Some Dylanfest and Hard Rain highlights from Andy & Renee with a little help from Marty Rifkin

"May I see your references?" Part 4 - Historical figures.

"May I see your references?"  Part 3 - Fellow performers

The 18th installment

of Talkin’ Bob Dylan, is entitled,“'May I see your references?' Part II: Desolation

Row". in the last episode we made the observation that Bob Dylan likes to refer in his songs to previously

established characters, literary, historical and mythological. This week we dive into

his

most extreme

example and posit that

the song is an apocalyptic, epic poem in which Desolation Row is perhaps an enlightened state of mind rather than a geographical place.

Episode #17 of

Talkin’ Bob Dylan, is entitled,“'May I see your references?' Part I". Andy

& Renee

talk about references to people in Bob Dylan songs. It seems that more

than any other pop writer, Dylan, in addition to creating an endless

cast of original fictional

characters to populate his songs, references other writers, singers,

historical figures, mythological figures, and icons of the stage and

screen. What does it all mean? We hear The Mighty Quinn...

In the 16th Installment of "Talkin' Bob Dylan", Andy & Renee discuss Dylanesque songwriting through the lense of both homage and parody. In the parody camp, the duo yuks it up while listening to "Arms Disguised As Legs" by Steve Della Maggoria, a wonderful artist from Napa, CA. Then Andy & Renee move into the homage realm with "Blood on the (Title) Tracks" by The Title Trackers.

#15 In their first foray into Dylan’s iconic songs, Andy & Renee discuss Blowin’ In the Wind and Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man.

#14 In their 14th Installment of Talkin’ Bob Dylan, Andy and Renee let Dylan do the talkin’. Beginning with his ten “best lines”, they invent various categories like “funniest lines”, “most insulting lines”, etc., and simply trade off reading the lyrics. The podcast includes “Shooting Star” from the album “It Takes a Lot to Laugh”.

#13 Collaboration #2. Andy and Renee discuss the surprising meteoric rise of “Wagon Wheel” to iconic Americana status, and feature two different performances of the song. The podcast ends with a live studio version of “Sweet Amarillo” – the second collaboration between Wagon Wheel composers Bob Dylan and Ketch

#12 Collaborations #1. In the 12th installment of Talkin’ Bob Dylan, Andy & Renee turn their attention to the collaborative efforts of Bob Dylan. For the last two weeks they held Bob’s feet to the fire for leaving such classics as Up to Me and Blind Willie McTell off his albums. Today, Andy and Renee discuss Bob directly working with such great artists as Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, the boys in The Traveling Wilburys, and Sam Shepard, among others. They also dive into Dylan's more "virtual" collaborations that have surfaced in "The New Basement Tapes". We hear "Silvio" from Dylanfest 26 and "Florida Key" live in the studio.