Bob Dylan on Good Voice Ovo Armadillo Glasgow

Dylan held us inspired with his voice, the master of his song craft, and the unforgettable storyteller. Our iconic bard held sway with his top-rated band – Bob Britt’s flying-V guitar solos, multi instrumentalist Donnie Herron on lapsteel, mandolin and fiddle, the dynamic, unconventional drummer Charlie Drayton, Tony Garnier on upright bass. 

Dylan was centre stage and he stood at times behind his wooden piano: he’s worked to get the sound just right and though he’s mostly in shadow, he appeared upbeat. Dylan digs deep into the American and the more distant European songbooks –and he states both the Scots and Irish folk ballads as influences, along with the classics. He mixes up with Chicago blues, blistering rock n roll, new Orleans flavoured knockabouts and stately melodic reflections.

*Tonight Dylan sang his new album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, 

Bob is proud of his new album which has had top reviews, his first of new songs since Tempest in 2012. Dressed all in black, the band are silhouettes and as the songs begin they are illuminated by the brightly lit squares beneath them, backdropped by deep red velvet – as if floating to that promised land Dylan’s’ words and songs offer us. He’s the true prophet of our times, even though he asks not to be! 

We’ve entered slower paced past times before mobile phones, before flashing lights, to inhabit the moment and be free of burdens. The band are strung as one, emphasising the rush and flow – asking, questioning, apologising, and quiet searching of our souls. Dylan’s been through many doorways, seen many distant shorelines. At 80 he’s given us another classic album.

 

Now at 80 he continues as the journeyman going strong – His band are on top form with surging guitars, to subtle, gentle, backing rhythms surrounding the deep power of Dylan’s words. He savours the live experience, that exchange of song and audience, sharing his voice with his long standing and admiring fans. He seems more at ease with himself, and certainly the new album is slower tempo, chilled and intimate: while still offering the questioning and grit we expect. His songs don’t come easy and they get under your skin. 

**SONGS

**Dylan sang 17 songs tonight – 9 from his 2022 album Rough and Rowdy Ways

He began his show with Watching the River Flow (written 1971) about those creative urges so crucial to his life. And followed by the complex opening track from R & R, I Contain Multitudes.

The memorable and often quoted lyrics of False Prophet and When I Make my Masterpiece. The intimate stillness of a lovely love song I’ve made up my Mind to give Myself to You. He sang an impressive Black Rider, with unexpected key changes, ‘The road that you’re on, same road that you knew, just not the same as it was a minute ago.” My mind is at war, Hnag off your arm. 

Followed by My Own Version of You, Mother of Muses.The haunting slow drumbeat of Crossing the Rubicon, a metaphor to take a leap into the unknown and commit to certain journeys - Take the big road, whatever road you can. Bob sang the chilled relaxed happy rituals of favourite track Key West. We were left in harmony. After which he said, “Hello everyone”. Dylan was centre stage and he stood at times behind his wooden piano: he’s worked to get the sound just right and though he’s mostly in shadow, he appeared upbeat

 

**Other than the album, Dylan performed Most Likely You’ll go your Way and I’ll go Mine from Blonde on Blonde album. Followed by one of his ultimate classics with surging guitars Gotta Serve Someone, from Slow Train Coming album – backed by Bob Britt’s surging guitar, Donnie Herron’s dynamic pedal steel guitar and the thundering drummer Charlie Drayton. And a very slow version of I’ll be Your Baby Tonight; a cheerful and an cheerful upbeat Be Alone with You, from 1969 album Nashville Skyline - Under the starlight sky; and a swinging cover version of That Old Black Magic. 

Dylan performed a rousing rock blues Goodbye Jimmy Reid on which he plays harmonica – an upbeat tribute to the blues giant. To those having a free voice. When Dylan said, ”Thank you everybody, Hope you are all well.” For their final song the band performed Every Grain of Sand – and with band introductions. 

After which the band and Dylan lined up centre stage, then exited and came back for a final bow, when there was a rush of applause when I thought how much Dylan’s songs and music have meant to so many, and especially for those musicians in his footsteps (and for me). Like the Scots bard Robert Burns, Dylan looks back to the great writers before him and also to what lies ahead.

I might have hoped, as in 2011, Dylan had encored two of his classics (Rolling stone, All Along the Watchtower), but this show was about new material mostly and we left grateful, satisfied and thankful.  He sits at the turbulent crossroads. He continues being the journeyman bringing his messages of a better way. Hope of those journeys, Fear of time taking us all. 

 

In my life by far, his long life of music and poet of our times. I’ll cross that Rubicon to the Promised land. Take me to the river – free me from sin. Will he still be touring at 80, still the journeyman, journey home. The Never ending Tour runs through 2024.

This is Bob at his classic and contemporary best! This is my third Dylan concert. First was with my son at the SECC Glasgow, when Dylan was hunched over his keyboards. The second gig, 2011, was a much livelier Dylan performance at the Braehead arena, where Dylan even danced! And we stood alongside his long-standing disciples at the front. The fan beside me was my age and also with his son and he had been to every Dylan concert here since his first one in Scotland – at the age of 18. It was a humbling experience and Dylan performed several of his classic songs (set lists are online)

Dylan clearly much prefers the smaller venues and this concert in 2022 at the Armadillo was more intimate and old worldly, took us back in time, before mobile phones, before internet and before flashing lights, glitz and glamour- when we could simply be in the moment to listen clearly to the quality, aged instruments, to the changes in tempo, clarity, depth, resonance and range of voice. We’ve forgotten today how to be in the moment, how to look or listen, as we disappear into our virtual realities.

I hope Dylan continues on his ever ending world tour and continues to write and perform such memorable and hard hitting words and music. And that I get to hear him some more live – it’s a surreal and uplifting experience.

**SET LIST

*Watching the River Flow

*Most Likely You’ll go your way and I’ll go Mine

I Contain multitudes

False Prophet

When I make my Masterpiece

Black Rider

My Own Version of you

*I’ll be our Baby Tonight

Crossing the Rubicon

*Be Alone with you

Key West

*Gotta Serve Someone

I’ve made up my mind to give myself to You

*That Old Black Magic

Mother of Muses

**REVIEWS

Neil McCormick on the Telegraph, as “one long magnificent ride for his most loyal fans and “The wise old poet has stirred up a cryptic cauldron of truths and clues, philosophy, myths and magic.”

 

“Breath of its cultural references and the depth of Dylan’s lyrics ‘ Mikal Wood Los Angeles Times.

“old blues songs, Shakespeare, classical mythology, the bible and pop culture” Kenny Doole Exclaim

 “why are intellectual references so rare in contemporary music.”

 

Rolling Stone ranked Key West as second best songs of 2020 and 7^th in a list of 25 best Bob Dylan songs 20^th century. 

“ a poetic balm for a world in profound turmoil.” 

Bob Dylan, All the Songs, Philippe Margolin and Jean Michel Guesdon, claim R & R is placed between Highway 61 Revisited, Blond on Blonde and Blood on the Tracks, and in other words on the same level as his master works. Several stand out tracks are singled out for mention – Key West, I Contain Multitudes, Black Rider. 

Rough and Rowdy Ways album -  is the 39^th studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan released on June 2020, through Columbia Records.It is Dylan's first album of original songs since his 2012 album Tempest following three releases, one a triple album a triple album that covered traditional pop standards. The album was recorded at Sound City Studios in January and February 2020. The session musicians included all of the then-current members of Dylan's Never Ending tour band alongside other musicians, such as Blake Mills and Fiona Apple. The album's sound was described by critics as Americana, folk, blues and R & B. 

Rough and Rowdy Ways was preceded by the singles "Murder Most Foul", "I Contain Multitudes" and "False Prophet", "Murder Most Foul" became Dylan's first song to top any US Billboard chart. The album was universally praised by critics, described as being one of Dylan's best works and placing highly in many year-end album lists, including the top spot on four lists. It peaked at No. 1 in more than ten countries and No. 2 in the United States and Australia.

Surrounding Dylan, leaning in like heliotropes, are three guitarists playing electric, acoustic, lap steel, mandolin and fiddle (the latter three are by Donnie Herron, and not all at the same time). Longtime electric upright bassist Tony Garnier plucks away next to newbie Charley Drayton, a loose and bouncy drummer who seems to make contact with his kit via anything but wooden sticks. The transitions between the songs are jazzy and fantasia-like, as though each cut played is conjured afresh out of a shimmering ether.

Crucially, there’s an air of playfulness here – testament to Dylan actually being in a very good mood

Emeli Sande Lets Say for Instance

It is good to see Emeli Sande return with a more authentic and true sound on indy label Chrysalis. In particular new single There isn’t Much. She seems in interviews to have found a new contentment and a new sense of self. Her new sound is also more laid back.

In 2012 she had huge commercial success with debut album Our Version of Events, which was the biggest selling album of 2012. Her range includes R&B, pop and gospel, with her inspirations including Nina Simone. Emeli has collaborated with Naughty Boy, Professor Green, Labyrinth.

She had major hits with Read all about it, Next to me, You are Beautiful.

She has performed at the London Olympic games and had major successes in America and has won four Brit awards for her music.

 

In 2012, I was thrilled to take photos at her Albert hall gig London. One of those perfect days and the excitement to be backstage and climb those stairs in front of the stage. 

 

I first heard her perform at the Oran Mor Glasgow, and took photos there that were used in her promotions. back in 2007 when she was a student at Glasgow medical school, when she impressed the packed crowd with her soul and R & B voice. Its been quite a journey and 10 years now since her debut. 

Emeli Sande Albert hall 2012

Emeli Sandé on tour UK with a solo piano show - Emeli Sande: Brighter Days Tour –  Òran Mór's Auditorium ... Date: 26th May 2022 7:00 pm. Venue: The Auditorium.

And at Belldrum festival

 

Lets Say for Instance


https://emelisande.com

50th Anniversary of Joni Mitchell’s Blue album

  

 

Hard to believe, where does time go! I have to name Joni and this album as probably my biggest musical influence, how I’d love to have seen her live!

 

First she colours her words with such vivid and honest imagery – with shades not only of blue but every other colour in-between.  

 I am a lonely painter, I live in a box of paints, 

 

 I’d play her Both Sides Now on piano. There are only a few albums you come back to over and over – where the songs linger and pull you back.  

So I grew up on Joni Mitchell.  Her Voice. Well actually I first learnt to play and sing the stage musicals and Burns songs.  I can't remember when I first heard Joni's pure and touching voice but her personal and intimate songs became ingrained in my head, in particular Both Sides Now. 

Her dreams and passion took me skyward when I was young and the sands of time stood still for those moments. She sang of her sorrows and offered us a voice. Most memorable was her pure soaring voice. She wrote of loss, of heartache and love with more creative insights than I'd heard before.  I remember the deep blue colours on her 'Blue' album sleeve. I bought the sheet music and played it often. Like Dylan some of her lyrics are so true we never forget them.  For me Joni is at her best when her songs are lost in those confessional deeply felt emotions.  

Blue Rose Code at Celtic Connections

Blue Rose Code aka Ross Wilson, improves with each album!  His new album is certainly a step up.  With his folk and soul mix, and raspy vocals along with his brass and guitar band, he brings to mind Gerry Rafferty or Van Morrison. 

He’s composed a heartfelt and soulful song to counterbalance these challenging times – Peace in your Heart. 

 

Wilson performed songs from his new album With Headings of the Deepest Kind at a wonderful concert as part of the Celtic Connections music festival 2021.

- Stardust, Love a Little, Wild Atlantic Way,

And a moving rendition of Amazing Grace in his own inimitable style. 

 

https://bluerosecode.com

This quality concert also included Lyre, Karen Matheson and Rory Butler.

Highly recommend. 

Rough and Rowdy, Bob Dylan

'Considered, elegiac and richly allusive, this austere gem may be Dylan’s best album in 40 years' Bryan Applyard , Sunday Times july 2020

This is his first album since Tempest 2012. I read a wonderful review – “So Bob, you’re 80 next year; what have you to say for yourself?“ the overall effect is austere, serious and pared down. It is a mesmeric and magnificent piece of work. 

"The songs vary from romantic to surreal. His rhyming is as ingenious, playful and varied as ever.” Lyrically Dylan is operating at a peak not seen since his albums Blood on the Tracks and Blonde on Blonde. 

SONGS:   Key West (Philosopher Pilot)/ Black Rider/  Crossing the Rubicon/  I sing of love/  I sing of betrayal,/ I Contain multitudes/  False Prophet/ My Own Version of You. And the Lovely romantic ballad – I have made up my mind to give myself to you. Dylan writes, “Can you tell me what it means to be or not to be.’

Another link – the assassination of John F Kennedy at the center of Murder most foul, and in a sense of the center of entire album, suggesting, as it does, a dark cloud, which may be death or may be Trump, from which there is no escape.

On the Lyrics on Murder most Foul - “Visiting morgues and monasteries/ looking for the necessary body part” with Freud and Marx looking on. Plus others -   Edgar Allan Poe, William Blake, the bluesman jimmy reed, Elvis, Presley, Allen Ginsberg, jack Kerouac, Dizzy Miss Lizzy, Tom Dooley. This is an assertion that culture comes first, history is a footnote; a long one, but a footnote nonetheless. Culture, like the individual, contains everything, right or wrong, good or bad. Everything is double-edged. 

"Whitman was similarly obsesses with the assignations of his friend Abraham Lincoln. His two most famous poems – ‘Oh Captain! My Captain! – “When Lilacs last in the Dooryard Bloomd” – are about the terrible moment.. 

"The album celebrated the noble conviction – Whitman’s conviction – that you can’t sing about anything without singing about everything. With this album Dylan announces himself as Whitman’s child.  As a way of saying we contain, like Whitman all contradictory possibilities. 

“I’m not what I was; things aren’t what they were.” Back to when he told journalists, you cant put me in a box.”  The backing is sparse but precise,  and beautifully exact in its evocation of genres – ballad, blues and so on.. also a kind of list of American musical forms.” Whitman’s attempted to contain the entire country.  

Scotia's Bard Dick Gaughan - NEW album Harvard Tapes

I am proud to have taken photos at Gaughan’s concerts and met him a few times. He spoke of singing with Emmy Lou Harris and was totally unassuming. I was sad to hear he had a stroke in 2017, and I attended a wonderful tribute concert for him at the Old Fruitmarket, during Celtic Connections 2019. 

Since the 70s, Gaughan has been one of Scotia’s most powerful, authentic and honest Bards. He does this through an open chord tuning on his Stratocaster, and an unerring, defiant and hard-hitting voice. Like Burns before him, he believes we all deserve an equal chance in life. Like Burns he draws on the old traditions and adds his own verses and tunes.

He digs deep into our social heritage of the voices of ordinary folks, unrecognised folk and of those who labour for a better world. He also includes the voices from further afield – America, England, Ireland, France, more . He was a central figure in 1970s Celtic folk revival with Boys of the Lough and his early classic album, Handful of Earth. He also worked with Billy Bragg, Andy Irvine, Five Hand Reel and Clan Alba. Gaughan is half Irish and Half Scots. 

**I first heard Gaughan back at a folk club in Edinburgh in the 80s, when he stood out as so different to the often romanticized view of soft, Scottish folk pop. I’d never heard folk music that challenged in this way. Since then I have heard Gaughan perform at the Celtic Connections concert hall his powerful version of Burns Parcel of Rogues to the Nation. I heard him take it intimate and emotional with Burns Westlin Windsat my local folk club, when he said, it was the best song ever written and says all there is to say really. He challenged with Outlaws and Dreamersand life on the edge. He told stories of old soldiers and miners, such as the powerful Why Old Mew Cry. Gaughan often starts his set with the honesty of the song, What You do With What You’ve Got.

He speaks of the English Diggers - "I tend to side with people like the Diggers, those English revolutionaries who fought without weapons for a fair share of the land that rightfully was the property of everyone to begin with," says Gaughan, summing up his philosophy, and smiling.

Between songs and while tuning his guitar, he tells his stories, often with dark humour and pathos. He talks of the real Scotland, the one he knows in Leith. “We used to elect our king in Scotland, you know. The last one we elected was Macbeth.”

**I heard an interview with Dick on radio Scotland when he spoke of his guitar playing being influenced by Davy Graham,

“When I heard of the murder of Chilean folk singer Victor Jara, by the fascist Pinochet. I knew, I couldn’t just play the old tunes, you had to speak out, and really that is what the tradition is all about. “

"I knew then I couldn't just play old tunes. You had to speak out. And, really, that is what the tradition is about. Traditional music--which to me has always meant just the songs that people sing and listen to, be that rock 'n' roll or old ballads--it has always had to do with politics. People's music, folk music if you will, is very dangerous stuff! It is subversive to acknowledge that ordinary people actually have a culture with artistic merit. This gives the lie to those who would like us to think that the poor are poor because they are stupid! There is a lot of wisdom in some of those old songs, and no reason I can see why songs about the politics of today are not part of The Tradition! I sing 'em, anyway, and that's the tradition I know."

Traditional music - It has always had to do with politics.”

Dick Gaughan at Milngavie folk club

Check out Dick Gaughan’s website -  NEW LIVE ALBUM The Harvard Tapes - https://www.greentrax.com/music/product/dick-gaughan-the-harvard-tapesI

http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/

Concerts at Celtic Connections and Milngavie folk club - all Photos copyright Pauline Keightley.

**Dick Gaughan Interview with Phil Cunningham Radio Scotland March 2012

Dick chose five songs that have influenced him –

(1) Big Bill Broonzy – Glory of Love

(2) The Shadows – Apache

(3) The Beatles – Love Me Do

(4)  Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues

(5)  Davy Graham – 67

Siobhan Wilson’s All the Saints

Scottish singer song writer and talented musician, Siobhan’s album All The Saints,is on the SAY shortlist – Scottish album of the Year 2018. As well as BBC Radio 6 record of the day.  https://www.sayaward.com

I have heard Siobhan at a couple of gigs and she sings with a purity and engrossing voice. In September she is off on a tour of Canada. A very special and unique voice. 

I wish her good luck! 

SIOBHAN WILSON

https://www.siobhan-wilson.com

REVIEWS

One of the most stunning collections of songs to be released in a long time" - Drowned in Sound

"A sparse, tender record tying English indie-folk with European classical music to spellbinding effect. - The Skinny

Rab Noakes Anniversayville

Thanks so much Rab Noakes for the early hard copy of your new CD - and I am thrilled to have my Photos on there! 

Great band surrounding Rab Noakes Music top songs, some new, some old. Plus backing vocals with Jill Jackson and Kathleen MacInnes.. ...Things get better with maturity! Well done.

In the 60s and 70s, Rab played with greats such as Gerry Rafferty and Lindisfarne. When I hung out in the folk scene then, i remember well the harmony singing of Noakes songs, such as Branch, Clear Day. 

Back in 2007, I saw Noakes still going strong at an Oran Mor gig. He often includes a fifties classic, this time a song my husband remembered his mother singing. He is also a dedicated Dylan follower – check out his version of Mississippi. 

Noakes says music is all about the dialogue and more about performing than simply the song. Those residency night gigs were artists can learn their craft in front of the live audience and the live performance when 'flying' in the heart of the music toughens you up and you have to learn loads of songs. He played in Denmark six nights a week.

Noakes now runs his own production company Neon. 

Some of my Rab Noakes images

Rab Noakes performing at Celtic concert for Michael Marra

Rab Noakes at Celtic with Eddi Reader and Dougie MacLean

Noakes at Milngavie folk club

Rab Noakes at the Old Fruitmarket Anniversaryville concert January 2018

NEW ALBUM 2018 Rab Noakes -'Welcome to Anniversaryville'
https://itunes.apple.com/…/welcome-to-anniversar…/1394881656

One of my favourite Noakes song, Gently Does It

And a few years ago you'd been on this road so long
Now they're building a highway to take you home

Gently does it for a change
I used to think you were just like a mountain range
Your big boots stomped where small men feared to tread
I can hardly believe what I've just read

They say you can't travel any more
But you've got the key to a new front door
And don't you know 'cause you once said it all
When you stand so high you've got so far to fall

Not everyone can look you eye to eye
'Cause you get difficult, dangerous I'm damned if I lie
But we all pay the price
And they place your ante high.

Blue Rose Code at Celtic Connections 2018

A restless torn soul

Blue Rose Code, (aka Ross Wilson) Scottish singer-songwriter, performed a concert at Celtic Connections 2018 to support Beth Orton. Ross commanded the ABC stage as he sang with a full band line up. 

His band consisted of Lyle Watt on guitar, Ian Sloan on Pedal Steel, Angus Lyon on keys, Graham Coe on Cello, Nico Bruce on bass and with drums and brass, trumpet and sax. He played dynamic guitar and the kind of set to get lost in. He performed songs from his new 2017 album ‘Water of Leith’, as well as other fan favourites.

In some memorable songs he has connected to his Scottish roots (thankfully) – and brought in the lovely Gaelic voices of Kathleen McInnes and Julie Fowlis on some of his best songs – Sandaig, Passing Places, Where the Westlin Winds Do Carry Me, Edina - more of this please!  He also performed the soothing Nashville Blues (minus guitar), followed by the optimism of Grateful.

The drama of his voice and songs have soul and hope filled emotional surges. His voice is engaging and expressive alongside his pounding guitar. His sound mixes Celtic soul with smooth rhythms informed by the soul and blues of John Martyn and Motown .

I would have enjoyed to hear Ross on a couple of songs solo to take the tempo down a little. The ABC audience was here to hear the headliner - subtle songstress Beth Orton - and sometimes less can be more too. I first heard Ross on his previous sold out visit to the folk club for more intimate gigs and was highly impressed with both his strong performance and music and also with the enthusiasm of the fans.  

Ross is an exciting young talent and I look forward to his future songs. He was great fun to shoot, with the engrossed fun energy he puts into his set!   https://bluerosecode.com

He sang of the cries of freedom all along the west coast

Dougie MacLean at Milngavie folk club

‘Dougie captured the mood with his embracing warm and spiritual voice’

He has become something of a legend for many in Scotland and his songs have deep connections to the land. Dougie grew up in Perthshire where he now runs the MacLean Perthshire Amber festival – his grandfather was a shepherd and his father a gardener. Both his parents taught him the love of music – his mother played melodeon and his father fiddle. His family came from Mull, where they were crofters. Dougie now runs the old school both he and is father attended, as his studio.

For his first set he sang songs from his new album, 'New Tomorrow’ along with older favourites -   

‘Shadow of the Mountain’, ‘Talking with my Father’ when he spoke of his father walking over the moors to school. He spoke of his travels to gig at many far flung places. He sang of the ‘Singing Land’ (Shine on Your Singing Tree), 'Holding On', 'Feel So Near', and 'Holding Back'.

And a moving song too to his grandson ‘New Tomorrow’ with the words – If time will be our friend / I’ll help you to defend/ Your new tomorrows. If fear should enter in /You’ll find me hiding in the wings / Ever near you.

He sang ‘Broken Wings’ at the start of his second set and ‘Child of this Place.'  We all sang along to - Will you Catch me if I’m Falling ‘On This Wild and Windy Night’, Dougie enthusiastically encourages his audience to sing his choruses.His songs are often poignant and tender. And we sang his well loved 'Caledonia’, and ‘She Loves me when I’m Gone’. 

His Encore song was ‘This Love will Carry me.' 

His ’Caledonia’ has become part of Scottish culture – and is sung at weddings, major events and played at the Edinburgh Tattoo. He wrote this song while on a French beach and thinking of his Scottish homeland. He is also a passionate supporter of freedom for Scotland. One fan spoke of the emotions at Stirling castle Hogmanay event a few years ago when Dougie played Caledonia at the new year and hoped that Westminster might hear the singing!

Dougie knows the beauty of keeping things simple – with catchy choruses and also hidden depths.

the Friel Sisters

 *He was ably supported by the award-winning and talented Friel Sisters – whose roots are in Ireland’s Donegal. They included a quality guitarist from Japan.