Bob Dylan News That Didn't Go Anywhere

Bob Dylan will release ‘Bob Dylan In Concert: Brandeis University 1963’ on April 12 through Columbia Records.

According to a post today on Dylan’s site, the May 10, 1963 recording of the then relatively unknown 21-year-old musician was only found recently in the archives of Rolling Stone co-founder Ralph J. Gleason where it sat on a shelf for over four decades. “It had been forgotten, until it was found last year in the clearing of the house after my mother died,” Gleason’s son Toby said of Dylan’s performance at the Brandeis First Annual Folk Festival. “It’s a seven inch reel-to-reel that sounds like it was taped from the mixing desk.”

The album – culled from two concerts that evening and performed just two weeks before The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan would be issued – was previously available but only on a limited basis. The seven tracks include an incomplete version of ‘Honey, Just Allow Me On More Chance,’ ‘Talkin John Birch Paranoid Blues,’ ‘Bob Dylan’s Dream,’ ‘Ballad Of Hollis Brown,’ ‘Masters Of War,’ ‘Talkin’ World War III Blues’ and ‘Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues.’

The album will also feature liner notes by noted Dylan expert and scholar Michael Gray who wrote The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia and Song & Dance Man: The Art Of Bob Dylan.

Dylan – who performed at the Grammy Awards last Sunday evening alongside the Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons – will play in Singapore on April 15 prior to commencing an eight-date trek of Australia and New Zealand on April 17. The singer’s last proper studio album was Together Through Life in 2009.

Thoughts and Musings and Rants and Thoughts

The Arcade Fire wins album of the year at the Grammys yet nobody knows them. A funny thing (one of several funny things) was them introducing themselves to the press backstage after winning. However the funniest item had to be a site with pages and pages of Tweets from people who did not know them or hear of them, including Dog The Bounty Hunter and Rosie O'Donnell among others.

Justin Bieber was 0 fer at the show also, which resulted in several of his fans taking to the winner's site and posting less than kind remarks. How dare somebody who can sing, writing their own songs without relying and 211 co-writers and play an instrument deserve anything over Justin? I mean really.

Performances of the Grammys were less than memorable except for perhaps one or two, notably Mr. Jagger paying homage to Solomon Burke at the ripe age of 67. And still delivering the goods as he has all this time.

And now listening to the Cowboy Junkies new album entitled Demons, which can be accessed here for great aural pleasure. Culled from the work of the late Vic Chesnutt who decided to off himself a while back, Cowboy Junkies -- and especially the fine, no, stellar pipes of Margo Timmins -- nail this material effortlessly. Definitely a keeper.

Will post again soon, busy you know.....

Junos Who Knows

The Juno nominations came out this week and what we do know is that Nickelback (pictured here with lead singer Chad Kroeger's corset obviously on backwards) was not nominated for anything, so it can't be all bad. Neil Young is scheduled to appear, Justin Bieber is slated to appear, Drake will rap minus his cohorts back on Degrassi Street and both the Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene are slated to perform.

But like the Grammys, the organizers are still a little bit behind the times. For example the best new artist category has two nominees who have been around a while including Caribou who is currently working on his fourth studio album. Or basically three more albums that a best new artist should not have in their catalogue.

A few other snafus are apparent in terms of artists being nominated for artist or group of the year yet their album not up for album of the year, but regardless, the 40th anniversary should be fairly decent, even if it is held at the cavernous Air Canada Centre.

There is a bright side in that a number of artists playing the Grammys or appearing are homegrown talent. So the glass is half full, isn't it?

MONA.....oh Mona.....

These four guys are known collectively as MONA, they are from Nashville, they are been dubbed rather wrongly as Princes Of Leon. They are not. If Gaslight Anthem and Scottish band MONA had a baby band, this would be them. They have yet to release their full-length album but already they've been featured in NME, have got and caught the ear of BBC's Later With Jools Holland programme and are slowly but surely receiving a buzz.

Four songs on YouTube so far, including the glorious one-two punch of Listen To Your Love and the foot-stomping Teenager. And they are also making their way to Toronto as part of Dave Bookman's New Music Night on Tuesday, April 19. Long may the buzz continue, for it is quite warranted. The first great thing to come from Nashville since country music was actually country music, not 3:32 radio friendly sh-t which took 9 co-writers to come up with.

You've been told, and they follow a line of The National, Hourly Radio (alright, they are no more, but still), Marah, Kathleen Edwards, Kirsten Jones and Glasvegas as acts you should keep an eye and ear out for.