Six Minutes with Singer/Songwriter Mary Lee Kortes, Author of Dreaming of Dylan

Mary Lee Kortes with full band. Photo: Jim Marchese

This past month a friend asked if I'd seen Mary Lee Kortes' Dreaming of Dylan: 115 Dreams About Bob. I'd not, but the concept certainly had me intrigued. When I acquired a copy of the book I was more than impressed. It was seriously fun and I proceeded to write about it.

The NYTimes and Rolling Stone are among the many who had this to say about Mary Lee the performer:
"Songs so meticulously crafted they sound completely natural."
--Jon Pareles. The New York Times
“Mary Lee Kortes's voice—the high mountain sunshine of Dolly Parton with a sweet-iron undercoat of Chrissie Hynde."
--David Fricke, Rolling Stone

The following interview should give you a pretty good glimpse of Ms. Kortes's spirit. There's a link at the end to her website as well as to Amazon where you can get a copy yourself.

EN: First off, the production values on this book are A++. Who did the design and layout? How did the look and feel of this book come about?

Photo credit: Barry Sutton

Mary Lee Kortes: The designer is Mark Melnick. When I conceived the book, I always wanted to have a mix of original art/drawings/paintings to illustrate the dreams, along with some other visuals, like lesser known Dylan photos. I also didn't want it to look tidy; I thought there should be some chaos to it. So as the dreams came in, I gathered up illustrators I knew (Rina Root, Kevin Walters) and got recommendations from friends for some others (Stanley Mouse, Jerry Pagane, Jenny Laden). I didn't want there to be just one illustrator—part of my chaos theory. Then I selected dreams that I thought might match up well with different designers and sent them out, something like a casting agent you could say.

Also, I'd met up with Mitch Blank several years ago. He's a Dylan archivist with a collection of Dylan memorabilia and artifacts that is quite stunning. (He's now officially an archivist with the Dylan archive in Tulsa, although he still lives in NYC.) At the time I started putting the book together, my publisher, Kate Hyman from BMG, was coincidentally meeting with Mitch about some Dylan photos for another project. We went to his apartment together and realized that we could photograph a lot of his collection and use it as part of the visual component of the book. It was definitely kismet: One of the dreams in the book (dream #12, "A prom with Bob") features both Dylan and Rick Danko. When we were roaming through Mitch's apartment that day, we came upon a glass cabinet with a collection of baseballs signed by famous non-musicians. Side by side, smack dab in the middle of the case, there sat two baseballs—one signed by Dylan, the other by Danko.

So we brought photographer Daniel Root to the apartment along with Mark and photographed everything we could. That's the source of most of the photos you see. Mark played with some of them to combine other elements, etc.

EN: The concept is fab, of course. There are a lot of Bob Dylan books, but what’s fun is seeing the variety of approaches. Yours knocks my socks off. When did the concept emerge and did you imagine you could pull it off?

A bit of Dylanesque playfulness.
Photo: Barry Sutton

MLK: I had the idea so long ago I'm embarrassed to get specific! The Foreword tells the origin story, which is really something, particularly with my Dylan connection that came after I'd started having dreams about him, and long, long after my "television hallucination."

I wasn't sure I could pull it off, although my early efforts were good and encouraging. I was able to collect over 60 dreams and a few illustrations after I first started working on it. I'm not sure how long I had been working on it when someone offered to share the name of an agent with me. I sent it to him/her (I can't even remember anymore if it was a him or her! Been that long.) That person told me it wasn't a book, it was a blog, or something else less substantial.

I think I was going through a hard period at that point and so the project faded onto the back burner of a back burner and sat there simmering invisibly for quite some time. Then in a meeting with Kate one day she mentioned BMG had started a book division doing books only related to music. I smiled and tilted my head. "I have a book related to music," I said. I reviewed what I'd done and was surprised to realize just how much work I'd already done on the book, sent BMG a sampling, and we were off to the races.

EN: How did you get all these dreams? Did you just talk to lots of people? Crowdsourcing?

MLK: Initially, I posted only on ExpectingRain.com and told my friends what I was doing. Later on of course, I used Facebook and everything I could think of.

Photo credit: Lisa Lyons

EN: Not only is the book concept original, but also the mixed up way you present the dreams with 106 then 17 and 103. Whose idea was this? What gave you this idea?

MLK: That idea was actually my husband's, Eric Ambel. Maybe he was feeling my wish for a bit of chaos! He's very smart and very perceptive.

Mary Lee's Corvette. Photo: Jim Marchese

EN: While putting this all together, were there some stories that you especially enjoyed? Can you share a couple favorites, or is it like children where you feel obligated to love them all?

MLK: I do like all these dreams and I have some favorites because they're funny or moving or weird. I love dream #38 "Dig it" because the whole thing is sort of a punch line; it's the zen koan of the book. Another is dream #103 from a dreamer who withheld their name but clearly grew up with the Smothers Brother's TV show. I also love dream #22 "Unwelcome Guest" for how it reflects people's view of the reported grumpier side of Dylan (his hood is up in the dream).

I'm personally biased towards one of my own, dream #106 "Wrong key." I had this dream after I'd gotten the publishing deal. I was afraid I might stop dreaming of him, but lo and behold I had one of my favorites. I'm rehearsing for a show where Dylan is my accompanist on a Townes Van Zandt song I've sung many times in real life (I always sing it in the key of D). Dylan starts the song in some weird key and I ask him what key he's playing it in. He says, "The key of I." I get horribly perturbed and tell him, "There's no such thing as the key of I." "That's the key I play it in," he replies. Images in these dreams and others were the inspiration for a song I wrote called "Dreaming of Him" (video to be released on Bob's birthday!). I'm really proud of it.

EN: You opened for Bob… once or on several days or weeks of a tour? Sounds like quite a privilege. How did it happen and what did you learn from this experience?

MLK: I opened for him once at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. There had been a blackout on the night of the originally scheduled show and the regular opener already had a gig on the night it was rescheduled for. So they called me! He came on stage during my soundcheck, which I didn't know until I turned around to talk to my drummer and saw him standing at the back of the stage. He was wearing a cowboy hat and tipped it to me. What a moment! What did I learn? To enjoy the moment.

Related Links
https://maryleescorvette.com/
Dreaming of Dylan: 115 Dreams About Bob
Dylan's "You're A Big Girl Now" by Mary Lee Kortes

EdNote: We're one month away from the 2019 Duluth Dylan Fest. There's a another strong lineup of events in store. Here is the schedule. If you see us, say hello.