Enter to Win a One-of-a-Kind Bob Dylan T-shirt Quilt

Enter for a Chance to Win 

this One-of-a-Kind Bob Dylan T-shirt Quilt

made from the collection of the late John Bushey

(125 tickets available – 25 online and 100 from committee members)

Click to enlarge.

See select Bob Dylan Way Committee members for Raffle Tickets. $10 each.
Or purchase here through Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/duluth-dylan-fest-john-bushey-quilt-raffle-tickets-62168521722

Raffle ends on Sunday, May 26th 

(need not be present to win)

All Proceeds Directly Support 

the Duluth Dylan Fest

We will ship if there is an out of town winner

(Shipping overseas may incur a small additional cost.)

A Nod To Our Voilunteers

Unselfish and noble actions are the most radiant pages in the biography of souls.
--David Thomas

I shared this in 2007, but it's worth sharing again.

Back in the 1980's there was a major story on the cover of The Atlantic about cocaine use in America. According to the article, Americans were snorting, inhaling and poking one hundred billion dollars of cocaine into their bodies a year. Reading this stat incited me to write a letter to the editor about the bigger issue I believed it represented, an epidemic of selfishness. My letter to the editor was going to use the cocaine stat to illustrate how self-centered Americans were.

But the next morning, just before mailing this letter, I heard then-president Ronald Reagan say in a speech that Americans were the most generous people in the world and that Americans performed two hundred billion dollars worth of volunteer acts per year. On hearing this, I tore up my letter and realized it was true. There are two cultures side by side in this country. The one is generous with both their money and time. The article on cocaine shone a spotlight on a portion of the other group. But the volunteers never stopped volunteering, wherever the spotlights went.

* * * *

Volunteers are all around us, continuously making time to do things that help others and out community. Volunteers at the Damiano Center, Gospel Union and Salvation Army in Duluth feed countless people each year, a percentage for whom this is their only meal. Volunteers serve in our hospitals, in our churches and non-profit organizations, in our local arts community.

There are actually all kinds of activities that depend on volunteers. When I was involved in the regional stock car racing scene I was impressed by all the volunteers who made this form of entertainment possible for fans of the sport. I was surprised to learn that the ABC Raceway in Ashland was an all-volunteer staff. This was impressive.

There are groups that keep snowmobile trails safe, volunteers who perform emergency services -- fire, rescue work -- and the countless chaplains, counsellors, mentors, soccer and little league coaches. It is remarkable when you think about all the services provided by these unsung heroes.

Here are some quotes about volunteers that I found at quotegarden.com a few years ago.

Those who can, do. Those who can do more, volunteer. ~Author Unknown

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude. ~Cynthia Ozick

The world is hugged by the faithful arms of volunteers. ~Everett Mámor

It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference. ~Tom Brokaw

* * * *

For what it's worth, Duluth Dylan Fest is produced by a team of volunteers, aka the Bob Dylan Way Committee. Here's a big shout out to Don, Zane, Phil, Mike, Brad, Mark, Bill, Kathleen and everyone else who has stepped up and helped make make this week-long event a special occasion for all who come to celebrate Bob's birthday each May. And a special shout out to Miriam, host of Highway 61 Revisited show, from the John Bushey Studio at KUMD. You can find this year's schedule here.

* * * *

Tentative Duluth Dylan Fest Schedule Announced. Mark Your Calendars.

I once saw an article that featured a bucket list of places rock fans should try to visit before they depart for greener pastures. I can't recall all from that list, though if you Google such things you'll find a number of websites with lists of various lengths. The Buddy Holly Museum in Lubbock was probably on the list. The Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame was on that list. Jimi Hendrix and Les Paul sites were noted as well as Sun Records, no doubt. Graceland, probably a given.

What I also recall is the absence of Bob Dylan's Northland homes or, significantly, the Historic Duluth Armory where young Bobby Zimmerman and his friend Louis Kemp went to see Buddy Holly and the Winter Dance Party 60 years ago.

For folks on the Coasts, Minnesota is flyover country. But for people who know their Dylanology, Minnesota, especially here in the Northland, is the cultural soil that nourished his songs, politics and prophetic voice. According to David Pichaske, author of Song of the North Country, Dylan's Minnesota roots "offer an important framework" for considering Dylan's work.

For what it's worth, Duluth itself is a beautiful part of the world. Outside Magazine cited it as the Best Town In America for its natural beauty and year-round accessibility to all varieties of outdoor activities. I mention this only to say that if you have Bob Dylan's boyhood homes on your bucket list, you ought not just park out front and snap a few photos. Take you time. Stay a while.

I know that there are Dylan celebrations in a variety of places around the world. Duluth has released its tentative schedule for Duluth Dylan Fest 2019. Hibbing is also making plans for Bob's birthday as well. You are most welcome should you desire to join us.

TENTATIVE DULUTH DYLAN FEST SCHEDULE
Dates are established, details subject to change.

May 18-26, 2019

Childhood home in Duluth,  second floor.

Saturday, May 18
Opening for the William Pagel Archive at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum.  Hours yet to be determined. Exhibit to run through August 1.

Sunday, May 19
Duluth Dylan Fest Kick-off Party at the Cedar Lounge with Cowboy Angel Blue from 5-8 p.m. 

Dylan-themed Pub Trivia at Carmody Irish Pub at 9 p.m.

Monday, May 20
North Country Inspirations Art Show Opening Reception at the Zeitgeist Atrium with live music by Tom O'Keefe & Friends from 5-7:00 p.m.

Dylan Fest Acoustic Jam Session with host Leslie Black at Carmody's Irish Pub
7:00-9:30 p.m.

Tuesday, May 21
Armory Arts and Music Center’s Music Resource Center Youth Open Mic at Amazing Grace from 4-6 p.m.
Live Dylan music by Greg Tiburzi at Sir Ben’s from 6-8 p.m.

Wednesday, May 22
"Visiting Bob: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Bob Dylan" Poetry Event
Zeitgeist Teatro Zuccone Theatre from 6:30-8:00 p.m.

Rich Mattson and the North Stars All Dylan at the Cedar Lounge at 8:00 p.m.

Thursday, May 23
Something special is in the works... to be announced Monday April 1. No fooling.

Friday, May 24
Bob Dylan Front Porch Birthday Party at 3 p.m. at the Dylan childhood home with live music and cake.

Dylan Fest Singer Songwriter Contest at Sacred Heart Music Center at 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Basement Tapes Band, Bent Paddle Taproom, 9-11 p.m.

Saturday, May 25
John Bushey Memorial Lecture by David Gaines, author of In Dylan Town, at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum. 1:0-3:00 p.m. with book signing by the author.

Bob Dylan Revue Concert at Sacred Heart at 7:00-10:00 p.m. Tickets $10

Sunday, May 26
Farewell Brunch at the Zeitgeist Café with music by Jim Hall from 11AM to 1 p.m.

One of three Bob Dylan Manhole Covers. 

Related Links
Song of the North Country
Bob Dylan Way Home Page
Visit Duluth Home Page
BobLinks.com
How Bob Dylan Influenced The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who

Airstreamers Arrive in Dylan Country

Kim Kervina welcomes the Airstreamers to Duluth
at Indian Point Campground.

If you're a fan of music history, especially the roots of Americana, you'll very likely be jealous of the caravan of Airstreamers that rolled into Duluth this weekend. Street rodders have their road tours, as do bikers. Till recently I was unaware, though, of the passion for doing the caravan thing that Airstreamers have been sharing and experiencing. They have seen a lot over the years.

This year's Airstreamer caravan consists of people from Ontario and Maine to Florida, Texas, New Mexico, California and everywhere in between.

The theme for this year's traveling road tour is Highway 61 Revisited. It's certain to be a music and blues fan dream, led by Mary & Ingo Werk.

When you look at the itinerary you realize how much work goes into this month-long happening. Here's a synopsis from their H61R Driver Manual:

The Caravan starts in Duluth MN, where the iconic singer-songwriter, musician, author, artist and recipient of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature Bob Dylan was born. We tour all Bob Dylan sites of significance in Duluth as well as in Hibbing MN, where he grew up. His 1965 album “Highway 61 Revisited” inspired this Caravan, as this once major American highway still connects us to the places known for their musical heritage. 

Next are the Twin Cities, where the multi-talented recording artist Prince, who passed away in 2016, resided. We tour his extraordinary private estate and production complex just outside of Minneapolis. Going South on 61, Memphis TN is a music explorer’s delight: Elvis Presley’s Graceland, Beale Street, Sun Records where Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash cut their first record, Stax Studios of Otis Redding fame and the birth of Soul Music. We see it all, and much more. Crossing the state line to Mississippi, 61 turns into the Blues Highway. This stretch is an education of the Mississippi Delta Blues and the rich history of this unique art form. We visit the Blues Museums featuring legends as well as Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Blues Club. We even visit a Grammy Museum dedicated to the Blues in the middle of nowhere. Heading South, Louisiana has its own music traditions. Our final destination is New Orleans LA, the birthplace of Jazz: Dixieland, Louis Armstrong, French Quarter, Fats Domino, etc. The Big Easy is this Caravan’s Grand Finale. If you got the rhythm, this Caravan is for you!

The opening event at noon Sunday was an hour long welcome from a few members from the Duluth contingent. After a bit of pot luck eats (yummm!) Ingo Werk briefly shared that there was a 100% Present attendance for this tour, the last Airstreamer arriving to the campground at approximately 11:28 p.m. last night. Ingo then led us in song, the first verse of Blowin' in the Wind, setting the one for this first leg of the tour.

Ingo then introduced Kim Kervina, from Visit Duluth, who played a role in orchestrating this first portion of the Airstreamers' adventure. Kim was followed by Ed Newman who gave a 20-minute talk titled Bob Dylan 101, primarily detailing key events in Dylan's early life, including his 1959 encounter with Buddy Holly at the Duluth Armory, interweaving stories and connecting a few dots. As Alexander Pope was observed, "If a man is worth knowing at all he is worth knowing well."

This spring on Bob Dylan’s birthday May 24 Duluth Mayor Emily Larson opened her remarks by asking, “How much of who we are has been influenced by our first formative years?” These first few days in the Northland will provide the Airstreamers numerous clues regarding those influences that you might not readily grasp from just reading a book or two about Duluth's native son.

Left to Right: Zane Bail, "Ennyman", Ingo Werk & Miriam Hanson

For me, one of the notable features of living in this region and circulating amongst other fans of the Nobel Laureate is that because of the proximity one will occasionally meet people with one or two degrees of separation from Dylan. Nearly every one has a story, or stories of others with stories. The net impact is that Bob Dylan isn't a storybook character in some mythological fairy tale, but rather a real person who went to school, read books, liked to do thing kids do, went to summer camp, listened to the radio, enjoyed music, signed other kids' yearbooks, liked motorcycles... and more.

Zane Bail then shared the backstory on how Bob Dylan Way came into existence through the efforts of her husband Don Dass, city council president Don Ness (who was later elected Mayor) and the late Steve O'Neil, a county commissioner. After decades of wrangling over whether or not to do it, and where, Don Dass wrote a letter suggesting Leif Erickson Park be re-named. This was a trigger that set in motion a real solution which now runs from the Duluth Depot to the Armory and includes three Dylan-themed manhole covers.

Zane then introduced Miriam Hanson who spoke briefly about the influence of John Bushey and his KUMD radio hour Highway 61 Revisited, which aired for over 26 years. Miriam was "knighted" by John Bushey to carry the torch after his passing in February and she's done an admirable job filling John's large shoes.

Miriam's story begins with listening to Highway 61 Revisited as a 15-year-old teen, finding inspiration to see the larger world. She began her life here in Duluth but left and spent a dozen years in the Caribbean before returning to Duluth, living once again in the Central Hillside, recalling for us how when Bob was here with Paul Simon he pointed up to the hills of Duluth and remembered them well.

I brought some of my books to share.

Monday the Airstreamers will be taking in Dylan-related points of interest in Duluth including his birth home on the Hillside where he lived till he was six and the Armory where Robert Zimmerman saw Buddy Holly perform just days before "the music died." A portion of the Bill Pagel Archives will be on display at the Karpeles Manuscript Museum Library. Tuesday will be a tour of several points of interest in Hibbing where young Bob grew up.

Wednesday the Airstreamer Caravan will leave the Northland and make their way to the Twin Cities where they will take time to take in additional sites in Minnesota, with tour guide Magic Marc Percansky sharing some points of interest.

One of the scheduled stops this week will be Red Wing, MN, so as a closing number it seems a good place to share the opening lines of Dylan's Walls of Red Wing.

Related Links
The Day the Music Almost Died
Highway 61 Revisited, Streaming Live on KUMD
Boblinks.com
Ennyman's Dylan Gallery (Paintings & Drawings)

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Get into it.

Susan Laing Shares Her Incredible Adventure -- From Down Under to Duluth Dylan Fest

Hibbing's Dylan Days and Duluth's Dylan Fest have attracted visitors and fans from from all over the world. Over the years I've had the opportunity to meet, or begin friendships with, folks from England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Sweden, Spain and Australia. This year Susan Laing of Australia made the furthest trek to be part of our weeklong Duluth festival. Her story was quite impressive, for she came to the States to not only walk the glorious hills of Duluth that a young Bob sang about on Planet Waves, but to touch all the major touchstones associated with the Nobel Laureate. What follows is a very brief recap of Ms. Laing's six weeks in America.

EN: Can you share the places you visited while you were here on your six week adventure?

Susan Laing: I arrived in Houston... visited the Museum of Fine Arts (MFAH) ...
I saw the sculptures of (Australian) artist Ron Mueck ...
I saw a fabulous exhibition of Cuban revolutionary art Adios Utopia: Dreams and Deceptions in Cuban Art Since 1950...
Wanting to take in as much American music as possible...
I saw Martha Redbone perform ‘Bone Hill - The Concert’ at the Alley Theatre....
Being a tourist I heard songs from traditional Cherokee chants and lullabies to Bluegrass and Blues, Gospel, Jazz, Rock & Roll, and R 'n B...

I saw the Houston Space Center and, unlike the crew of the Apollo 13 moon flight, I did’t hear the words “Houston, we’ve had a problem here”...

Portal, the Dylan sculpture in Maryland.

The Intrepid Traveller

The point of starting my Dylan expedition in the South was to visit the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa and experience the future hometown of the Dylan archives.
I saw Woody’s original handwritten manuscripts, lyrics, inscribed photographs, early photographs, rare letters, medical records, flyers and films.
I saw paintings, drawings and assemblages.
I saw guitars, a mandolin... felt the dust.
I heard his songs and the songs of all the good people who have travelled with him and since.
I saw Pete Seeger’s exhibition... his film ‘The Power of Song.’

Then on to old New York City... an East Coast city that you all know well... swept on to MacDougal Street... walked a line from the Lower East Side to the ghost of Gerde’s Folk City... I heard the Transatlantic Sessions’ voices of Rosanne Cash, Mary Chapin Carter, Sarah Jarosz, Karen Matheson, Aoife O’Donovan, Declan O’Rourke, John Paul White.

The sculpture working in a medium familiar to all Iron Ranges.

EN: What was it that prompted you to make this journey?

SL: I wanted to attend Dylan Fest.

Duluth's Aerial Lift Bridge is a memorable landmark here.

EN: How did you come to be such a Dylan fan?

SL: In 1998 I was living in Sydney and visited the studio of Brett Whiteley. He was a Dylan fan and this was the music he played while working. I had an instant feeling of connection when I heard it.

EN: If you have time, can you share one highlight from each place you visited?

Susan at Fitgers
on Bob Dylan Way

SL: The Tulsa highlight was the Woody Guthrie Centre .... I had no idea of how much there was to his story and his contribution to music, history and American culture

The Hibbing highlight was the grandeur of the castle in the wilderness High School and the Historical Society Museum at the Memorial Centre. In Duluth it was the amazing community of people who join to celebrate all things Dylan in the week long festival.

The boondocks of Hibbing-Duluth are far greater than The City - or Paris!

* * * *
Right: One of three Dylan-themed manhole covers on Bob Dylan Way. 

* * * *
The magic of our town is made moreso by the many who make their way here to visit with us and share memories. Thank you, Susan, for being with us in May. And we loved your hat! (VBG)

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Embrace it.

P.S. The Dylan-machine continues to fire on all cylinders. Reviews of recent concerts on his Never Ending Tour, such as this one in Providence, have been stellar.

Bringing It All Back To Einstein Disguised as Robin Hood -- Duluth Does Dylan as Dylan Does Nottingham Castle

I love catching glimpses of double rainbows, visual echoes that reveal unexpected interconnections and the wonder of it all.

Yesterday morning I was listening again to Bringing It All Back Home To Duluth Does Dylan, the fourth in a series of CDs by local musicians inspired by the Northland's Native Son. It's interesting that the liner notes on this CD, produced in conjunction with Dylan's 75th birthday celebration, were written by Bill Pagel, the publisher of Boblinks.com who is this year again sharing a portion of his personal collection of Dylan archives and artifacts in an exhibition at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum titled Einstein Disguised As Robin Hood.

Do you hear the echoes?

On a CD with so many great songs performed in original and inspired ways, it seems wrong to single out one that especially moves me, yet I must: Mary Bue's Desolation Row, a remarkable rendition that nearly causes me to levitate. There's on this line in there that hums like an arrow, "Einstein disguised as Robin Hood with his memories in a trunk, passed this way an hour ago with his friend a jealous monk..."

Coincidentally, while listening to this very line I was reading a review of Dylan's Friday night performance in Nottingham, England. That's right, Nottingham where the historic Robin Hood story took place, this hero who stole from the rich to help the poor, friend of the downtrodden. Once Dylan arrives on a scene everything becomes symbol. Dylan, who began his career as a mouthpiece for social justice, winds up here in the Nottingham forests more than half a century later.

Here's an concert review excerpt from the Nottingham Post:

What he did was confound and delight. As he nears his 76th birthday he shows little sign of slowing down or embracing predictability. Quite the opposite. In an hour and 50 minutes he sprinkled a handful of his old classics among a string of half a dozen standards from the Great American Songbook, no fewer than five songs from his most recent album of originals, 2012's Tempest, and other selections from his late 1990s/early 21st-century repertoire, eccentrically waddling between a piano and a centre-stage microphone to do so.

And here's the setlist from Friday's concert. Desolation Row is right there in the thick of it. "They're selling postcards of the hanging," it famously begins, followed by a montage of scenes and characters, actresses and actors in a tangled knot of plots.

* * * *

To read another account of the Nottingham visit, check out Johnny B's Blogg post titled
"Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood, with his memories in a trunk" - Bob Dylan extending the lines in Nottingham, 17/5/5

See what I'm talking about? Echoes.

* * * *

So May 20 the exhibition will open at Karpeles in Duluth. You can get a feel for what to expect by reading my review of last year's Einstein Disguised As Robin Hood. Much of the show this year will be new, along with many of the highlights from last year.

Duluth Dylan Fest will be underway, running through to Sunday the 28th, and like the song we also have our own cast of characters. I won't name them here, but after six or so years the personalities have become vivid enough that I could theoretically re-arrange them and give them other names. Maybe I should try it sometime.... Instead of Desolation Row I will call it Bob Dylan Way.

* * * *

This is your invitation to join us. All the information is here.
 
Meantime, life goes on... all around you.

Throwback Thursday: The Day After Bob Dylan's 69th Birthday + An Announcement from the Hibbing Dylan Project

ORIGINALLY POSTED MAY 25, 2010

So Bob Dylan is 69 plus one day today. I mention this only because, because... because I wanted to.

I missed the party last night. I was busy out in my studio finishing the first of two or three compositions I'm devising for the Bob Dylan Way Manhole Cover Art Contest. I did get a few more details. You can submit more than one design. Also, these will be regular manhole covers, one color, embossed, not mini-murals. These are practical manhole covers, to be cast in iron.

Speaking of Dylan, this morning I remembered the first time I saw one of his albums. Ed Hilliker, whom I rode school bus with in junior high school, had The Freelwheelin' Bob Dylan with that iconic image of young Dylan walking through the streets of New York, head tilted forward against the wind, with a smiling woman in a green coat (Suze Rotolo, I would later learn) tightly clutching his arm. The liner notes were by Nat Hentoff, who followed the music scene and wrote for the Village Voice. Hentoff's fame stemmed from his intimate portraits of obscure jazz greats who were producing incredible sounds during the fertile fifties and sixties, before jazz filtered into the masses.

Hentoff's Liner Notes begin like this...

Of all the precipitously emergent singers of folk songs in the continuing renascence of that self-assertive tradition, none has equaled Bob Dylan singularity of impact. As Harry Jackson, a cowboy singer and a painter, has exclaimed: "He's so goddamned real it's unbelievable!" The irrepressible reality of Bob Dylan is a compound of spontaneity, candor, slicing wit and an uncommonly perceptive eye and ear for the way many of us constrict our capacity for living while a few of us don't.

Not yet twenty-two at the time of this album's release, Dylan is growing at a swift, experience-hungry rate. In these performances, there is already a marked change from his first album ("Bob Dylan," Columbia CL 1779/CS 8579), and there will surely be many further dimensions of Dylan to come. What makes this collection particularly arresting is that it consists in large part of Dylan's own compositions The resurgence of topical folk songs has become a pervasive part of the folk movement among city singers, but few of the young bards so far have demonstrated a knowledge of the difference between well-intentioned pamphleteering and the creation of a valid musical experience. Dylan has. As the highly critical editors of "Little Sandy Review" have noted, "...right now, he is certainly our finest contemporary folk song writer. Nobody else really even comes close."

The highlighted observation above proved to be dead on as far a prescience goes. Who would have thunk it? Dylan has appeared in more forms than a Hindu god.

This memorable album cover actually becomes a scene in the eternally recurring happy dream gone awry of Tom Cruise in the film Vanilla Sky. What's interesting to me is that the song which Cameron Crowe chooses to play while these Dylan-in-love copycat images are being displayed is not from Freewheelin', but rather is the song Fourth Time Around from Blonde On Blonde. Fourth Time Around implies "over and over again." Very interesting, and it's about something good gone bad.

Well, we're taking Dylan back to the streets again here in Duluth with a few new manhole covers for Bob Dylan Way. Deadline is just around the corner.

* * * *
FAST FORWARD TO 2017

TWO CALLS FOR ART

1) The Hibbing Dylan Project just announced that they are looking for artists who can create temporary Dylan murals in downtown storefronts. As I read the news today, oh boy, it seemed much like the Phantom Galleries that Superior artists generated for several years. Except this is Hibbing, and the good friends of the Dylan legacy want to celebrate his recent Nobel Prize. Here are the details regarding this current project.

2) The Duluth Dylan Fest is planning a Dylan-themed art exhibition during this year's Dylan Festival here. There will be a reception held on Monday May 22.  Bob Dylan has not only been a literary and performing artist, but he's also been a lifetime visual artist.
Submission Requirements:
1. Artist's statement
2. Brief bio (2-3 sentences)
3. One to three pieces (must send sample PDF or JPG format less than 1 MB each)
4. Description of piece (Title, medium, dimensions, price)
5. Send email to: ennyman (AT) northlc (DOT) com.   SUBJECT LINE: DYLAN ART

Highlights of the 2016 Duluth Dylan Fest: Get Your Tickets Here

Yesterday afternoon while listening to various playlists on my iTunes player the album Highway 61 Revisited came on beginning with that snare-shot heard round the world, the opening salvo of "Like A Rolling Stone", Dylan blasting out that nothing would ever be the same. It was a shot heard 'round the world, history in the making and any time I hear it after not having heard it in a while it strikes me as especially profound. The attitude. The tone. The lyrics. The sound.

Here we are more than fifty years later and it's somewhat incredible that this kid who appeared on the scene like the phenomenon he was is still out there producing records, performing with a supertight band, still remaining unpredictable.

This May, he'll turn 75 and the town of his birth will once again celebrate this passing of another year with a week long festival of events designed to honor this native son who has achieved international fame yet remained connected to his roots. He still maintains a home in Minnesota, and other examples could be cited.

A Little History
The first Bob Dylan Way birthday party was in May 2008 to celebrate the installations of the signs along Bob Dylan Way. The first weeklong Dylan Fest was in May 2011. So 2016 marks the 6th year of the weeklong fest and the 9th year of the Bob Dylan Celebrations put on by the Bob Dylan Way team. The group, however. was started in early 2007 to raise money after the City Council passed the Cultural Pathway in May 2006.

Duluth has a rich history of celebrating Bob Dylan from John Bushey’s radio show on KUMD – October marks the 25th year. To the early Dylan Birthday Party celebrations held around Duluth in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

This Year's Event Schedule

The 2016 Duluth Dylan Fest has a number of exciting events in store to celebrate Duluth’s native son Bob Dylan’s 75th birthday and showcasing the Northland’s vibrant arts and music scene.

Highlights include:
• 48 hour Dylan Film Fest
• Art Show featuring Daniel Botkin
• Duluth Does Dylan CD Release Party
• Poets from the North County featuring Duluth Poet Laurates Barton Sutter and Jim Johnson, among others
• The ever-popular Blood on the Tracks Express rolling music revue featuring local musicians and Dylan Fest favorite the Boomchucks aka The Freewheelers
• Duluth Dylan Fest Singer Songwriter Contest
• Duluth to Hibbing and Back Dylan Fest Bus Tour
• Postage Stamp Cancellation Event at the Armory Annex on London Road, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
• Amory Arts & Music Center Benefit Concert: The Basement Tapes/Great White Wonder Concert
• Farewell Brunch at the Zeitgeist Café featuring songwriter Jim Hall

Noteworthy
The Duluth Dylan Fest committee is thrilled to share that a special Bob Dylan exhibit featuring handwritten lyrics, inscribed photographs, early concert flyers and more from the William Pagel Achieves will be on exhibit May 4-30 at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum.

Ticketed Duluth Dylan Fest events are available on https://www.eventbrite.com/d/local/dylan-fest/
• May 24th Duluth Does Dylan CD Release Party at 7:30 PM
• May 26th Blood on the Tracks Express Rolling Music Revue (available soon)
• May 27th Dylan Bush Tour: Duluth to Hibbing and Back from 9 AM to 5 PM
• May 28th Bob Dylan Benefit Concert for the Armory Arts & Music Center at 7 PM

All other events are free.

Please share this information with your friends and colleagues. If you have questions, please email duluthdylanfest@gmail.com or zane@northlandfdn.org.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Be part of it.

Trivia Contest Tests Mettle of Even the Most Die-Hard Dylan Fans

As you know, this is Dylan Fest week in Duluth and since it is not getting the media coverage it deserves I will be picking up the slack here for the next few days. Mr. Dylan turns 71 this Thursday, and it's a week long series of event both here in Duluth where he was born and in Hibbing where he grew up and came of age.

Last night was the second annual Bob Dylan Trivia Contest at Carmody's Irish Pub downtown. It's a seriously fun venue and from what I've been told they have trivia contests every single week here. One of the bartenders has lungs o' leather and can really project, which is quite the task in a noisy pub. The crowd gathers, gets a bit rummy and in a most orderly and punctual fashion the competition convenes, pens and paper provided so you can write your answers as you go. And no, you do not have to be a Dylan fan to play. They do 51 other themes throughout the year and you're always welcome. They have prizes, too.

When I arrived at nine, a pair of musicians called Cowboy Angel Blue were playing some really nice Dylan songs. If you ever see their names on a docket, it'll be worth your while to check in. They're from up near Virginia, Mn, about an hour North.

At shortly after nine the contest was called to order. John Bushey, host of KUMD's Highway 61 Revisited, assembled the questions again this year. And they were hard uns. Bushey said last year the questions were too easy and nearly everyone got them all correct, so he bore down and stymied us with some pretty obscure material.

This is a multiple choice quiz, so you can still get a few right even if you don't know the answer. Here are a few sample questions:

6. What year did the "Never Ending Tour" begin?
a. 1986
b. 1988
c. 1990
d. 1994

7. Which musician spent the most time touring with Bob Dylan?
a. Levon Helm
b. G. E. Smith
c. Tony Garnier
d. Charlie Sexton

I kicked myself afterward because I should have known it was Tony. He's a great bass player and been with Bob a long time. You can see him in Masked and Anonymous (the story of Jack Fate) and he was here in Duluth in 1998 at the DECC and in '99 with Paul Simon.

Well, some questions were a biut easier, like this one:
11. Dylan mentioned seeing Buddy Holly at the Duluth National Guard Armory when accepting a Grammy award for this album:
a. Planet Waves
b. Modern Times
c. Love and Theft
d. Time Out Of Mind

Other questions into some really obscure regions.
13. When asked in an interview if he could go back in time to see any event what was Bob Dylan's response?

The answer, my friends, was not blowing in the wind. I did not know that he would have liked to have been there to see Houdini escape from a box in the East River in NY.

What fraternity house did he live in while at the U of MN? The song "Forever Young" was written for whom? Which early Dylan song was John Lennon of the Beatles first attracted to?

Well, you get the picture. It was fun and I hope they do it again next year. And this week I hope you can make it to a few of the other events happening here in the Northland as we celebrate Bob's 71st. Details here at BobDylandWay.com

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Have a great week. Wish you were here.

Manhole Covers Placed This Afternoon On Bob Dylan Way

The occasion: Bob Dylan's 70th birthday.
The event: Two new manhole covers placed on Bob Dylan Way featuring Dylan-themed art.

A small collection of friends, family and Dylan fans assembled to watch as two artist-designed manhole covers were installed, plus a few members of the media. Mayor Don Ness and David Ross, president/CEO of the Duluth Chamber, were also present for this unusual and ground-breaking event. Mayor Ness made a few remarks at each location.

The first manhole cover to be designed was at the intersection of Bob Dylan Way (Michigan Street at this point) and Fifth Avenue East. Designed by Laurel Sanders, the concept was derived from Dylan's song "Subterranean Homesick Blues." When I listened to her speak to the camera for our local TV news, she expressed that she's been a "huge Dylan fan" since 1963.

The second manhole cover was placed on the sidewalk in front of the Fitger's Brewery complex. Mayor Ness again made remarks and the designer of this second piece, Marc Zapchenk of Shoreview, was likewise photographed and interviewed. Zapchenk's design utilizes two guitars drawn like a yin and yang symbol with the inscription, "Bob Dylan Way, Duluth Minnesota."

While waiting for the first manhole cover to be installed I overheard the parents of one of the artists exclaim regarding Mayor Ness, "He looks like a kid." Yes, indeed, he is youthful in appearance, but far smarter and wiser than his appearances belie. On the several occasions we've spoken, including a short spell while waiting for the family and fans to arrive at the second location tonight, he's clearly demonstrated the astuteness that has made him successful in a city that tends to maul its elected officials. The respect he's achieved was earned the hard way.

Interestingly enough, Bob Dylan had to earn his respect the hard way as well. The folk scene and the New York scene were as complicated as any place where power is at stake. Folk musicians were expected to churn through the deep traditions of folk to create their play lists. According to John Hammond, young Bob Dylan chose an alternate path. He wrote his songs, at an amazingly fast clip. Folk music peers were both annoyed and impressed.

This afternoon I had an opportunity to mention to several people that when I came to Duluth the papers were aflame with arguments about selecting a road to name after Bob Dylan. This political scruff went on for near two decades until Mayor Ness championed the cause and put an end to the bickering. Duluth's most famous native son deserves the recognition.

After the manhole covers were put in their places we went inside to the Red Star Lounge to sing happy birthday to Bob (whom we believed was with us in spirit) and listen to Jim Hall (right) play a sparkling set of Dylan songs in tribute. Various musicians will continue to make music til midnight, but I slipped out early. We still have a busy week ahead and I just wanted to share here some of what's happening.

Tomorrow night, there is an art opening from 6-9 at Ochre Ghost Gallery featuring Dylan-inspired art... and once again, I plan to be there. Some of it is likely to be mine.

Duluth Does Dylan

In years gone by the place to be in late May was Hibbing, MN, young Robert Zimmerman's hometown and the place where his music interests began. Hibbing's annual Dylan celebration is called Dylan Days, which has evolved to songwriting competitions, art and poetry contests, and lots of music.

This year will mark Bob Dylan's 70th birthday and Duluth, where Bob was birthed and lived his first six years in the Central Hillside, will have its first full-fledged Dylan Fest as well. Momentum has been building for years. Here's a quick take on the agenda for that positively fourth week in May.

May 23
Guthrie/Dylan Dinner at Valentini's Vicino Lago
The evening of Guthrie and Dylan music by Bill & Laurie Bastian is a fund raiser for the Duluth Armory Arts and Music Center. Duluth's armory was where young Bob Dylan saw Buddy Holly perform his second last show and felt he'd heard the call to pursue a career in music.

May 24
Dylan's 70th Birthday Party at Fitger's Brewhouose
The Brewhouse is hopping with Dylan fans. This year will be specialty Dylan beers including Blonde on Blonde and Highway 61 Hefeweisen. Johnny's in the Basement will be performing Dylan songs. And this is also a Duluth Does Dylan CD release party.

May 25
Dylan Film Fest at the Zinema
Two films will be shared, The Other Side of the Mirror: Live at the Newport Folk Festival and Don't Look Back, the D.A. Pennebaker documentary covering young Dylan's first exposure to the England scene, or rather, England's first exposure to Dylan in 1965.
Dylan Art Show opening at the Ochre Ghost. Ochre Ghost is a hot topic in the fermenting Duluth art scene. Dylan paintings and Dylan-inspired work are being gathered for the occasion.

May 26
Blood on the Tracks Express
The North Shore Scenic Railroad to Two Harbors will be cranking it up.... and back. On the ticket will be The Bitter Spills, Dirty Horse, The Fontanelles and Old Knifey and the Cutthroats. In Two Harbors Donny Fox and his Rolling Thunder Band will be performing. Donny Fox is, I believe, a two time winner of the Dylan Days singer/songwriter contest. I saw him perform last year at the Armory and he's fun.

May 27
Duluth Does Dylan at the Fitger's Brewery Complex.
Two stages will feature The REX and Fitger's Brewhouse original artists from Duluth and the North Country interpreting Dylan material. This event is a fundraiser for the NorShor Theater.

May 28
The Million Dollar Bash at Beaner's Central
This songwriter showcase will feature Sara Softich, Erik Koskinen, Diedrich Clark and others to be announced. Great way to wind up the week if you haven't had your fill.

People literally fly in to the Northland from all over the world for Dylan Days in Hibbing and no doubt many will visit Duluth as well. Last year I spoke with artists from Germany and France who came to the Armory event. They'd come for the Hibbing celebration but joined us in Duluth when they heard about the activities emerging here.

One more item for the week will be the installation of the Bob Dylan manhole covers for Bob Dylan Way. I might have to ask for some time off to attend that one.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Have a great day.

How Much Is That Manhole Cover In the Window?

Last May I posted the announcement here at Ennyman's Territory . There would be a contest for artists to design manhole covers for Bob Dylan Way. So I threw my hat in the ring and my imagination right after it.

Time passed and I wondered how things turned out. How many designs were submitted? I didn't know. Evidently I missed the September announcement of the winners whose finished manhole covers are now on display in the window of Electric Fetus, downtown Duluth. Bob's 70th birthday is coming on fast, the date selected to install the covers, May 24.

One of the winning designs came from Marc Zapchenk, a 46-year old Shoreview, MN, artist and Dylan fan. It's a very cool design (top right), playing off the yin and yang of Dylan's life and career. It's a crisp, elegant concept executed with measured flair.

An interesting feature of the manhole cover art contest was that it involved more than just making the design itself. It included the entire process of converting the art into a mold and actually casting the manhole covers. The iron itself was cast using recycled radiators from Split Rock Lighthouse and the St. Louis County Courthouse.

The second manhole cover was created by Laurel Sanders, who took her inspiration from the same lines that opened my blog entry last spring from Subterranean Homesick Blues. (That was a great album, incidentally.)

So, if you're in town and want to check 'em out, they're right across the street from Pizza Luce here in Downtown Duluth. Can't make it, well, here's the next best thing. Take a moment to see Marc Zapchek's story in pictures, the whole process of making a winning Dylan Way manhole cover.

And if interested, here's the place to see my own losing contribution to this event/competition.