On July 31, 1961 journalist Robert Shelton (who went on to write “No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan”) wrote an article in the New York Times about a new folk music program on WRVR in New York called “Saturday Of Folk Music.” The show was broadcast from Riverside Church, NY on July 29, 1961.
Deep into the article he wrote:
Among the newer promising talents deserving mention are a 20-year-old latter-day Guthrie disciple named Bob Dylan, with a curiously arresting mumbling, country-steeped manner…
Bob sang three songs by himself, “Handsome Molly,” “Naomi Wise,” and “Poor Lazarus”; played harp on “Mean Old Railroad” with Danny Kalb (who would later go on to play guitar and sing in The Blues Project), singing, and wrapped things up dueting with Ramblin’ Jack Elliot on a doo-wop joke song, “Acne.”
Saturday Of Folk Music
1 Handsome Molly
2 Naomi Wise
3 Poor Lazarus
4 Mean Old Railroad
5 Acne
Click on the link here for Audio Player: Bob Dylan In Session – Saturday Of Folk Music – 1961
And if you know what you’re doing, you can save the file to your desktop.
Later that year (October 1961) Bob appeared on “Oscar Brand’s Folksong Festival,” a weekly radio show broadcast every Saturday at 10 p.m. on WNYC-AM 820 in New York City.
Oscar Brand is a folk singer who has recorded over 100 albums; his radio show was been going now for 66 years. Dylan appeared on it in advance of his Nov 4, 1961 Carnegie Chapter Hall concert.
“Sally Gal”:
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