All posts by Michael Goldberg

Video: Mary Lee Kortes Performs Entire ‘Blood On The Tracks’ Album Live (Dylan Digs Her)

Music

Back in 2002 Mary Lee Kortes and her band, Mary Lee’s Corvette, released their live take on Blood On The Tracks, recorded at Arlene’s Grocery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

Rolling Stone’s David Fricke checked out the album and wrote:

“Your eyes do not deceive you. And your doubts won’t last. This is a complete re-creation of Bob Dylan’s untouchable 1975 divorce album. Executed with a quaintly direct magnificence enhanced by the modesty of its origins (a one-time 2001 New York club show rescued from a soundboard cassette and eclipsed only by Dylan’s definitive recording. There is a savory Blonde on Blonde air to the organ and piano coursing through the band’s faithful acoustic picking, while the bright bite in Mary Lee Kortes’ voice-the high-mountain sunshine of Dolly Parton, with a sweet iron undercoat of Chrissie Hynde- turns up the female hurt and fight in “Tangled Up In Blue” and “You’re A Big Girl Now.” The ultimate compliment; Dylan likes this album so much he has featured one of the tracks on his website.”
-David Fricke, Rolling Stone Oct 3, 2002 (4 Stars)

The album caught Bob Dylan’s attention, and the group opened for him in New York at the Hammerstein Ballroom in August 2003, and he featured one of their tracks on his website..

Last year, on January 30, they performed the entire album again, this time at Joe’s Pub in NYC. You can check out all the performances below.

“Tangled Up In Blue”:

“Simple Twist Of Fate”:

“You’re A Big Girl Now”:

“Idiot Wind”:

“You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You’re Gone”:

“Meet Me In The Morning”:

“Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts”:

“If You See Her Say Hello”:

“Shelter From The Storm”:

“Buckets Of Rain”:

Encore:

“Everything Is Broken”:

Musicians include:

Andy York, Guitar and harmony vocals
Rod Hohl, guitar
Brad Albetta, bass
Diego Voglino, Drums
Andy Burton, keyboards

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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]

Audio: She & Him Cover The Beach Boys’ ‘God Only Knows’

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It’s always dangerous taking on a classic recording, which is what the Beach Boys’ God Only Knows,” which appeared on Pet Sounds, is.

Still, this low-key version by She & Him is charming.

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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]

Video: Michael Stipe Looks Back at 30 Years Of R.E.M.

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R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe on “CBS This Morning.”

Among other things he says it’s unlikely that R.E.M. will ever reunite. “That will never happen,” he says.

I bet they do.

And he talks about how shy he was when the band first got famous and it sounds like he’ll do a solo album at some point.

“I think I’ll sing again,” he says. “Not soon.”

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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]

Audio: Hear New Modest Mouse Song, ‘Lampshades On Fire,’ Right Now!

Music
Cover art for the new single.

New Modest Mouse song, “Lampshades On Fire,” off their new album Strangers To Ourselves (out March 3, 2015).

Check it out:

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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]

Audio: Rhiannon Giddens Sings ‘Black Is the Color,’ ‘Shake Sugaree’ & More

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T Bone Burnett has produced Rhiannon Giddens’ debut solo album Tomorrow Is My Turn< ,/em> which is set for a February 10, 2015 release.

Giddens, of course, is a member of the New Basement Tapes band, and was a major contributor to Lost On The River: The New Basement Tapes.

I like her version of “Shake Sugaree,” and “Black is the Color” is interesting.

Joan Baez, of course, recorded “Black is the Color” in the ’60s, and Bob Dylan had the line “Where black is the color, where none is the number” in “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”

I’m looking forward to hearing what Giddens does with Geeshie Wiley’s amazing “Last Kind Words.”

Check out three songs off the album.

“Black is the Color”:

“Don’t Let It Trouble Your Mind”:

“Shake Sugaree”:

Album track listing:

1
Last Kind Words (Geeshie Wiley)
4:14
2
Don’t Let It Trouble Your Mind (Dolly Parton)
3:45
3
Waterboy (Jacques Wolfe)
3:45
4
She’s Got You (Hank Cochran)
4:17
5
Up Above My Head (Sister Rosetta Tharpe)
3:09
6
Tomorrow Is My Turn (Charles Aznavour/Marcel Stellman/Yves Stéphane)
4:38
7
Black Is the Color (Traditional, arr. Rhiannon Giddens)
3:47
8
Round About the Mountain (Traditional, arr. Roland Hayes)
3:29
9
Shake Sugaree (Elizabeth Cotten)
4:25
10
O Love Is Teasin’ (Traditional, arr. Rhiannon Giddens)
4:31
11
Angel City (Rhiannon Giddens)
3:52

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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]

Audio: Michael Goldberg & Guitiarist Henry Kaiser Live – ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ Set Me Free

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Photo from my LitQuake reading, October 2014.
Photo from my LitQuake reading, October 2014.

Yesterday afternoon, Saturday December 13, 2104, I read from my novel, True Love Scars, as the acclaimed, Grammy-winning experimental guitarist Henry Kaiser improvised. And then Henry did a short, brilliant instrumental. The reading took place at Down Home Music in El Cerrito, CA.

I called the event a “post-beat happening.”

It was thrilling to read as Henry’s music lit up the room. When you’re on a stage and you’re in the groove, and the music, music you’ve never heard before, is exactly right for what you’re doing, you levitate.

Two sections I read were about how Bob Dylan’s music changed the narrator’s life. I’ve included both of those and then another excerpt which is the first few pages of the novel. Plus an instrumental improvisation by Henry that concluded the reading.

Down Home Music was an incredible environment for a reading. A room filled with CDs and vinyl and a wall of music books and music posters on the walls and incredibly knowledgeable folks running the place.

Where else is an impulse buy going to be a Roscoe Holcomb DVD?

Yep, I now own that DVD.

There was a nice write-up in advance of the reading in the East Bay Express and that brought a great group of folks into the store to hear me and Henry do our thing.

I read about 30 minutes while Henry utilized a guitar, a whammy bar and more than a dozen pedals to create a sonic backdrop for my words. Actually, it was more than a backdrop, as you’ll see if you listen to the first excerpt, below.

1) The impact of “Like A Rolling Stone”:

2) “It was Dylan, man!”:

3) How the book begins:

4) Henry’s concluding instrumental:

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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]

Video: Watch Bob Dylan Play Private Mini-Concert For One Fan

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In November Fredrik Wikingsson got a private Bob Dylan mini-concert at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music.

Lucky Wikingsson had been picked for an episode of a Swedish film series called “Experiment Ensam” where, according to Rolling Stone, “a lone person takes part in events that are usually reserved for large crowds.”

Dylan and his band perform a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Heartbeat,” a beautiful downbeat version of Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill” and Chuck Wills’ “It’s Too Late (She’s Gone).” The mini-concert ends with the blues standard, “Key to the Highway.”

Rolling Stone has a story about this here.
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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]

Audio: Hear The New Basement Tapes Band Play Unreleased Version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Hidee Hidee Ho’

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Jenny Eliscu talks to Elvis Costello and others about The New Basement Tapes album. Includes an unreleased version of “Hidee Hidee Ho” that ELvis sings.

The New Basement Tapes – Live on the Sirius XM, November 14, 2014.

Recorded on November 14, 2014 in Hollywood, CA. Featuring:
Elvis Costello – piano, Rhiannon Giddens – fiddle, vocals, Taylor Goldsmith – bass, vocals, Jim James – guitar, vocals, Marcus Mumford – guitar, vocals, Jay Bellerose – drums, Griffin Goldsmith – drums. Setlist:
00:00 intro
02:01 Diamond Ring (Goldsmith)
05:48 interview 1
10:37 Hidee Hidee Ho – “bootleg volume 2 version” (Costello)
12:25 interview 2
16:00 Down On The Bottom (James)
20:44 interview 3
29:31When I Get My Hands On You (Mumford)
32:53 interview 4
38:27 Lost On The River #20 (Giddens)
42:50 outro

Plus on November 12, 2014 the group did this radio performance:

00:00 Married To My Hack (Costello)
02:41 When I Get My Hands On You (Mumford)
05:48 Florida Key (Goldsmith)
10:01 Spanish Mary (Giddens)
15:27 Down On The Bottom (James)
19:42 Kansas City (Mumford)

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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]

Video: Blues Man Barry Goldberg Talks About Michael Bloomfield, Bob Dylan & New Book

Music
The Electric Flag with Barry Goldberg (fourth from the left) and Michael Bloomfield (second from the right).

Barry Goldberg (no relation) was a close friend of guitarist Michael Bloomfield, and when Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, Barry Goldberg was playing keyboards and Bloomfield was playing lead guitar. He co-founded the Electric Flag with Bloomfield in 1967.

Now Goldberg has a book out about himself and Bloomfield, titled “Two Jews Blues,” which was also the title of an album Goldberg recorded with Bloomfield in 1969.

Check out this ten minute promotional video of Barry Goldberg talking about Bloomfield, Dylan and the book.

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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]

Live: East Bay Express Hypes Michael Goldberg/ Henry Kaiser ‘post-beat happening’

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Big surprise today when I opened the latest East Bay Express and discovered that my reading Saturday with Henry Kaiser at Down Home Music is their pick for “Lectures & Lit” this week, and one of this weekend’s “Top Five Events.”

How cool is that!

I’ll read from my novel, True Love Scars, and experimental guitarist Henry Kaiser will improvise on electric guitar.

It’ll happen at 3 pm at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito, CA. And it’s free, of course.

Writes Arts and Culture Editor Sarah Burke:

True Love Scars is a rock ’n’ roll novel about harboring nostalgia for the 1960s, getting lost in a drugged-up dream-world, finding love, and then losing it tragically.

You can read the rest of the writeup here.

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[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]