Bob Dylan – Together Through Life

I attended a Bob Dylan (official/myspace) tribute event last night at the Red Stag Supper Club, in Minneapolis. The event was also a listening party for Dylan’s 33rd studio album, Together Through Life (released today, April 28^th on Columbia Records). The turnout was pretty good (although I will confess most of the people there – they were there to eat dinner), and a few W♥M locals turned up: Brody, Carl, Kate (not to be confused with new Kate), and Lara.

As the name of the ‘venue’ suggest, this is a restaurant – so the sound of people chattering and eating is really not ideal for a show (especially when the majority of the acts are singer/songwriter acoustic sets). I don’t know what the noise ordinance was for that area, but everyone agreed that they should’ve turned up the mic and sound system and really blast it.

Local musicians turned up to do Dylan covers, including Martin Devaney (myspace) , Sam Cassidy from At Any Speed and Shoreline (official/myspace), Andy Ulseth (myspace) and Derek Helland from Victory Ship (myspace).

We have previously mentioned two of the band on the bill, Victory Ship and Andy Ulseth – so be sure to check out our previous articles.

Incidentally, lady luck must’ve been shining on me last night because I ended up winning one of the contest: a book by Bob Dylan and Barry Feinstein called Hollywood Foto-Retoric and an EP called Things Have Changed. The book is a Dylan poetry book, with Feinstein photos. Some of the pairings are questionable, like the Charlie Chapin photo with “Madness” by Dylan. I wish the photos were printed on larger pages (it’s such a rare glimpse into the lives of Hollywood stars and I wish the black and white images are in greater details). Either way, I am very happy with my winnings, and am very glad I showed up.

As for Dylan’s album, Together Through Life, I do have a copy here and listening to the first few tracks, you’ll notice one thing: Dylan’s voice have dramatically gotten more and more rustier (in a good whiskey-hearing way). Check out the new single “Beyond Here Lies Nothin'” to know what I mean. If you like the song, head over to beyondhereliesnothin.com to use the lyrics of the song to create a portrait.

Songs from the album seems to be Dylan love songs, reminiscent of his semi-recent albums Modern Times and Love and Theft, so if you enjoyed those albums, you will love the direction this album is heading in.

The album comes in four major formats: a standard CD (all original Dylan songs), a 2CD/1DVD set (the second CD includes songs written by other people), digital MP3s (c’mon, just pay a little more and get the CD), and 180 gram vinyl – for the old school fans. As usual, I would recommend the 3 disc set, for even casual fans.

Starting in July, Bob Dylan and His Band, John Mellencamp, and Willie Nelson, are going on a national “Minor League Baseball Park” tour. You can either buy tickets for field tickets or a seated bleacher (which I will suggest you bring binoculars).

It should be loads of fun, and children under the age of 14 can get in free with an adult. Tickets doesn’t officially go on sale until May, but I believe fans signed up for his email list gets first dibs on pre-sale tickets.

ALSO: Out today is The Black Crowes‘ Warpaint Live album on Eagle Rock Entertainment. The live album are live songs of every song (in the correct order) from the Crowes’ previous studio album Warpaint. The album also comes with a bonus live CD, you can read more details on our news.weheartmusic.com website.