Robert Allen Zimmerman turns 70 on May 24th 2011, a landmark birthday sure to be celebrated with many a memorable musical party. To kick off the festivities, Celtic Connections has assembled an aptly diverse Scottish and international cast of Dylan devotees, including Tim O’Brien, Josh Rouse, Rosanne Cash, Thea Gilmore, Laura Cantrell, James Grant, Kris Drever, Rab Noakes and Gemma Hayes, with Glasgow’s own Roddy Hart & the Lonesome Fire as house band for the evening. As well as featuring the singers’ pick of Dylan favourites, the show also highlights the strong Scottish influence over this uniquely seminal artist’s vast and varied oeuvre, in his adaptations and reinventions of such classic traditional ballads as Tramps and Hawkers (’I Pity the Poor Immigrant’), The Bonnie Lass O’ Fyvie (’Pretty Peggy’) and Lord Randall (’A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’).
Well I am pleased to say that in my view this concert was absolutely superb. The house band of Roddy Hart and The Lonesome Fire were absolutely fantastic and did not put a foot wrong, clearly incredibly well rehearsed and also clearly loving playing both the material and enjoying the opportunity to play with the other artists. James Grant was again in just superb form and it was fantastic to hear Roseanne Cash perform this material.
The highlights for me included:
Roddy Hart - Not Dark Yet
Rab Noakes - Mississippi and Absolutely Sweet Marie
James Grant and Nell Bryden - All Along The Watchtower
Josh Rouse - The Man In Me
James Grant - Simple Twist Of fate
Roseanne Cash - My Back Pages
Ensemble - Like A Rolling Stone
Full set list:
I agree a great show, held together brilliantly by Roddy Hart and his Lonesome Fire. Rab Noakes was the highlight for me, two wonderful solo performances and lifting the ensemble performance with his contribution to "Like a Rolling Stone"...wonderful. Other highlights for me were Gemma Hayes and Thea Gilmore's version of "Masters of War".
ReplyDeleteThanks Michael! Some amusing reviews in the media...too long....you wouldn't have liked it if not a Dylan fan, version of Watchtower not as good as Hendrix.....sigh!
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