If you like The Avett Brothers, thank The Band

The now-iconic Canadian rock band was still called The Hawks when they first met Bob Dylan in 1965, but by the time he asked them to join his tour as backing band later that year, they had already become simply The Band. In the roughly eight years they performed together under that name, The Band (including prolific songwriters Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm) amassed an extensive catalog of songs, all of which combined R&B-based rock and roll with Southern folk-country to forge a new sound that complemented the direction Dylan had taken since going electric.

It's a recipe that still works today, as evidenced by The Avett Brothers. Listen, for example, to "And It Spread" from their 2009 album I and Love and You:



That slight twang in the vocals. The confident, almost defiant acoustic guitar rhythm. The mournful, wandering fiddle line.

Now listen to The Band's version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," from their self-titled 1969 album,(a song written by Robertson and covered extensively ever since):



You'll hear the same twang in the vocals. The very same confident, defiant acoustic guitar (right down to the same rhythmic structure.) No mournful fiddle here, but a mournful, wandering harmonica instead.

This was the album that elevated The Band to the pantheon of classic rock gods, influencing all of their peers and, subsequently, countless bands that would follow. Including, evidently, the Avett Brothers. So if you like the Avett Brothers, remember... thank The Band.

Cameron Crowe on Bob Dylan

Today is Bob Dylan's 70th birthday. To honor the man who transformed popular music, Rolling Stone devoted an entire issue to him, including a piece on the "70 Greatest Dylan Songs" in honor of his milestone birthday.

My favorite Dylan song, hands down, is "Buckets of Rain":



And who did Rolling Stone tap to do the write-up on my favorite Dylan song? Why, my favorite filmmaker, writer and music lover - Cameron Crowe! You can read the full write-up on his website here. Cameron is insightful and eloquent, as always, but I particularly love the simple way he explains his love of this song: "Any room I’ve ever played it in has changed as a result." I feel exactly the same way.

Scanning the dial and searching the sky

When I was a freshman in college, I bought tickets to see Shawn Colvin live in Columbus, Ohio. But thanks to poor planning on my part, I never made it to that show. It took me 13 years, but last weekend I finally righted that unfortunate misstep when I took my mom to Shawn's 10 o'clock solo acoustic show at the Old Town School of Folk.

She's totally wonderful by herself on a stage. Her wit and self-deprecating humor are endearing and entertaining and her songs are spare and stunning and powerful. But the thing that really stands out when you hear her play live is what a truly brilliant cover artist she is. I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised by that, since my introduction to her music was through her 1994 album Cover Girl, which featured Shawn's reworkings of other people's songs.

On Saturday, we were treated to two songs written by Robbie Robertson of The Band, "Acadian Driftwood" and "Twilight," (which is featured on Cover Girl), as well as the Talking Heads' "Naive Melody (This Must Be the Place)" (also on Cover Girl). And then she pulled out a gorgeously sad version of Simon and Garfunkel's masterpiece "America," which she informed us she had recently performed as a duet with Paula Cole at the Summerstage fundraiser in Central Park last week. (That fundraiser is another story entirely -- it paired modern folkies and tasked them with recreating a Simon and Garfunkel hit. She told us that Loudon Wainwright and his daughter Lucy did "Bleecker Street" and Aimee Mann and "some guy I don't remember" (John Roderick) did "Only Living Boy in New York," maybe? Must have been amazing.)

She often jokes that her songs tend toward the depressing and melancholy, and what makes her such a good cover artist is that she is able to draw out the emotional heart of other people's songs in much the same way. In her cover of "America," for instance, I've never really heard the line, "'Kathy, I'm lost,' I said, though I knew she was sleeping/ 'I'm empty and aching and I don't know why'" in quite the way I heard it when Shawn sang it. And her version of Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" is still the definitive version, as far as I'm concerned. (Listen to that and "Naive Melody" on her MySpace page.)

And I had heard Joni Mitchell's "River" a thousand times but I never really knew what the song was about until I heard Shawn's plaintive voice sing, "I'm so hard to handle/ I'm selfish and I'm sad/ Now I've gone and lost the best baby that I ever had."

Of course, her own songs are wonderful as well. I was particularly impressed on Saturday with "Wichita Skyline." I haven't been able to get it out of my head. Here she is performing it at Lilith Fair in 1997:



And listening to it live, I heard "Polaroids" in a whole new way as well. It's a much sadder song than it sounds on the album. Here is a comparable performance from a couple of years ago:

Troubles will be gone

A little over a week ago, I made the fun-but-inadvisable decision to stay out WAY past my bedtime on a schoolnight, and as a result, I missed the Tallest Man on Earth show at Lincoln Hall the next night, which everyone has assured me was one of the best concerts ever performed in public. Of course, it was inevitable that it would be. The modern Bob Dylan-with-a-melodic-bent could not disappoint.

I fell in love with the Swedish folksinger's debut album, The Wild Hunt, a few months ago… and I fell hard. His voice may take some getting used to for those who are not huge Dylan fans. (He definitely affects a Dylanesque gravelly delivery in his own unique tenor.) But the melodies are so instantly beautiful and the ringing guitar tone (punctuated by mandolin and a handful of other acoustic instruments) so clear, this is modern folk at its absolute best, truest, most lovely. (Occasionally, the songs remind me of early Simon and Garfunkel in their simplicity and purity, and Woody Guthrie in their timeless lyrics.)

Listen to the rollicking "King of Spain" on TMOE's MySpace page.

And then check out the two encore numbers from the show I missed last week, both Dylan covers: "I'll Keep it With Mine" and "The Man in Me."





Truly gorgeous. Learn from my mistake, LTF-ers. See him as soon as possible.

---
"I simply lost the words to tell you I'm afraid" - From "Troubles Will Be Gone"

Stay Humble

Nashville singer/songwriter Tyler James hasn't released his debut album yet, so now is a great time to start loving him, while you can still see him in tiny, intimate college venues.

I mean, seriously, check out his list of influences:

"bob dylan, paul simon, paul mccartney, joni mitchell, rainer marie rilke, nick drake, neil young, tom waits, the band, woody allen, jaoa gilberto, bill withers, randy newman, david bowie, mark kozelek, wilco, beck, four tet, jesus christ"

Does it get any better than that? Not in my opinion.

Visit his MySpace page. Or better yet, watch this excellent short film that follows him on tour and chronicles a day in the life of a Nashville singer/songwriter who is working on his first album. The song is "Stay Humble." And I love it.

Bob Dylan: Still awesome after all these years

Well, count me in the field with those who think Bob Dylan's Modern Times was one of the best albums to come out in 2006.

This is kind of surprising to me on a couple of levels. First, I have always appreciated Bob Dylan as a poet and American icon, but I never really got the cult adoration that led people to trade bootlegs and devour every recorded moment of the man's voice. That's a fancy way of saying I understood it logically, but I didn't really feel it. Second, I was a little skeptical that a 65-year-old icon of the admittedly-old-fashioned genre of folk music could still be relevant in today's music market. And thirdly, I thought Dylan's voice was shot - I mistakenly wondered who would want to listen to a former legend croaking through ten tracks on a new album?

I could not have been more wrong. From the moment Modern Times came through the headphones, I realized Dylan is not only relevant, he is trailblazing. This album should be the I Ching for any band that incorporates folk, blues or roots music in their repertoire. Thom Jurek at the All Music Guide said it best:

"Dylan is a folk musician; he uses American folk forms such as blues, rock, gospel, and R&B as well as lyrics, licks, and/or whatever else he can to get a song across. This tradition of borrowing and retelling goes back to the beginning of song and story. Even the title of Modern Times is a wink-eye reference to a film by Charlie Chaplin. It doesn't make Dylan less; it makes him more, because he contains all of these songs within himself. By his use of them, he adds to their secret histories and labyrinthine legends."

But more than that, it's just beautiful to listen to. The tone of the whole album is soft and sweet, reminding me of my other favorite Bob Dylan album, Blood on the Tracks. The timbre of the album is warm like honey, Dylan's voice sounds astonishingly good and the lyrics are personal rather than political - he's showing a surprisingly vulnerable side of himself.

Track highlights for me include the bouncy opening track "Thunder on the Mountain," (which surprisingly references a slight obsession with Alicia Keys), the revised folk ballad "Nettie Moore" and the tiki-tinged love song "Spirit on the Water," which features my favorite lyrics on the album: "When you're near, it's just as plain as it can be/ I'm wild about you, babe/ You ought to be a fool about me."

I used to just pretend to understand, but I really get it now: this man is a genius.