Film director/screenwriter Justin Trefgarne talks about Dylan, but also about fathers, sons, archetypes and coincidence.
Singer/Songwriter/Actor John Doe tells terrific tales: hanging with Dennis Quaid and Winona Ryder in Memphis, gigging with Nick Lowe in London and hearing his voice come out of Christian Bale’s mouth in Todd Haynes’s Dylan biopic I’m Not There.
Belfast’s Steven Cockcroft (co-host of leading Beatles podcast Nothing Is Real) offers unexpected takes on The Boys and Bob: “Roll On John isn’t about an individual, it’s about the sanctification of Lennon” and “The Travelling Wilburys was a calculated move by George”. Also on the menu: Dylan’s questionable harmonies on an obscure Ringo album track and his controversial cover of Paul’s Things We Said Today. Plus: did you know that John asked Bob to play piano on Cold Turkey? Have you discovered the reference to Ringo on Don’t Fall Apart On Me Tonight? Ever hear Dylan’s in-concert cover of The Long and Winding Road? Or hear about the accusatory T-shirt he was gifted by George? How good is our Beatles episode? This Englishman said fab. Steven Cockroft is a partner in a law firm in Belfast.He co-hosts Nothing Is Real, the best Beatles podcast out there. Born in 1963, he grew up firmly believing the 1960s were the Golden Age. In the late 1970s, he sat out the 'punk wars', listeningto Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Van Morrison.Hosting the podcast came about after Steven and co-host Jason Carty won the Beatle Brain of Ireland competition.They have interviewed Kevin Godley, Mark Lewisohn and several ex-members of Wings but are best known for their humorous and forensic following of the Fabs and their post-Beatles projects. Twitter Trailer Episode playlist on Apple Episode playlist on Spotify Listeners:please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating. Twitter@isitrollingpod Recorded 25th February 2022 This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts
Our special culinary episode with critic Eric Asimov includes the story of long-time Dylan bass player Tony Garnier’s delicious Christmas gumbo and Dylan’s wine-making venture, Planet Waves (“the wine has aged better than the album”). A fan since hearing “I Want You” the age of eight, Eric is “drawn to the atmosphere Bob creates. It’s misty. It’s archaic. You can’t place it in time. It stretches back into history”. Eric’s take on the live performances is simple: “his devotion to his art takes precedence to his devotion to entertainment”. Although Oh Mercy is not a favourite (“too thick and oozy”), there are plenty of Five Star moments in his tasty overview. He concludes, “I can’t think of any other artist who has had that span of creativity. An 80 year-old guy doing his new songs? It’s unheard of”. Bob Dylan is clearly food and drink to Eric Asimov. Eric Asimov is the chief wine critic of The New York Times. His freelance work as a wine and food critic has appeared in Food and Wine Magazine, Details and Martha Stewart Living. For a number of years, he was co-author of The New York Times Guide to Restaurants and other books and guides. At the NYT, he was also editor of the Living section and Styles of The Times. Eric is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the University of Texas at Austin. He lives in Manhattan. 'No-Sweat Answers To Some Basic Wine Questions', December 30th 2021 Twitter Trailer Episode playlist on Apple Episode playlist on Spotify Listeners:please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating. Twitter@isitrollingpod Recorded 19th January 2022 This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts
Singer, songwriter and saxophonist Curtis Stigers tells us true stories with a cast of characters including Van Morrison, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan. A fan from way back (“Bob is the perfect creation. He’s an art form in himself”), his jazzy cover versions include Things Have Changed (“people go nuts for that song. Their heads explode”). A committed conversationalist with a huge wealth of musical knowledge, Curtis has strong opinions about Shawn Colvin, Jim Croce, The Carter Family, Neil Diamond, Jimmie Rodgers, Frank Sinatra, Bertolt Brecht and Larry Klein (who produced both Joni Mitchell and Curtis). His cover of Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right “always lights up the room”, he says. We feel the same about Mr. Stigers. Born in Los Angeles, Curtis Stigers grew up in Boise, Idaho. His interest in music began as a teen when he played in punk and blues bands. He moved to New York to pursue rock music but attracted label attention as the saxophonist/vocalist of a jazz trio, signing a deal with Arista and releasing his self-titled first album in 1991 (the multi-platinum album included the Billboard Top Ten single I Wonder Why). He contributed a cover of (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding to the soundtrack of The Bodyguard, which spent 20 consecutive weeks at Number 1 on the Billboard album chart. Curtis’s third album, Brighter Days, featured appearances by Jackson Browne and Benmont Tench. From 2001, he began to concentrate on jazz albums, including Real Emotional and Lost In Dreams. In 2012, he released the country-tinged album Let’s Go Out Tonight, featuring covers of songs by artists like Steve Earle and Richard Thompson. One More For The Road, a live salute to the Sinatra At The Sands album was another big success. Curtis is currently touring the UK, promoting his new album This Life. Website Songs From My Kitchen Tour Dates Twitter Trailer Episode playlist on Apple Episode playlist on Spotify Listeners:please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating. Twitter@isitrollingpod Recorded 8th February 2022 This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts
Comic actor Thom Tuck discovered Bob Dylan when, growing up in Bangladesh, he caught the promo for Subterranean Homesick Blues on MTV Rewind. His family eventually returned to Leeds, where his outsider status was made even worse/better by his obsession with all things Bob. At university, he didn’t improve his lot by writing a play called “One More Layer of Skin”. Despite it all, Thom maintains that Dylan remains his “prism by which to understand the world”. Opinions: Thom reserves a special place in hell for songs like Make You Feel My Love (“Adele heard the Billy Joel version and now every idiot does it”), whilst continuing to rate Under The Red Sky (“as an album to go to sleep to”). Along the way, we swap dozens of the best Dylan cover versions, from bluegrass to hard rock to the “deep thunder” of Tom Jones. Thom Tuck is an actor, writer and comedian. He is currently on tour in the acclaimed Birmingham Rep production of The Play What I Wrote. His theatre work includes Death Of A Salesman (Royal & Derngate), Three Sisters (Southwark Playhouse), Brexit (Spontaneity Shop), A Slight Ache (Pleasance) and Gutted!: A Revenger’s Musical (Assembly Theatre). Thom’s television work includes The Crown, Fresh Meat, Horrible Histories, Babylon and Drifters. As a comedian, Thom was nominated Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe for his show Thom Tuck Goes Straight-To-DVD, which was adapted for BBC Radio and is now out on DVD. His other solo shows are Thom Tuck Flips Out, The Square Root Of Minus One and An August Institution. Thom is one third of the acclaimed sketch troupe The Penny Dreadfuls. https://britishtheatre.com/the-play-what-i-wrote-tour/ Twitter Trailer Episode playlist on Apple Episode playlist on Spotify Listeners:please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating. Twitter@isitrollingpod Recorded 14th December 2021 This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts
Fellow podcaster Laura Tenschert’s Definitely Dylan contains multitudes of theories and insights which she shares in this eye-opening episode. German-born Laura learned English by listening to Bob, which gave her sharper ears than most. Dozens of songs are given forensic treatment, ranging from classics like Lord Protect My Child and Buckets of Rain to oddities like Fur Slippers and Dirty World. Topics covered include Dylan commenting on his creativity via his songs, where the next generation of Bob’s fans will come from, his penchant for “Dad jokes” and the tight connection between To Ramona and False Prophet. Laura even manages to explain the difference between Tulsa’s Bob Dylan Institute, Tulsa’s Bob Dylan Archive and the Bob Dylan Centre in (yes) Tulsa. An ideal companion for anyone walkin’ down the Dylan highway. Dylan scholar Laura Tenschert is the creator of Definitely Dylan, a podcast exploring the work of Bob Dylan and its relevance in our culture from a modern, feminist perspective. Sheis a board member at the Institute of Bob Dylan Studies at the University of Tulsa and contributed to the 2021 book Dylan At 80: It Used To Go Like That, And Now It Goes Like This. Website Twitter Trailer Episode playlist on Apple Episode playlist on Spotify Listeners:please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating. Twitter@isitrollingpod Recorded 1st December 2021 This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts
Writer and musician Richard Strange insists “If you don’t want to be Bob Dylan, you shouldn’t be writing songs”. He takes us on a journey that starts in his Brixton comprehensive (“I was always bunking off, going to art galleries and the haunted, dingy Soho flesh-pot folk clubs”). He discovers “the boy band of Beat literature: Burroughs, Kerouac and Ginsberg”. And he reminds us that Another Side of Bob Dylan still provides “an embarrassment of riches, lyrically and emotionally”. From witnessing a 1964 Kinks concert (“it blew my mind and changed my life”) to eventually working with Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg, Mr Strange proudly concludes that “Bob Dylan still haunts me”. Richard Strange is a writer, musician, composer, nightclub host, curator, actor and adventurer. His proto-punk rock band Doctors of Madness first performed in 1975 (supported by the Sex Pistols). He founded the influential mixed-media Cabaret Futura in 1980 and has subsequently worked as an actor, appearing extensively in films (Batman, Mona Lisa, Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves, Gangs of New York and Harry Potter) and on television. His many stage appearances include Tom Waits’ musical fable The Black Rider. His memoir, Strange - Punks and Drunks and Flicks and Kicks was published in 2005. Richard currently presents the weekly radio show Dark Times Radio and is recording again with Doctors of Madness. Website Twitter Trailer Episode playlist on Apple Episode playlist on Spotify Listeners:please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating. Twitter@isitrollingpod Recorded 10th November 2021 This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts
Author, editor and podcaster Andy Miller is mad as hell and he’s not going to take it anymore: “Bob Dylan is not a safe option!” “The heritage industry around the Beatles and Dylan is neutering the anarchy of the music. The world sees me as just another bloke buying a Dad Rock box set at Christmas. But it’s not a hygienic vision of what rock ‘n’ roll used to be. It is what rock ‘n’ roll used to be!”. Other trenchant Miller observations include: “Tarantula is an incredibly rewarding book. Take a hit!” And “I loved the Highway 61 album for its absolute sledgehammer horrible noise. The whole sound is assaulting you.” And “Shadow Kingdom. Why wasn’t it called Masked And Anonymous?” Crank up your stereo and take a bracing 58-minute hit with the Dylan Fan’s Dylan Fan. Andy Miller’s most recent book is The Year ofReadingDangerously (“High Fidelity for bookworms” – The Telegraph). He has also written books about how much he likes the Kinks (The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, for the 33 1/3 series) and how much he dislikes sport (Tilting At Windmills). He is the co-host of Backlisted, the popular literary podcast that gives new life to old books. His writing has appeared in theGuardian, the Times, theTelegraph, the Spectator, Esquire,Mojo,Sight and Soundand more. He has toured the UK with his motivational lecture 'Read Y'self Fitter' and appears regularly on BBC Radio programmes such as The Verb (Radio 3), The Museum of Curiosity (Radio 4) and Open Book (Radio 4). Website Twitter Trailer Episode playlist on Apple Episode playlist on Spotify Listeners:please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating. Twitter@isitrollingpod Recorded 27th October 2021 This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts
Music journalist Kate French-Morris, 29, found her calling in a University of California class taught by Greil Marcus (“he gets closer to Bob’s mind than anyone can, with his sideways thinking and his cattiness”). Kate shares a birthday with Dylan, but her main man might be Bruce Springsteen, who figures strongly in this, our first studio recording for over eighteen months. From her discovery of Hurricane over the speakers of an LA coffee shop to her in-depth consideration of Lay, Lady, Lay, Most Of The Time and I Want You (first heard as a Springsteen concert bootleg), Kate charts Bob’s entry into her life (“you know those mirrors that magnify your face? Listening to Dylan feels like that: oh god, this is too much!”). A fresh look at the canon by someone who has yet to see him in concert (but can’t wait). Kate French-Morris writes about and reviews music for Record Collector Magazine and online for The Forty-Five. She writes artist biographies and has worked extensively at the Green Man and End of the Road Festivals. Kate graduated from University College, London, in 2018, including a year at U of C, Berkeley, studying “America Song By Song” with Greil Marcus. Record Collector interview with Steve Van Zandt The Forty-Five Other writing work Twitter Trailer Episode playlist on Apple Episode playlist on Spotify Listeners:please subscribe and/or leave a review and a rating. Twitter@isitrollingpod Recorded 29th September 2021 This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts