FIRST COMPLETE NEW SONG FROM DYLAN STREAMED TODAY

Here goes folks...

Bob Dylan's highly anticipated and much promoted new CD, TEMPEST hits the streets on September 11 and today NPR debuted the first streamable complete song from the new release.

The lead track from the album, "Duquesne Whistle" was debuted today here on NPR'S ALL SONGS CONSIDERED. It's a swinging number that starts out sounding like an old, moldy recording of some drummerless '40s Western Swing or a train heard from around a bend and then suddenly it leaps out before the first verse into a the present tense of a full, smokin' roadhouse vibe -- slapping bruses on snare, chuggin' upright pulse and power chord electric guitars, shuffling jazzy rhythm guitar, loping pedal steel and what I presume are Dylan's own organ comping.

 photo by AP

The lyrics to the song were co-written with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. Since Garcia's passing in 1995, Hunter has been collaborating quite successfully with a wide range of talented writers (watch for my upcoming post on Robert Hunter) and has written with Dylan on and off since 1988 most notably co-writing most of the songs on Dylan's acclaimed 2009 album, Together Through Life.

"Duquesne Whistle" is a train song. Both Dylan and Hunter's individual songwriting catalogs and the roots of the American folk, blues, country and rock music that they share are filled with songs about trains.

Yes, Dylan's voice is craggy and croaky but no doubt as to what he is singing and how much fun he is having. With his crack road band behind him on most of the album alongside a couple of ringers including Los Lobos' David Hidalgo, this is another in Dylan's line of rootsy, quality efforts.

Full album review coming soon...

Here are the lyrics to DUQUESNE WHISTLE as heard on a first pass. Any corrections please let us know. We will add (c) information as soon as it is confirmed.

Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like it's gonna sweep my world away
I wanna stop at Carbondale and keep on going
That Duquesne train 'gon rock me night and day

   You say I'm a gambler, you say I'm a pimp
   But I ain't neither one 
   Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
   Sound like it's on a final run

Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like she never blowed before
Blue light blinking, red light glowing
Blowing like she's at my chamber door

    You smiling through the fence at me
    Just like you always smiled before
    Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
    Blowing like she ain't gon' blow no more

Can't you hear that Duquesne whistle blowing?
Blowing like the sky's gonna blow apart
You're the only thing alive that keeps me going
You're like a time bomb in my heart

   I can hear a sweet voice steadily calling
   Must be the mother of our Lord
   Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
   Blowing like my woman's on board

Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like it's gon' blow my blues away
You old rascal, I know exactly where you're going
I'll lead you there myself at the break of day

    I wake up every morning with that woman in my bed
    Everybody telling me she's gone to my head
    Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
    Blowing like it's gon' kill me dead

Can't you hear that Duquesne whistle blowing?
Blowing through another no good town
The lights on my lady's land are glowing
I wonder if they'll know me next time 'round

    I wonder if that old oak tree's still standing
    That old oak tree, the one we used to climb
    Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
    Blowing like she's blowing right on time






Listen to Duquesne Whistle here at NPR's ALL SONGS CONSIDERED

NEW DYLAN COMING

Now that may sound like a headline from the golden days of New Dylan sightings...Donovan, Joni Mitchell, John Prine, Bruce Springsteen, even Elliot Murphy all got the nod at one point or another. Then there was the band THE NEW DYLANS who had a brief run-in with critical acclaim in the mid-80s.

But, as always, the only new Dylan we need is whatever new-fangled Dylan, Bob himself gives us. There have been rumblings in Dylan's camp about a new record coming this fall and today there is some concrete news. His new album will be called TEMPEST and will be released on September 11.
Featuring Dylan's touring band as well as David Hidalgo from Los Lobos, this is Bob's 35th studio album and comes on the heels of four strong and critically acclaimed studio albums since 1997.


Bob talks about TEMPEST from the 8/16 issue of ROLLING STONE
 Here is the track listing of TEMPEST:

http://www.bobdylanisis.com/contents/en-uk/d19.html



1. Duquesne Whistle
2. Soon After Midnight
3. Narrow Way
4. Long and Wasted Years
5. Pay In Blood
6. Scarlet Town
7. Early Roman Kings
8. Tin Angel
9. Tempest
10. Roll On John

So the final song, "Roll On, John" is proported to be a new song by Bob about John Lennon and features lines from various Beatles songs according to a variety of sources in the various Dylan forums online. It is NOT the traditional song of the same name that Dylan performed on Cynthia Goodin's radio program in 1962 (hear it below) which has been widely bootlegged over the years. Below also is a version by the Greenbriar Boys from 1970 which just illustrates how much more authentic Dylan sounded then the average folk artists when he sprang on the folk music scene in NYC in the early 60s. The polish exhibited by so much of the music of the early 60s folk music revival was not Dylan's forte or his mode of expression. His individual style was based more on the organic folk process of taking your own stylistic idiosyncrasies and adapting existing folk material and references from a variety of sources that not only pay tribute to the original songs and performances but apply one's own intent and interpretation upon them to put forward a newer perspective on an older theme. He does this to this day with his "appropriations" of titles, grooves, imagery and melody. The Great Assimilator.

Here is the official press release from www.bobdylan.com:

July 17, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW BOB DYLAN ALBUM – TEMPEST - SET FOR SEPTEMBER RELEASE
COLLECTION OF TEN NEW BOB DYLAN SONGS
MARKS MUSICIAN’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY AS A RECORDING ARTIST

Columbia Records announced today that Bob Dylan’s new studio album, Tempest, will be released on September 11, 2012. Featuring ten new and original Bob Dylan songs, the release of Tempest coincides with the 50th Anniversary of the artist’s eponymous debut album, which was released by Columbia in 1962.

Tempest is available for pre-order now on iTunes and Amazon. The new album, produced by Jack Frost, is the 35thth studio set from Bob Dylan, and follows 2009’s worldwide best-seller, Together Through Life.

Bob Dylan’s four previous studio albums have been universally hailed as among the best of his storied career, achieving new levels of commercial success and critical acclaim for the artist. The Platinum-selling Time Out Of Mind from 1997 earned multiple Grammy Awards, including Album Of The Year, while “Love and Theft” continued Dylan’s Platinum streak and earned several Grammy nominations and a statue for Best Contemporary Folk album.

Modern Times, released in 2006, became one of the artist’s most popular albums, selling more than 2.5 million copies worldwide and earning Dylan two more Grammys. Together Through Life became the artist’s first album to debut at #1 in both the U.S. and the UK, as well as in five other countries, on its way to surpassing sales of one million copies.

Those four releases fell within a 12-year creative span that also included the recording of an Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning composition, “Things Have Changed,” from the film Wonder Boys, in 2001; a worldwide best-selling memoir, Chronicles Vol. 1, which spent 19 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List, in 2004, and a Martin Scorsese-directed documentary, No Direction Home, in 2005. Bob Dylan also released his first collection of holiday standards, Christmas In The Heart, in 2009, with all of the artist’s royalties from that album being donated to hunger charities around the world.

This year, Bob Dylan was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor. He was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.” He was also the recipient of the French Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 1990, Sweden’s Polar Music Award in 2000 and several Doctorates including the University of St. Andrews and Princeton
University as well as numerous other honors.

Tempest is available for pre-order now on iTunes and Amazon.

##

Here's a segment of one of the new tunes as debuted in the trailer for the Cinemax show, Strike Back...courtesy of RollingStone.com:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/listen-bob-dylans-new-song-early-roman-kings-20120801

SKELETON KEY & FRIENDS - CALIFORNIA DYLAN FESTIVAL

 

There's a fun band in the resort town of Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino mountains of Southern California called SKELETON KEY BAND ("skeleton keys in the rain") and they are having their 1st Annual ZIMMY-A-THON on June 2nd at the Skeleton Key Folk Music Center  in Big Bear Lake. It's a great resort town with lots of motels and B&Bs, a beautiful lake, hiking etc. in the middle of the national forest only 2 hours from downtown L.A.

It's only a $5 suggested donation which helps to keep the SKFMC alive and supporting the local roos music scene.

JUNE 2nd - 8pm-midnight

The club is all ages, no liquor and holds about 50 people so it will be intimate and fun.

SKELETON KEY BAND will be playing the BLONDE ON BLONDE album in it's entirety for set one and collaborating with a handful of other local are musicians in a long 2nd set covering tunes from Bob's career. Other featured artists include multi-instrumentalist RUSTY SMITH from L.A./Dallas, mandolinist/singer ROY COULTER, singer/guitarist MIKE O'DONNELL, singer/guitarist DAVID GRAHAM from Damned Good Question, acoustic duo SILVER MOON, rock bands A FULL DECK and THE WRINGERS, raconteur ART HARRIMAN (played on HEE HAW back in the day), and guitarist SCOTT WILLIAMS from Blind Corner. BRAD RIESAU from the East Coast based Dylan cover band LOVE MINUS ZERO helped co-ordinate the event and will be joining SKELETON KEY BAND and others onstage.

SKELETON KEY BAND is Bear Valley premier American Folk-Rock ensemble. Their repertoire includes lots of early country, bluegrass, Appalacian, Delta, Chicago Blues, psychedelic, country/rock and lots more. On June 2 all the music performed will be written by Bob Dylan in honor of his recent 71st birthday.

The Skeleton Key Folk Music Center is dedicated to keeping all kinds of roots music alive and is a wonderful place for musicians and music fans alike to network, book their own gigs and hear quality local, regional and national artists. They recently had Texas singer/songwriter Butch Hancock in concert.

For more information contact the SKELETON KEY FOLK MUSIC CENTER at 909-866-6064

560-B Pine Knot Ave. Big Bear Lake, CA 92314

Below are photos taken at the 5/25 and *5/26 rehearsals at the SKFMC.

Skeleton Key founder and proprietor of the Skeleton Key Folk Music Center, 

Rich Spaulding. Photo by Mike O'Donnell

(l-r) Roy Coulter, Hank Kalvin, Brad Riesau. Photo by Mike O'Donnell

Skeleton Key co-founder Tom Burton on guitar and Jim Runkle. Photo by Mike O'Donnell

Skeleton Key drummer Jim "Rocko" Runkle, Photo by Mike O'Donnell

*(l-r) Rich Spaulding, Jim Runkle, Hank Kalvin, Scott Williams and Brad Riesau plahying Dylan's "Meet Me In The Morning". Photo by Tom Burton.

Skeleton Key's Rich Spaulding, guest Mike O'Donnell, Silver Moon/Skeleton Key member Brad Riesau (l-r) playing Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower". Photo by Tom Burton.