Christmas in the Heart: the Interview

Spanish

The "street newspaper" organization NASNA (North American Street Newspaper Association) has issued an exclusive Bob Dylan interview made by Bill Flanagan about, Christmas in the Heart, Christmas, carols and more.

Here it is:



The Christmas Album “ The Interview

Here’s the official Press Release from Sony Music:

EXCLUSIVE BOB DYLAN INTERVIEW TO BE SYNDICATED WORLDWIDE
THROUGH INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF STREET PAPERS

Only Dylan Interview To Be Released In Conjunction
With Artist’s Christmas In The Heart Album

Bob Dylan’s only interview in conjunction with the release of his Christmas In The Heart album will be syndicated worldwide through the International Network Of Street Papers (INSP) beginning today. Completed earlier this month with noted journalist Bill Flanagan, the wide-ranging interview includes Dylan’s thoughts on all things Christmas, including his favorite holiday songs, special presents, the making of his new album, Pretty Boy Floyd and Babe Ruth.

According to the INSP, Street papers offer a unique route out of poverty. In recent years, they have become increasingly recognized for their relevance to the developing world. By combining a sustainable social enterprise model with an independent media voice, street papers provide an enterprising means to address poverty and freedom of expression.

As announced earlier, all of Bob Dylan’s royalties from sales of Christmas In The Heart will be donated to Feeding America in the United States , Crisis in the United Kingdom , and the World Food Programme in 80 developing nations around the world.В Dylan’s initial contributions will provide more than four million meals to more than 1.4 million people in the United States , 15,000 meals to homeless people in the United Kingdom during the eight days of Christmas (December 23 - January 1) and 500,000 meals to school children in the developing world during the holiday season.


Christmas In The Heart is the 47th album from Bob Dylan, and follows his worldwide chart-topping Together Through Life, released earlier this year. The first video from Christmas In The Heart, for “Must Be Santa”, has just been released and is available for viewing on http://bobdylan.com.


In the UK, the chosen medium is “Big Issue” and it will vary from country to country. Here’s the interview in full but please do what Bob wanted and go out and buy Big Issue (or equivalent) or make an appropriate donation to a street seller. Mike Sutton tells me that this issue has Bob on the cover.

Bill Flanagan: Is recording a Christmas album something you’ve had on your mind for a while?

Bob Dylan: Yeah, every so often it has crossed my mind. The idea was first brought to me by Walter Yetnikoff, back when he was President of Columbia Records.

Did you take him seriously?

Well, sure I took him seriously.

But it didn’t happen. How come?

He wasn’t specific. Besides, there was always a glut of records out around that time of year and I didn’t see how one by me could make any difference.

What was Christmas like around your town when you were growing up?

Well, you know, plenty of snow, jingle bells, Christmas carolers going from house to house, sleighs in the streets, town bells ringing, nativity plays. That sort of thing.

Your family was Jewish. As a kid did you ever feel left out of the Christmas excitement?

No, not at all.

What’s your idea of a good Christmas Dinner?

Mashed potatoes and gravy, roast turkey and collard greens, turnip greens, biscuit dressing, corn bread and cranberry sauce.

Have you spent any Christmases overseas and been struck by how the holiday is celebrated in other countries?

I was in Mexico City once and they do a lot of re-enactment scenes of Joseph and Mary looking for a place to stay.

How do you like to spend the week between Christmas and New Years?

Doing nothing - maybe reflecting on things.

Why do you think Christmas has better songs than other holidays?

I don’t know. That’s a good question. Maybe because it’s so worldwide and everybody can relate to it in their own kind of way.

Very often when contemporary artists do Christmas records, they look for a new angle. John Fahey did instrumental folk variations on holiday songs, Billy Idol did a rock and roll Christmas album, Phil Specter put the Wall of Sound around the Christmas tree and the Roches did kind of a kooky left-field collection. You played this right down the middle, doing classic holiday songs in traditional arrangements. Did you know going in you wanted to play it straight?

Oh sure, there wasn’t any other way to play it. These songs are part of my life, just like folk songs. You have to play them straight too.

There’s something new that happens when your voice goes up against the very smooth background singers and old-fashioned arrangements. It adds a new flavor to the mix. When you do I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, it sounds really forlorn, like you’re singing the song in jail and this is your one phone call. Do you ever approach singing a song like an actor?

Not any more then Willie or Nat King Cole would. The songs don’t require much acting. They kind of play themselves.

Do you try to go for different emotions on different takes?

Not really. The emotions would pretty much be the same on any singular take. The inflections would maybe differ if we changed the key and sometimes that might affect the emotional resonance.

When I hear your version of HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING, it makes me think of a lonely fellow outside the church, looking through the window at the congregation, wishing he were in there. Did any of these songs surprise you when you heard them played back?

No, they were pretty much the same going in as going out. You can already hear them in your head before you begin.

Any Christmas songs you like but you did not think you could do?

Not really. There were ones I didn’t want to do, but not any that I didn’t think I could do. The idea was to record the best known ones.

CHRISTMAS BLUES is an old Dean Martin song. What attracted you to that?

It’s just a beautiful song.

Stan Lynch once told me about you and him slipping out of a rehearsal with the Heartbreakers to go see Dean, Sinatra and Sammy Davis. What appealed to you about those guys?

I don’t know, maybe the camaraderie. On the other hand I wasn’t much into that whole scene actually - it left a lot of people out.

MUST BE SANTA is a real jumping polka. Did you hear a lot of polka bands growing up?

Yeah, I heard a few.

I never heard that song before. Where did you hear it?

I first heard that song years ago on one of those “Sing Along with Mitch” records. But this version comes from a band called Brave Combo. Somebody sent their record to us for our radio show. They’re a regional band out of Texas that takes regular songs and changes the way you think about them. You oughta hear their version of Hey Jude.

The way you do WINTER WONDERLAND makes me think of Gene Autry and Roy Rodgers, the singing cowboys in the old movies. Even in John Wayne films, there’d always be a scene back at the fort where an Irish band was playing, or the Sons of the Pioneers were singing. Did you have a favorite cowboy singer as a kid?

Yeah, Tex Ritter.

What about Gene and Roy?

Yeah, they were okay, but Tex Ritter was my favorite. He was way more heavy. There was more gravity to him.

Have you heard “Christmas on Death Row” the rap Christmas record?

No I don’t think so.

Do you listen to rap music?

I don’t listen to rap radio stations and I don’t play rap songs on the jukebox, and I don’t go to rap shows - So no I guess I don’t listen to rap music all that much.

What do you think of rap music?

I love rhyming for rhyming sake. I think that’s an incredible art form.

There’s a lonely quality in the way you do SILVER BELLS. You were a young man when you moved from Minnesota to New York City. Was Christmas very different in New York?

Christmas was pretty much the same in New York, only more so.

Did it make you homesick?

Not really, I didn’t think about it that much. I didn’t bring the past with me when I came to New York. Nothing back there would play any part in where I was going.

Hearing you sing ADESTE FIDELES reminds me of being an altar boy at
Midnight Mass. The priests all had to lead the singing, and it didn’t
matter if they were singers or not, they belted it out. Have you ever sung in a foreign language before?

I’ve sung in French, Italian and Spanish. Over the years, Columbia has asked me to do records in those languages and I recorded stuff here and there. None of the tracks have been released though. It’s hard deciding whether to do a translation of one of my own songs, or an original song in one of those languages - which I’m actually more partial to. I’ve always wanted to do some Edith Piaf songs.

LA VIE EN ROSE?

Yeah. That one and a couple of others. SOUS LE CIEL DE PARIS, POUR MOI TOUT SEULE and maybe one or two more

What stopped you?

Well, I can hear myself doing them in my head, but I’d need written arrangements to pull it off and I’m not sure who could do that.

Which singers do you associate with Christmas?

Johnny Mathis and Nat King Cole. Doris Day.

What about Bing Crosby?

Sure, White Christmas was always a big song.

I always get choked up at the end of GOING MY WAY when the old priest’s mother comes walking toward him on Christmas Eve and Bing watches from the door of the church then picks up his suitcase and walks off into the snow “ TURA, LURA, LURA playing in the background. You can’t get any more Christmasy than that. Did movies have a big effect on how you saw the world growing up?

I think so. I lived in a small town and movies were a window into the outside world.

CHRISTMAS ISLAND is a wacky song! Santa's going to sail in with your
presents in a canoe. Where did that come from? You ever been to Christmas Island?

No I’ve never been there. I have no idea where the song comes from, who wrote or even if there is such a place.

Your song THREE ANGELS always reminds me of the holidays. Did you ever sit down to write a Christmas song?

I have never done that. It’s something to think about though.

You have grandchildren. What do you think they’ll make of this record? Did it occur to you making this record that years from now your grandchildren will play this album for their own kids?

I don’t know what my grandchildren think of any of my records. I don’t know if they’ve even heard them. Maybe the older ones.

You’re a lot more loyal to these melodies than you are to the melodies of the songs you’ve written. Do you figure these tunes can’t be messed with?

If you want to get to the heart of them they can't be, no.

Your version of THE CHRISTMAS SONG is right in the pocket. You slide into that song like you’ve been singing it all your life. You also sing the intro (“All through the year we waited”) which most people leave out. I don’t think Nat King Cole used that intro Why did you bring it back?

Well, I figured the guy who wrote it put it in there deliberately. It definitely creates tension, predicts what you are about to hear.

I think you did drop the “goodies” on the sleigh. Did something about that bother you?

No not really. I don’t think I thought of it until you mentioned it. I try my best to be exact, but sometimes things just fall away. We probably recorded the song, got the feel right and moved on. Most likely we didn’t even listen back. Just moved on to something else. I don’t think that’s something I would have noticed anyway.

You really give a heroic performance of O’ LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM The way you do it reminds me a little of an Irish rebel song. There’s something almost defiant in the way you sing, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight” . I don’t want to put you on the spot, but you sure deliver that song like a true believer.

Well, I am a true believer.

You know, some people will think that Bob Dylan doing a Christmas album is meant to be ironic or a put-on. This sounds to me like one of the most sincere records you've ever made. Did anybody at your record company or management resist the idea?

No it was my record company who compelled me to do it.

Why now?

Well, it just came my way now, at this time. Actually, I don't think I would have been experienced enough earlier anyway.

Some critics don’t seem to know what to make of this record. Bloomberg news said, “Some of the songs sound ironic. Does he really mean have yourself a Merry Little Christmas?” Is there any ironic content in these songs?

No not at all. Critics like that are on the outside looking in. They are definitely not fans or the audience that I play to. They would have no gut level understanding of me and my work, what I can and can’t do - the scope of it all. Even at this point in time they still don’t know what to make of me.

Derek Barker in the Independent, compared this record with the shock of you going electric. So many artists have released Christmas records, from Bing Crosby to Huey Piano Smith. Why is it a shock if you do it?

You’ll have to ask them.

The Chicago Tribune felt this record needed more irreverence. Doesn’t that miss the point?

Well sure it does, that’s an irresponsible statement anyway. Isn’t there enough irreverence in the world? Who would need more? Especially at Christmas time.

The profits from this album are going to buy Christmas dinners for folks who are having a hard time financially. When I heard that I thought of the Woody Guthrie song PRETTY BOY FLOYD “Here’s a Christmas dinner for the families on relief.”

Exactly. PRETTY BOY FLOYD. “Pretty Boy grabbed the log chain and the deputy grabbed his gun.” Did you ever notice how Pretty Boy Floyd looks exactly like babe Ruth?

Yeah, I have.

Did you ever think it could be the same guy?

Maybe they’re interchangeable?

Yeah, in the real world Pretty Boy would be batting clean up for the Yankees and Babe Ruth would be robbing banks.

Yeah, and they’re both legends.

Right.

Why did you pick Feeding America, Crisis UK and The World Food Programme to give the proceeds of this record to?

Because they get food straight to the people. No military organization, no bureaucracy, no governments to deal with.

Do you still send out Christmas cards?

I haven’t for a while.

Do you have a favorite Christmas album?

Maybe the Louvin Brothers. I like all the religious Christmas albums. The ones in Latin. The songs I sang as a kid.

A lot of people like the secular ones.

Religion isn’t meant for everybody.

What sort of gifts do you like to give?

I try to match the person with the gift.

Are you a last minute shopper?

Always.

Do you drop any hints about what you hope to get from your family?

Nope. Their well-being – that’s enough of a gift for me.

I know we’re out of time but I have to ask, what’s the best Christmas gift you ever got?

Let me think… oh yeah, I think it was a sled.

Bob Have Read my Heart

Spanish

The frase that titles this post was the one that i wrote in my Facebook account an hour ago, and I did it with the whole conviction of someone that believes that Bob though in me. Yes, it can sound crazy, to believe that Bob, yes, Bob Dylan saw me, met me, got into my deepest dreams and decided to give me the best gift.

But I feel strongly that it was so, and that the little box that I have in my hands and that contains Christmas in the Heart, in gold color and red letters, with two horses pulling the sleigh in the snow, the sexy Santa Claus-girl in the back cover, the red labeled CD and its exquisite carols that are playing now, the greeting cards to gift with their white envelopes, all this beautiful pack that contains Christmas, Christmas and Christmas was made for me.

Because, ever since I remember, I adored, idolized, dreamed with this celebration, persecuted it al along each month of the year between the pages of the books, my plays and the memories of each one of those Christmas eve that I lived, which was not provided of leafy decorated trees, lots of gifts wrapped in colored ribbons under their feet, or huge and golden turkeys on the table, surrounded by salads, plums, jams and cakes.

My Christmas were the most simple but the most beautiful for me because what has been called for generations the Christmas spirit, the true feeling of harmony, peace and solidarity with the neighbor was there in the middle, outside and around my table, with its discreet baked chicken, a cup of chocolate and Christmas cake.

Today this overwhelming feeling has subsided thanks to the turbed magic of the adulthood, everything returns to my memory as a rough trip, while Bob's Christmas runs all along the carols sung, with his voice rough and hard as the sandpaper through the angelic voices of the choristers, respecting the original pattern of the compositions and, at the same time, puting their old and incomparable mark.

Thanks Bob for this gift that combines the two things I love most in this world, your music and Christmas.

New album on sale from october 13th

Dylan the Christmas

In Spanish

And finally it became public. The insistents rumours of a Dylan's new discographic issue made bigger the expectations among the fans; and more because of the topic. Could we say that, not even our laconic and austere uncle Zimmy could escape from the clutches of the Christmas spirit, that one that has broken the hardest hearts each year and that there are thousands of stories written about, starting with Ebenezer Scrooge or the Grinch and passing through Jack Skellington?

Well, this is what it seems. And it's just that Dylan, not only has dealed this topic, but has chosen the romantic-clacisist side of this celebration in the album cover -which remind us those typicals Christmas postcards of the XIXth century- and among the tracks of Christmas in the heart (this is the name of the album) there will be covers of several classic Christmas carols like “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Little Drummer Boy” and “Must Be Santa”.

And to seal with a double knot the ribbon of this surprising present: all the royalties of Christmas in the Heart, will be donated to the organization Feeding America, to try to guarantee 4 millions meals for this Christmas.

Related links:

New in Bob Dylan's web page
New in Rolling Stone
Pre-order in Amazon.com

Bob Dylan in Facebok - First Debate

In Spanish

As many people who read this blog knows, our Bob Dylan Club Peru have already a space in Facebook; place where we can upload pictures, articles, links and comments about the life and work of Bob Dylan. The first topic in the section "Foro de debate" is about if Together Through Life deeserves, qualitativement, the applauses in EE.UU. like in the U.K., where it has reached the top´after almost 40 years. Now, I post a detailed analysis made by a friend and member of the club, Christopher Rollason:

BEYOND HERE LIES … NOTHING? - some impressions of Bob Dylan's album TOGETHER THROUGH LIFE (2009)



Christopher Rollason, Metz, France (rollason54@gmail.com)



If nothing else, TOGETHER THROUGH LIFE has produced a new crop of firsts for Bob Dylan. It has become his first-ever album to reach number one in both the US and the UK, and has made him the oldest living artist ever to top the British album chart (a feat he had already achieved in the US with MODERN TIMES), and, again in Britain, the artist distinguished, if that is the word, by the longest time-gap between successive number one albums. Indeed, probably only fact-file obsessives will have known that prior to this album Dylan had had four number ones in his home country and/but six totally different chart-toppers across the Atlantic. The new album's success does, then, suggest there must be a consensus in the air about something.



However, in the British case further examination reveals that Dylan's three previous number ones were NASHVILLE SKYLINE in 1969 and SELF PORTRAIT and NEW MORNING in 1970 - all decidedly minor works. Before those three, he had spent 13 weeks atop the UK chart in 1968 with JOHN WESLEY HARDING, an album generally considered a major artistic achievement but whose commercial success had much to do with the groundswell of sympathy arising from Dylan's near-brush with death in his famous motorcycle accident. Is the commercial success of TOGETHER THROUGH LIFE, like that of MODERN TIMES before it, a reflection less of the album's quality than of a comparable sympathy vote, brought on by the artist's advancing years and the realisation that he won't be with us forever - that 'it's not dark yet, but it's getting there'?



My own feeling at this stage of the game is that we are dealing with a musically agreeable, cleanly produced and perfectly listenable Dylan album, but not one that is saying anything much of interest about anything in particular. Regarding Dylan's 21st-century output, I was and remain highly enthusiastic about 'LOVE AND THEFT' (and wrote at length about that album in THE BRIDGE, No 14), but have yet to be convinced by MODERN TIMES; and intuit that, for all the Latin warmth of David Hidalgo's accordion, lyrically this new offering will have a hard time winning me over. The fact that all but two of the songs are the product of collaboration with Robert Hunter doesn't help the evaluation of this as a Dylan album, but as with the earlier joint efforts with Jacques Levy and Sam Shepard, we may suppose the bulk of the writing process to have been Dylan's own (after all, it is, like 'Desire', billed as a Bob Dylan album) while not concluding therefrom that the resultant songs must be a priori brilliant.



Simplicity appears to be this album's hallmark, but, as with NASHVILLE SKYLINE and PLANET WAVES (the latter, incidentally, being another of Dylan's US number ones), a question mark hovers as to whether this is the simplicity of blissful enlightenment or the naïve simplicity of the banal. One of the questions I was expecting before the album came out, after all the well-known intertextual revelations surrounding its two predecessors (Junichi Saga for 'LOVE AND THEFT', Ovid and Henry Timrod for MODERN TIMES), was, 'Where are the quotations'? I may yet be proved wrong, but this time round, the answer seems to be, mostly 'nowhere' - neither literary nor musical. The one self-conscious literary-cum-musical line, 'I'm listening to Billy Joe Shaver / And I'm reading James Joyce', stands out like a sore thumb, as if put there to point to a general dearth of allusions.



Meanwhile though, what, if anything, do we get from Bob Dylan on this album? Technically, the songs are carefully constructed around clear rhyme-schemes (this may be Hunter's doing), and they are (mercifully) shorter and more economical than the diffuse, rambling MODERN TIMES songs. Nonetheless, on an actual majority of tracks the writing comes over as thin and gruel-like. 'Jolene' is a flat and featureless slice of country blues, and (sorry, Bob) far less memorable than the Dolly Parton song of the same name. 'Shake Shake Mama' is a clichéd blues number in the undistinguished mould of 'The Levee's Gonna Break': I fail to see the interest of lines like 'Shake shake mama like a ship going out to sea' (where is the resemblance?) or 'Down by the river Judge Simpson is walkin' around / Nothing shocks me more like that old clown' (whoever Judge Simpson may be, he's a pale shadow of Dylan's grudge-holding and stilt-walking or false-hearted and web-spinning magistrates from the past). The would-be social criticism on 'It's All Good' is simply anaemic by the side of, say, 'It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)' or even, God help us, 'Slow Train'. As to the most place-specific song, 'If You Ever Go To Houston' (the one Dylan chose to bring out first in live performance, in Dublin on 5 May 2009 - and which does look as if it might perhaps be about something), yes, it may be a critique of George Bush's Texas or the Second Amendment, and it does have a potentially interesting anachronism in the Mexican War reference - but any impact it might have is undermined by the sheer bleating pointlessness of a line like 'Mister policeman, can you help me find my gal?'.



All in all, after a few plays I began to wonder whether Dylan had positioned the album's opening track, 'Beyond Here Lies Nothin'', as a warning to the listener, to expect precisely … nothing. Should future listenings sooner or later honour any of the tracks as redeeming this album's lyrical blight, I might just about hand a nickel or a dime to 'Forgetful Heart' and, perhaps, 'This Dream of You'. In both, we find a sliver of intertextuality interacting with some just-about rescuable writing. In the first, the lines 'Forgetful heart / like a walking shadow in my brain / All night long / I lay awake and listen to the sound of pain' recall both Shakespeare's Macbeth ('Life's but a walking shadow') and the Edgar Allan Poe of 'The Raven', and the song also has a Kafkaesque door that may never have existed; the second offers, again, Poe-like imagery - 'shadows ... on the wall / Shadows that seem to know it all'. In these two tracks, there is, perhaps, a faint flickering of the old 'flames in the furnace of desire' - and yet, and yet, surely at this stage in Dylan's career, could we not have been given a bit more to reflect on than whether or not this album is up to the standard of ... well, of NASHVILLE SKYLINE?!! Bob, whatever colours you have in your mind, couldn't you have shown us one or two more of them on this record?

Related Links:

Bob Dylan en Peru - Facebook

Bob Dylan in Huaraz - Video

This is an excerpt of the big Dylan party in the Café Andino in Huaraz, Perú the past may 24th . An unforgettable moment between friends and that points out not only to the warmness of the people from Huaraz but the great preference for the work of the master Dylan.

In this take, Adam Christopher Benway sings "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", with Richard Colonia in the keyboard and Sebastián Olaza with Connor Lamphier in the guitars.

Enjoy.

Spanish Version

An Unforgettable Party

Spanish version

Querococha lake with the White Mountains in the backgrounds.

Writing, writing… I have to put in form of letters, words, what my travel to the north was, from the coast’s gray skies where the amount of cement just get lost, the thick and savage fog, the car’s horns, the hurry, the cold, the stress of the city, until the Andes’ mountains whose picks touch the blue skies, surrounded by flakes of cotton from time to time: clouds-flakes of unique whiteness and the shine sun, happy, shinning over the Santa river, to whose waters my grandparents, their parents, and their parent’s parents sang.

And the Huascaran Mountain, the most beautiful of all the mountains, vigilant and silent like a god watching us to come from the snake-road. The eight hours of travel finishes and Ysa receives me in the bus station with the warmness that only in Huaraz I will find and that I almost had forgotten.

Down, the bar side from the Café Andino.

Huaraz is a bustle, its people goes from one side to other but not like in the capital of Peru; their faces are happy, relaxed. They laugh, talk, doesn’t have any hurry. And Querococha, the Conchucos “alley” (long and narrow space between mountains) and the Chavín ruins, the rising road to Wilcahuain until the beautiful lodge of Wayne and Diana, the delicious “caldo de cabeza” (head’s soup) of the morning in the market of Huaraz, the visit to Anta, my lovely granny’s town, which I always wanted to know; they are some of the previous destinations to the big day, may 24th, in the Café Andino, ,where my host Ysa, her brother in law Julio, A.C., Chris,

Richard Colonia in a

musical ecstasy

Connor, Sebastián, Dylan and the inmense Richard Colonia… all the new friends that i’m meeting little by little, conspire to the great Bob Dylan hommage.

That special night, the coffee looks full, an unexpected fullness; people from everywhere are there expectant, "Beyond Here Lies Nothing" sounds in the speakers while the equipments upstairs, in the reserved space for the stage, wait the last tunings.

I ask for a beer.

Suddenly, the voice of Richard summon us he mades the presentation and then sings "Blowin In the Wind". There are a big silence, everyone is listening attentely… I am not the exception, there, lost in the bar side among the people who fill it. Jake DeBerry, volunteer of the Peace Corps, continues, singing a surrealistic version of de “Masters of War”.

Connor Lamphier

A soft voice, an angelic face sided by black curles and a thin body appears to take the next turn: is Connor Lamphier, and almost-encarnation of that shy Robert Zimmerman who went to the Greenwich Village to make his first steps in the 60’s. And "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" was what he sang.

In the next session, a kid came to the stage and took his violin, he was Adam Christopher Benway, A.C. to the friends, who made a spectacular performance, surrounded by his violin professor, Richard in the vocals, and Sebastián Olaza in the guitar, of the intense "One More Cup of Coffee". The people was amazed because of his professionalism and applauded hard for a while.

A.C. Benway singing "Knocking on Heaven's door".

But that was not all what A.C. had prepared for us, he took the micro and sang "Knockin' on Heaven's door" so tender and nicely at the same time that he had all of us in his hand. I could not believe and the ecstasy came when he asked us in his perfect English "sing with me"...... in other part of the song they sag the chorus that was the one of the whole night … ... "happy birthday uncle Bob", and everyone sang together.

Then was the turn of Wayne Lamphier from Lazy Dog Inn, who brought a very feeling version of "Girl of the North County" . Delicious. Sebastián played with him with a very lyric riffs , that turn into song time after, when this boy dedicated us "Just Like a Woman" with a stunning quality. Downstairs the people was already dancing, it was incredible… the party was in its top and, among them, a guy from Spain just danced like a restless snake...

Down, the Dylan party at the top time.

"Forever Young" came from Richard's hands and company and then, after all who sang with them, from the benches from the bar, the comfortable sofas next to the firing chemnee , the stairs until the crowded railing and the chairs and tables from upstairs who surrounded the stage, to whom everyone was looking like seeing a vision The harmonica touches of the ex Turmanyé were spectaculars and with the eyes closed and lot of passion, Richard took out the best notes. A real master.

And thanks to the public askings, the promoter of the show , to the stage, the second woman Dylan fan of Peru that I know and the best person , Ysabel Meza, went upstairs to take the micro and lead singing "My Back Pages"... the strophes fblew from voice to voice with all the participants in the stage remembering that magnific collective version sang in the 30° Anniversary Concert... precious hymn of that night and now ours...

Down the party continued, up, Richard sang us "Like a Rolling Stone", down the rolling stones enjoyed; in some place of the world, the tributed man was also singing ...

Ysabel and Dylan Mateo.

And then it was my turn. Yes, I was out of the schedule, i mean, I was only behind the curtains but, suddenly I was on the stage thanks to the Richard asking and sang that Hymn called "Forever Young", with everyone and surrounded by unexpected environment so compromised and total that I'd like to feel in Lima also; the nerves, the doubts, my past city-life of fog and behind a desk left behind ... the Dylan party in the mountains of Peru did'nt finish, was barely starting , and I sang with all my forces.

The souvenir of the Dylan Bash

I will never forget those four days in that I could breathe the most fresh air, in that i had the cjance of meeting a wonderful, warm people: starting with Ysabel, her husband and their bewautiful children: A.C. y Dylan Mateo; Richard Colonia, Julio Olaza and his wife, Sebastián, Felix the mountain guide and his girlfriend Jocelyn, the admirables Wayne y Diana, Connor, Sebastían, the China, the girl who attended us in the bar... now to write, to puta in this ecran of pixels is not so hard to me, now, even words are missing to continue and whis that this Dylan reunion in the mountains happens once more...

Bob Dylan in Huaraz

Poster of the Dylan event in Huaraz-Peru.

Spanish translation

The title of this post is not wothout a purpose, and for my happiness, it contradicts what I was believing from decades: that only 4 or 5 people were the ones who knew about the music of Bob Dylan here in Lima, and that, with one or two exceptions, the rest of Peru were territories where the work of our great trovadour hasn’t reached to captivate their people, like it did here, with us.

But, as the title says, Dylan will be in Huaraz, in the spirit of the organizers and participants in an event that will celebrate not only his birthday but the issue of Together Through Life. And Café Andino, the very well known restaurant run by Ysabel Meza (new Bob Dylan Club Peru member, to whom I will be pleased to know that day) will be the place where the reunion homage will be. Now, I post the program reserved to the big day, may 24^th. All of us are invited.

***BOB DYLAN BIRTHDAY BASH***

May 24th 2009

Café Andino, with a lot of enthusiasm and energy is establishing a tradition, to celebrate one year more of life of the great composer, poet, and musician, Bob Dylan.

People who were here last year, enjoyed the experienced of being together children, young and adults, all together because of the music of this great man.

It was a very funny and special night for those ones who were there.

This year we hope the same, and more, and I say more, because, with the last uncle Bob’s issue, we have double reason to celebrate.

Richard Colonia is the man in charge of the musical part. He is a musician with a great history, and founder of the rock band Turmanyé. Richard was born in Huaraz and from his teen years he has played and composed songs against boredom and conformism.

He is still on the road and is singing to human unfairness, nature, to friends who leave home without saying good bye, he has cried in silence for the friends who stayed lost in the mountains; he has broke for illusions who wanted to take his heart out, and for feelings unfinished; enough reasons for he to feel forced to take his guitar this may 24^th and breake its cords and scream more than ever Like a Rolling Stone, Knockin´ on Heaves Door, Just Like a Woman, I Want You, One More Cup of Coffee, Mississippi, Rainy Day Women... and other gems from our great prophet.

Another artwork from the Dylan Bash.

Date: may 24th

Hour: 7.30 pm

Place: Café Andino, Lucar y Torre Nº 53, 3rd floor, Huaraz - Perú.

Friends participants:

Sebastian Olaza (14 years): young passionated musician who explores the musical world with his guitar.

Adam Benway (7 years):Last year he surprised us singing Blowin' in the Wind. He continues with his classes of violin and guitar.

Connor Lamphier (Canada): he has lived the last months near the mountains, taking care of the greenhouse Lazy Dog Inn… and in the meantime he plays his guitar.

Jake DeBerry: Café Andino’s friend and volunteer of the Peace Corp.

Special Invited:

Wayne Lamphier

Aknowledgments:

Ysa (in love with Bob J), Chris, A.C. & Dylan : Owners of Café Andino.

Tito Olaza, owner of the hostel OLAZAS B&B, he collaborates with the design of the T-shirts and posters.

Richard Colonia, founder of the band Turmanyé and in charge of the musical coordination.

By: Julio Olaza

Good rock –n- Roll fan and expert in bycicle- tours in the Cordillera Blanca y Cordillera Negra.

Related Links:

Huaraz (info in Wikipedia)

Olaza's B&B (hostel)

Café Andino

Huaraz in google maps

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