Dylan Teams With Haggard For Tour

[LS]

Dylan Gets His 'Show' On The Road
Jonathan Cohen
February 02, 2005

Bob Dylan will team with country legend Merle Haggard and the Strangers and newcomer Amos Lee for a spring North American tour, dubbed the Bob Dylan Show. Beginning March 7 in Seattle, the month-long trek is dominated by multiple-night stands in Oakland, Calif., Los Angeles and Chicago, where it will close on April 6.

Dylan and company will play three shows in Seattle, three in Oakland, and five each in Los Angeles and Chicago. Single dates are also set for Portland, Ore., and Las Vegas, the latter of which will not feature Haggard. An Internet pre-sale for some shows began today (Feb. 2) via Ticketmaster; full details are available on Dylan's official Web site.

The artist has been off the road since mid-November but has remained in the headlines thanks to his best-selling book "Chronicles: Volume One," released in October by Simon & Schuster. The National Book Critics Circle recently named the volume one of five nominees for best biography/autobiography, which will be handed out at a March 18 awards ceremony in New York. Dylan will not attend the event due to the upcoming tour's routing.

Bob Dylan tour dates:

March 7-9: Seattle (Paramount Theatre)
March 11: Portland, Ore. (Chiles Center)
March 14-16: Oakland, Calif. (Paramount Theatre)
March 19: Las Vegas (Alladin Theatre; without Haggard)
March 21-23, 25-26: Los Angeles (Pantages Theatre)
April 1-3, 5-6: Chicago (Auditorium Theatre)

[SanAntonioMike]

Now there's one I'd love to see. I wish they were comin' this way.

[SweetNadine]

I read a short little piece last week from Bob Dylan. I take he doesn't think much of today's musicians.

[LS]

Busy Year for Bob Dylan
Tours, Scorsese movie and outtakes album slated for 2005
BRIAN HIATT

Bob Dylan may need more than one cup of coffee for the road in 2005: The sixty-three-year-old legend's schedule includes a spring tour with country veteran Merle Haggard, a possible repeat of last summer's outing with Willie Nelson, the paperback release of his best-selling memoir, Chronicles: Volume One, and a Martin Scorsese-helmed documentary.

First up is the two-month-long tour with Haggard, beginning Monday in Seattle. The country singer-songwriter's 1969 hit "Okie From Muskogee" ("We don't burn no draft cards down on Main Street") assailed the counterculture that claimed Dylan as a leader. But the sixty-seven-year-old Haggard says he's "as big a Bob Dylan fan as anybody. I haven't been a show opener for years, and I wouldn't open for just anybody. But I'm honored to do it for Bob. There's a lot of similarities between us: We both play guitar, we both live in America and we're both probably better songwriters than we are singers."

Haggard says he hasn't yet bought a copy of Chronicles, but more than 500,000 others have. "It's an enormous success -- one of the best-selling memoirs of the year," says David Rosenthal, executive vice president of the book's publisher, Simon & Schuster, "Everything about this book has exceeded our expectations." Chronicles was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award, with a winner to be announced on March 18th. (Another date to watch: Pulitzer Prize nominees are unveiled on April 4th.) A paperback version is due in October. Simon & Schuster also plans to publish Chronicles: Volume Two, but don't expect Dylan to deliver a manuscript anytime soon. "It'd be wonderful to have it in the next few years," says Rosenthal. "But we'll get it when we get it."

The excavation of Dylan's past will continue in Scorsese's two-part documentary, No Direction Home, due to air on PBS in September, followed by a DVD release. The three-and-a-half-hour film will draw from ten hours of taped Dylan interviews, conducted by his manager, Jeff Rosen. Using previously unseen footage from Dylan's archives, the movie will reportedly focus on the start of his career, from 1961 to 1966. "It's nonfiction -- maybe," Scorsese said in January. "With Bob Dylan, you never know."

A two-CD collection of outtakes and live recordings used in the film is tentatively set for an August 16th release, as the seventh volume in Dylan's Bootleg Series. The documentary will also spawn the Bob Dylan Scrapbook, which will include Dylan artifacts such as lyric sheets and contracts.

Meanwhile, Dylan is in the early stages of planning a second tour with Nelson. As for a new studio album, Dylan told Rolling Stone in October that he has "a bunch" of new songs written and that he hoped to record them "sometime in the beginning of the year."

Bob Dylan/Merle Haggard tour dates:

3/7: Seattle, Paramount Theater
3/8: Seattle, Paramount Theater
3/9: Seattle, Paramount Theater
3/11: Portland, Chiles Center
3/12: Portland, Chiles Center
3/14: Oakland, Paramount Theater
3/15: Oakland, Paramount Theater
3/16: Oakland, Paramount Theater
3/18: Reno, NV, Reno Hilton
3/19: Las Vegas, Aladdin Theater (*without Haggard)
3/21: Los Angeles, Pantages Theater
3/22: Los Angeles, Pantages Theater
3/23: Los Angeles, Pantages Theater
3/25: Los Angeles, Pantages Theater
3/26: Los Angeles, Pantages Theater
3/28: Denver, Fillmore Auditorium
3/29: Denver, Fillmore Auditorium
4/1: Chicago, Auditorium Theater
4/2: Chicago, Auditorium Theater
4/3: Chicago, Auditorium Theater
4/5: Chicago, Auditorium Theater
4/6: Chicago, Auditorium Theater
4/8: Milwaukee, WI, Eagles Ballroom
4/9: Milwaukee, WI, Eagles Ballroom
4/11: Mt. Pleasant, MI, Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort
4/12: Detroit, Masonic Temple Theater
4/13: Buffalo, NY, Shea's Performing Arts Center
4/15: Boston, Orpheum Theater
4/16: Boston, Orpheum Theater
4/17: Boston, Orpheum Theater
4/19: Newark, NJ, New Jersey Performing Arts Center
4/20: Verona, NY, Turning Stone Casino and Resort
4/22: Mashantucket, CT, Foxwoods Resort Casino
4/24: Atlantic City, NJ, Borgata Resort Spa and Casino
4/25: New York, Beacon Theater
4/26: New York, Beacon Theater
4/28: New York, Beacon Theater
4/29: New York, Beacon Theater
4/30: New York, Beacon Theater

[LS]

Hank Cochran's Recovery Gets A Boost - Legendary Entertainer Bob Dylan Adds "A-11" To Show

Nashville, TN (March 25, 2005) - Hank Cochran's recovery from triple by-pass surgery got a boost today, when he learned that legendary entertainer Bob Dylan had added Cochran's "A-11" to his stage show.

"I think it's great," says Cochran from his Hendersonville, Tennessee home. "It's always nice to know that one of your songs is being played for a whole new crowd." Previously a hit for Buck Owens, the song has also been recorded by Johnny Paycheck and Clinton Gregory.

Dylan has included the country classic in his encores at several dates across the country. Hank hasn't spoken to Dylan about the performances - yet. "I met him many years ago with Johnny Cash," Hank says. "When I get to feelin' a little more like myself, I may just give him a call and tell him 'thanks.

Dylan has included the country classic in his encores at several dates across the country. Hank hasn't spoken to Dylan about the performances - yet. "I met him many years ago with Johnny Cash," Hank says. "When I get to feelin' a little more like myself, I may just give him a call and tell him 'thanks.'"

[LS]

A Q&A With Merle Haggard

By Ray Waddell
Excerpted from the March 26, issue of Billboard.

Grammy Award winner, Country Music Hall of Famer, the Poet of the Common Man, Merle Haggard for many is country music. And while his accomplishments in the genre are second to none, Haggard is still a risk-taking live performer and remains prolific in the studio.

The 67-year-old star has just begun a major tour with another legend, Bob Dylan. His recent collection of standards, "Unforgettable Merle Haggard," on the Capitol label -- where he saw his greatest success -- has been critically hailed. Now Haggard is putting the final touches on a new Capitol release, a much-anticipated project that reunites "Hag" with legendary producer Jimmy Bowen.

"Merle is one of the few left from the era when country music really started to expand and radio went from 300 stations to 3,000 stations," Bowen says. "To see where he is at this point in his life, and what he wants to say and sing about, has been a great experience. Merle is a poet, and what he thinks is what he sings about."

Q: Singer, songwriter, guitar player, live performer -- which part of your game is most rewarding to you?

A: Personally, probably the guitar playing. It's very important to me. That's what started this whole thing, my interest in that instrument. I've been playing it since I was 10. It's like golf to some other people; it's important to me that I play good.

Q: It seems you've always been aware that less can be more when it comes to guitar playing. Is that a fair assessment?

A: Oh, yeah. I learned that from Grady Martin. Lay in the weeds and wait, and when you get your chance to say something, say something good. Then there's what you call a "band-man guitar player," where I try to put my guitar in where it should be and stay out of where it shouldn't be and reinforce the condition. We play off the cuff, we don't walk onstage with any idea of what we're going to do. We go out there and spend that hour-and-a-half havin' a good time.

Q: What has it been like working with Jimmy Bowen again?

A: Jimmy Bowen is probably one of the smartest men in the studio alive, and one of the most talented, and has more gold records on his wall than you can count, ranging from Bing Crosby to Merle Haggard. It's really a privilege to get Bowen off the golf course. He came in with a lot of gusto. I asked him if he'd produce an album on me, and he said, "Naw, I'll produce a great album on you, but not just an album."

We're 99% done. I've got one song I've got to sing on I didn't finish, and it just went wonderfully. We had four great musicians, a drummer named J.R. -- I don't even know his last name -- the best goddamn drummer I ever heard in my life. Reggie Young on guitar and Billy Joe Walker on guitar, and the great Leland Sklar on bass. I'm really excited about it.

Q: How did this tour with Bob Dylan come about?

A: I had my itinerary set to do some light touring in the spring and ease my way through the year, and Bob Dylan calls and wants me to tour America with him. And he's not just talking about once and awhile, it's 40 out of the next 60 days. But it's Bob Dylan, and Bob Dylan's the Einstein of music. He calls and wants you to be on his show and your name is Merle Haggard, you're honored.

Q: I've heard that most people who tour with Dylan don't get a chance to talk to him, but I imagine he'll talk to you at some point.

A: I don't know. I've rubbed shoulders with him before and he just sorta grunts.

Q: You spoke out in defense of the Dixie Chicks during the controversy a couple of years ago. How do you reconcile that with your "Fightin' Side of Me" and "Okie From Muskogee" fans?

A: What knocked my hat off was the way people attacked them. My response didn't come until some time later. I let it all go down and watched it happen and thought, "Now, wait a minute. Is this not America? Are we not at war for freedom?"

It disturbs me that this country is so seriously divided over this war. I don't think since the Civil War have we been so divided about something. Since when is it new for grandma to be against war? These girls were against war, and only in today's times would we have enough nerve to jump on somebody like that. What's new about entertainers being against war? They've always campaigned against war.

Q: What would you say is the most important lesson you've learned in the music business?

A: Keep your opinions to yourself. I think it's important that I stay neutral on politics and remain hard to understand. I don't want to be pigeonholed as conservative, liberal, independent or anything. I back the man for the things the man believes in, not whether it says "R" or "D" down there beside his name.

There's some things that have got to happen. We've got to regain control -- the people. "For the people, of the people," all that -- that's not the current situation. We are under control, and if people don't realize that, they haven't looked around. And if they're not paranoid, they haven't thought about it.

Q: What accomplishment are you most proud of?

A: I guess the longevity of it all is probably the most exciting thing. We've been doing this for 40 years as a group. Merle Haggard & the Strangers started in 1965 on the road. To go this long and still have top-drawer acceptance is about all a guy can ask for.

[LS]

A Glimpse of Dylan Country in New Jersey
by David Hinckley
NY Daily News
April 21, 2005

If Bob Dylan's New Jersey show Tuesday was any indication, his five-night run at the Beacon next week will have a country flavor.

But it isn't a "Nashville Skyline" kind of country, that relaxed back-porch picking to which Dylan returned for a couple of tracks on 2001's splendid "Love and Theft" CD.

No, this is more like country swing, a driving sound that's a close cousin to jazz and runs in a direct line back to Bob Wills and the Western-swing dance music of the 1930s.

Not by accident, Dylan's version at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center blended perfectly with the hour-long Merle Haggard set that preceded him. Haggard's music is drenched in Bob Wills, and he played a rousing version of Wills' "Ida Red" as well as several long instrumentals straight out of a 1938 barn dance.

While Haggard and Dylan never shared the stage, Dylan wove his own infectious swing into tunes as diverse as "Watching the River Flow," "Shooting Star," "This Wheel's on Fire," the sweet "Bye and Bye" and the intense "Absolutely Sweet Marie."

Even though Dylan, a big fan of the lovely hybrids in American music, has countrified his material before, his sound this time had a very specific foundation - the superb violin/fiddle of Elana Fremerman from the Hot Club of Cowtown.

Fremerman, a classically trained violinist from Kansas who has also played on New York subway platforms, is just one member of a tight six-piece band. But the similarity between Hot Club's music and the sound Dylan wants here suggests her presence is not coincidental.

For whatever reason, this band also seems exceptionally focused. Dylan puts long instrumental passages into his songs, presumably in part to rest his voice, and he seems to have given this ensemble a clear sense of where he wants the instrumentals to go and how to get there.

When he steps away from country sounds, he builds dark versions of "John Brown" and "Masters of War" on spare blues riffs and rocks the band through a growling "Lonesome Day Blues."

The Bob-and-Merle show hits the Beacon Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday next week, and while the only safe projection with Dylan is that he'll probably wear a hat, even veteran fans should feel some fresh breezes.