festival that would come to define not only the era, but the entire ethos of music festivals to come. With every passing decade, the magic of Woodstock has been celebrated and, indeed, re-marketed to new generations of music fans. The '90s saw two new Woodstock-branded festivals and an array of 25th anniversary products, including a compilation called Woodstock Diary and a 4-CD box set. To mark the
Woody Guthrie remains one of the most significant figures in folk music. His legendary songs of freedom and struggle laid the groundwork for the folk revival that arose in the fifties and sixties, and his music endures as part of America's rich musical heritage. In 1970, renowned folk artists like Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Country Joe McDonald, Odetta, Richie Havens, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Earl Robinson, The Band, and Woody's son Arlo Guthrie, convened to pay tribute to the legendary songwriter,
Fourteen years after his seminal documentary No Direction Home, director Martin Scorsese is returning to the life and music of Bob Dylan with a new concert film celebrating one of the Bard of Hibbing's most electrifying tours. Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese debuts June 12 on Netflix. The new film shines a spotlight on Dylan's unforgettable adventures with an amazing cast of characters on the road during his 1975-1976 tour. It will also screen in theaters in London,
Bob Dylan once said that, upon hearing Woody Guthrie's songs, "it was like I had been in the dark and someone had turned on the main switch of a lightning conductor." Steve Earle opined that "Woody is my hero of heroes and the only person on earth that I will go to my grave regretting that I never met." No less a literary eminence than John Steinbeck noted, "Woody is just Woody," before explaining, "Harsh voiced and nasal, his guitar hanging like a tire iron on a rusty rim, there is nothing
The new anthology Milk of the Tree, from Cherry Red's Grapefruit label, sets forth its mission statement clearly in its subtitle: An Anthology of Female Vocal Folk and Singer-Songwriters 1966-1973. Still, how to anthologize such a broad and powerful group of artists during one of the most creatively fertile periods in popular music history? Grapefruit does a fine job in distilling the essence of the period - and charting the growth of artists from a pure pop framework to one in which they
The sixth volume of Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series is coming to 5.0 multichannel hybrid SACD from Audio Fidelity in March. Live 1964: Concert at Philharmonic Hall was mixed into surround sound years ago by Sony, but the mix has sat on the shelf until now. It will arrive March 18 as newly remastered by Steve Hoffman (with a remastered stereo layer playable on all CD players). First released in 2004, Bootleg Series Vol. 6 premiered Dylan's Halloween night concert from 1964 at New York's