Hard Rain & Slow Trains: Bob Dylan & Fellow Travelers

Last Monday, Bob Dylan announced that he will resume touring on November 2nd. The tour, called "'ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS': World Wide Tour 2021-2024" will initiate Dylan's first live performances in 23 months. To mark the occasion we offer tonight a choice selection of 2019 live performances. In "20 Pounds of Headlines," Miss Lucy stops by to help us understand where Dylan will be touring. We also remind everyone that GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY opens on Broadway again on October 13th, which we also included in the June 10th edition of "20 Pounds of Headlines." Finally, we say farewell to Nashville bassist Bob Moore, who passed away September 22nd at the age of 88. In "Who Did It Better?" we ask you to tell us who did "Love Sick" better live: The White Stripes at The Forum in London on December 6, 2001 or Bob Dylan in Innsbruck, Austria on April 19, 2019, which was his 3000th show since taking to the road with his own band in 1988.

Bob Dylan's SPRINGTIME IN NEW YORK: BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 16 (1980-1985) has arrived. This episode is the third and final of a three-part series featuring the music of the fellow travelers who play with Dylan on that set. Tonight, we feature the players from 1984 and 1985 who appear on the fifth disc of the five-disc deluxe set, which primarily consists of the sessions for EMPIRE BURLESQUE. In "20 Pounds of Headlines," we present a special guest review of the new Bootleg Series volume from Youtuber Mr. Tambourine, courteously read by Ms. Maria, who appears to have some carnivalesque drama at work in her life. In "Who Did It Better?" we ask you to tell us which alternate version of "When the Night Comes Falling From the Sky" is better: the version released on the 1991 BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 1-3 or the "slow version" just released in BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 16. Both versions feature the same band and both were set aside in favor of a version rerecorded five days later that did appear on EMPIRE BURLESQUE. You can check out Mr. Tambourine's Youtube channel here: https://youtube.com/channel/UCuc-M9CoTGFUZ3weRVVkZ0A

Bob Dylan's SPRINGTIME IN NEW YORK: BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 16 (1980-1985) arrives tomorrow. This episode is the second of a three-part series featuring the music of the fellow travelers who play with Dylan on that set. Tonight, we feature the players from 1983 who appear in the third and fourth discs of the five-disc deluxe set, which compose the sessions for INFIDELS. In "20 Pounds of Headlines," we round up news from the world of Bob Dylan, including the passing of three people tangentially related to the world of Bob Dylan. In "Who Did It Better?" we ask you to tell us who did "Blind Willie McTell" better: Bob Dylan with a version from the new Bootleg Series (take 5) or Mick Taylor, who played guitar on Dylan's versions?

As we continue to expectantly await the September 17th release of Bob Dylan's SPRINGTIME IN NEW YORK: BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 16 (1980-1985), this episode is the first of a three-part series that will feature the music of the fellow travelers who play with Dylan on that set. Tonight, we feature the players from 1981 who appear in the first and second discs of the five-disc deluxe set. In "20 Pounds of Headlines," we round up news from the world of Bob Dylan, including an update on Dylan's return to the road, the announcement of a Facebook Streaming Event from the Bob Dylan Archive on September 16th, and the passing of guitarist and fellow traveler Ron Cornelius. In "Who Did It Better?" we ask you to tell us who did "When You Gonna Wake Up?" better live: Bob Dylan or Steve Ripley with the McCrary Sisters? Link to September 16th Facebook Streaming Event: https://www.facebook.com/841246169334307/posts/4074895455969346/?d=n

We conclude our four-part series exploring Dylan's use of horns on record and in concert by covering 2004 to 2017. This series delves into the producers, arrangers, and musicians with whom Dylan worked when adding horns to his song arrangements. This episode features Dylan's new millennium exploration of jazz and, with it, more sophisticated horn arrangements. In "20 Pounds of Headlines" we look at the possibility of a Fall tour after the recently announced October 13th show to take place in Lubbok Texas, we look forward to the release of Bootleg Series volume 16 in two weeks, we make a book and Youtube recommendation, we cover the recent uploading of hundreds of Dylan songs onto Dylan's Youtube channel, and we look at the fourteen Dylan songs that The Beatles covered in their LET IT BE recording sessions. In "Who Did It Better?" we ask you who did "Sentimental Journey" better: Doris Day with Les Brown in 1944 or Bob Dylan as recorded for TRIPLICATE (2017) in 2016. Go to our Twitter page at @RainTrains to vote!

We continue our four-part series exploring Dylan's use of horns on record and in concert. Part three covers 1986 to 1994. This series delves into the producers, arrangers, and musicians with whom Dylan worked when adding horns to his song arrangements. This episode features Dylan's televised performances with horns and his recording efforts with horns in the studio in both 1986 and 1992. In "20 Pounds of Headlines" we memorialize three musicians that we lost in the last week: Tom T. Hall, Don Everly, and Charlie Watts. In "Who Did It Better?" we ask you who did the same arrangement of Dave Bromberg's "Sloppy Drunk" better: The David Bromberg Band in 1976 or Bob Dylan as recorded with Dave Bromberg's band in 1992. Go to our Twitter page at @RainTrains to vote!

This week we continue our four-part series exploring Dylan's use of horns on record and in concert. Part two covers 1978 to 1985. This series delves into the producers, arrangers, and musicians with whom Dylan worked when adding horns to his song arrangements. This episode features Dylan's Gospel tour and highlights rehearsals that suggest what might have been if Dylan had taken horns on the road with him from 1979-1981. In "20 Pounds of Headlines" we round up news from the world of Bob Dylan, which includes mourning the passing of Nanci Griffith. In "Who Did It Better?" we ask you who did "Gotta Serve Somebody" better with horns: Bob Dylan from his rehearsal in 1979 or Aaron Neville. Go to our Twitter page at @RainTrains to vote!

We begin a four-part series tonight exploring Dylan's use of horns on record and in concert. This first episode covers 1966 to 1976. This series delves into the producers, arrangers, and musicians with whom Dylan worked when adding horns to his song arrangements. This episode explains the difference between brass horns, reed wind instruments, and edgeblown wind instruments, considers why Dylan's early work may have had more instances of string parts overdubbed to his songs instead of horn arrangements, and it looks at songs recorded for albums with horn arrangements that were not, ultimately, used for the album in question. In "20 Pounds of Headlines" we round up news from the world of Bob Dylan, which includes mourning the passing of Walter Yetnikoff and celebrates last-one-standing Tony Bennett, who is releasing a new album and just performed his final concert at the age of 95. In "Who Did It Better?" we ask you which version of "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)" you think is better: the 1966 BLONDE ON BLONDE mono mix or the 2007 Remix done by Mark Ronson to mark the release of the 2007 album DYLAN? Go to our Twitter page at @RainTrains to vote!

50 years ago George Harrison called some friends and put together afternoon and evening concerts at Madison Square Garden on August 1st, 1970. The results were assembled into both a 1971 3-LP album and a 1972 film, THE CONCERT FOR BANGLADESH. Bob Dylan, who performed in both shows (his first major concert appearances in two years) would feature heavily in the album and film, with his evening concert performance of five of his songs composing all of the first side of the album's 3rd LP disc. We are looking back at THE CONCERT FOR BANGLADESH on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. In "20 Pounds of Headlines," we round up news from the world of Bob Dylan as it was in 1971 and in "Who Did It Better?" we ask you who did "Something" better live, George Harrison and friends from the stage of Madison Square Garden at THE CONCERT FOR BANGLADESH in 1971 or Bob Dylan and his band from the stage of Madison Square Garden in tribute to George Harrison in 2002? For more on Bob Dylan's activities and music from 1971, look up and listen to the 6/17/2021 episode of HARD RAIN & SLOW TRAINS: BOB DYLAN & FELLOW TRAVELERS: "1971: A Golden Anniversary."

Sony just announced the September 17th release of SPRINGTIME IN NEW YORK: THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 16 (1980-1985). To mark the occasion, we are having a conversation with Terry Gans, author of SURVIVING IN A RUTHLESS WORLD: BOB DYLAN'S VOYAGE TO INFIDELS (Red Planet, 2020), who describes what it is like to work in the Bob Dylan Archive in Tulsa, reflects on the meaning of INFIDELS (1983), which is heavily featured in the forthcoming Bootleg Series, and describes what he learned about Dylan's working methods from the Archive. Gans's book is the most important study of the writing and recording of INFIDELS and is the first published book to make extensive use of the Bob Dylan manuscripts and recordings available in Tulsa.