Hard Rain

POSTPONED!!!
We regret to announce that this show has been postponed. We will let you know when the show has been rescheduled.
We apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you.

So proud of my son Dylan for graduating Navy Boot Camp in Great Lakes, Illinois. Very happy and proud of him. Great job, Little Buddy. Now it’s on to continue your journey. You are going to have a fantastic career in the Navy.

One of the best write ups I’ve read. I can’t wait to get out of the hospital and see it.
Doug Raymur/ Hard Rain keyboards.

Here’s my take on “A Complete Unknown”, the Bob Dylan biopic out now:

I am happy it exists, even though all biopics of musicians I love are problematic for me, with the possible exception of “Ray”. Unless the filmmakers use the original recordings, as they mostly did in “Ray”, any actor trying to sing like the icon they are portraying will fall short of the magic no matter how well they do, and I think Timothee Chalamet does a wonderful job of approximating Dylan’s squirrelly, charismatic manner in the film. But only Dylan sings like Dylan, only Joan Baez has the exquisite voice of Joan Baez, and clearly no one in the known universe can portray Johnny Cash in all his monumental singularity. The Elvis biopic compensated admirably by focusing on people’s explosive responses to the King and on Elvis’ presumed mental and emotional state in performance, but still nobody else sings like Elvis.

I also know there are a lot of historical inaccuracies in “A Complete Unknown”, (and I dutifully whispered the correct biographical details into my sister’s ear as they went by), but who can fault the filmmakers for doing their best to pack a huge, sprawling story into a multiplex-friendly time slot? No, Pete Seeger wasn’t at Woody’s bedside when Dylan visited him, nor was Suze Rotolo (given a different name in the film) at Newport in ‘65 when Dylan went electric, but I’m not bothered by that. I could complain that the hundreds of nights playing gigs in the Village, the hard work of Dylan becoming who he was through trial and error and hard work, were not acknowledged and that it seems in the film as if he were born like Athena out of his own skull completely formed. As someone who knows about the years and years of effort that go into an ‘overnight success’, that was a disappointment. But I like that Suze Rotolo’s influence on Dylan, the political and artistic consciousness he absorbed from her, was given its due. And I love Ed Norton’s heartbreakingly earnest Pete Seeger, his subtle rendering of the thrill of witnessing Dylan’s genius unfold as those early songs were born, his quiet paternal grief as he watches Bob slip away from the folk scene into the wider world (was he getting intravenous infusions of Jimmy Stewart’s DNA into his bloodstream during the shoot?) That to me is the film’s great pleasure: to imagine yourself a fly on the wall at the moment this musical phenomenon detonates. If I let Norton’s Seeger be my guide, if I squint and suspend my disbelief, I’m happy to be led by the hand down a fantasy MacDougall Street for a couple of hours.

The main reason, though, that I’m happy about the film, that I’m glad it has at least one Oscar-bait performance and is doing well at the box office, is that it will likely lure a lot of folks into the Wonderful World of Real Bob Dylan. Sixty years on from the events of the movie, there are a lot of people who live in ignorance of this titan still in our midst, and of why music was so important then, and they will be all the better for knowing. Teen girls (or boys or genderqueers) who moon over Chalamet can swoon afresh over how beautiful and sexy and compelling the real young Dylan was as they listen to those lyrics or mine YouTube. Folks unfamiliar with the incredible lives and tireless activism of Pete Seeger and Joan Baez and of the ideals of the folk movement can educate themselves. People who love or hate the movie will dive into their Dylan albums or streams. Personally, I’m going to use these quiet days at the turn of the year to go back and revisit some other Dylan material that’s out there, and if you want you can join me. My first stop will be “Chronicles”, Dylan’s own poetic memoir of his early years. Maybe next I’ll watch the Scorsese documentary “No Direction Home”, a longer and more faithful view of Dylan’s rise. “I’m Not There”, the Todd Haynes movie in which Dylan is played by six different actors including Cate Blanchett, is also in my queue, as is “Masked and Anonymous”, the deeply weird fiction film starring Dylan himself and featuring some musical performance footage which should not be missed by anyone who cares about art or beauty or depth. I’m not kidding.

If you have any other suggestions please pass them along to me, and please enjoy this time. I hope you are with people you love, or contentedly alone, and I hope you can rest and relax a bit on these short days and long nights.

xxoojoan

Something to do over the holiday…

"Dylan: The North Star" is an original 2-hour audio documentary produced for KAXE by Minnesota singer-songwriter David Huckfelt, who described his deep dive into Dylan's poetic lyrics as stratospheric.

Read more about Huckfelt's process and inspiration, and check out our ultimate Bob Dylan playlist: https://tinyurl.com/5n6p4n57

Here's how to listen to the doc:
📻 2 pm and 10 pm on Monday (Labor Day)
📻 3 pm Saturday, September 7

This project was made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

On Tuesday, August 27, at approximately 9:40AM, and 9:55AM, , I will be appearing on Tim Ezell FOX 2 News in the Morning, along with Hard Rain band member and lead guitarist Lee Bowers, to promote our upcoming show at The Sheldon Concert Hall. Tim is a terrific guy and we’re looking forward to this event.
Will we perform any songs? Well, you will have to tune in to see.

Just click on the link below to order your tickets to see my band, Hard Rain - All Things Dylan, at the beautiful Sheldon Concert Hall, September 3, at 7:00.
Would love to see you there.

Hard Rain - All Things Dylan - The Sheldon Hard Rain - All Things Dylan, is a band dedicated to the music of legendary Bob Dylan. The band captures every era of Mr. Dylan which includes his folk, rock, country, and born-again Christian period. Also included in Hard Rain’s repertoire are songs by The Traveling Wilburys, of which Dylan was a...