Five Minutes with Bobcat Podcaster / Minnesota Dylan Fan Matt Steichen

I first got acquainted with Matt Steichen in the Minneapolis studio where Paul Metsa's Wall of Power shows were filmed and recorded. The occasion that brought us together was the release of Bob Dylan's 13th Bootleg Series set titled More Blood, More Tracks, comprised of outtakes from Dylan's powerful 1975 release Blood on the Tracks. On that occasion, Metsa brought together the original Minnesota musicians who recorded half the songs on the milestone double-platinum album to celebrate their belated recognition, which is itself a much longer story.

I reached out to Matt here because he will be presenting one of the John Bushey Memorial Lectures at this year's Duluth Dylan Fest. The free lecture, titled Bob Dylan and his Fans: Searching for Love and Inspiration, will be shared at Wussow's Concert Cafe on Saturday May 27 at 1:30-3:00 pm. 

Matt Steichen has worked in journalism and communications in the Twin Cities since 2006. He has presented on the topic of Bob Dylan to a variety of audiences, including at the Macalester College Dylan Summit, and written about Dylan for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He hosts The Bobcats, A Bob Dylan Fan Podcast, and is co-contributor to the new book Bob Dylan in Minnesota: Troubadour Tales from Duluth, Hibbing and Dinkytown, which will be released later this month.

EN: What is it about Dylan that has produced such a broad community of fans all over the world?

Steichen family in front of Bob Dylan's 
Hibbing home 2 blocks from high school

Matt Steichen: I’ve enjoyed Bob Dylan’s music for a long time but I’m fascinated by the fandom he provokes, and that’s a big part of what I plan to talk about at Duluth Dylan Fest - why certain people are drawn to Bob Dylan in such a strong way and what it is about his music that resonates so powerfully with them. So there’s a lot I could say about this, but I think the main thing that gives his music such broad appeal is the universality of the themes he addresses and feelings he shares. As he sings in "False Prophet," he sings songs of love and songs of betrayal - but he also expresses anger, righteousness, mortality, optimism, defiance against authority and oppression, and so many more. They’re all in the songs somewhere. There must be a Bob Dylan song that corresponds with just about any emotion a human can have and so they resonate with people from all walks of life and in places all over the world.

EN: That's exactly how I feel as well. How did Bob Dylan's music first come to resonate with you on a deeper level? 

MS: I listened to his Greatest Hits album from the time I was a really little kid, but I would say my eureka moment came when I was around 13 and my older brother brought home Don’t Look Back. I didn’t like most of the documentary because Bob acted like such a jerk in a lot of it. But then he sang The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll and that totally changed my perspective on what music could be. It told a story about an injustice and had a moral lesson. And the way it was delivered made a whole theater be quiet and listen to every single word. Up to that point I’d thought of music as a background thing you’d play at a party or a barbeque or something, but after that I saw that it could be so much more than that. It could be artistic and socially relevant. Of course that was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to Bob’s catalog. 

Steichens in front of 5-story mural in Minneapolis

EN: Can you share the story of how you met your wife?

MS: I’ll talk about this in Duluth as well, but the basic story is this: I was attending the second of three shows in the midwest in the summer of 2004. You could say “suddenly I turned around and she was standing there.” I was first in line for that show so I was at the center of the stage at the rail, and upon arriving at my spot I turned around and she was directly behind me in the general admission crowd. We chatted a bit and it turned out we’d already been to several of the same Bob shows. I thought she was probably a local high schooler attending her first concert, so when she said she’d seen him many times, including the previous fall in Paris I was really impressed. We kept in touch a bit via email, I sent her some recordings, and then the next year we ended up going to five shows together. 

Following Dylan is a family adventure.

EN: What is your role in the Minnesota school system? Are you seeing evidence of Dylan's influence soaking into the next generation?

MS: I work in communications for a school district in the Twin Cities, so I’m not an educator but I am in education. The only time I put my teacher hat on is when I visit History of Rock n Roll classes at local high schools. They have a “Bob Dylan Day” and I talk for 45 minutes about who Bob is (a lot of them don’t know), what he’s accomplished, and about his cultural and historical impact. Considering the enormous role Bob has played in popular culture over the last 60 years and that he’s from Minnesota just like them, I think it’s a good thing for them to have a general understanding of who he is. 

When I was growing up in the early ‘90s, Bob was just about the least culturally relevant he’s ever been, and I still found my way to his music. My kids are 70 years younger than Bob and they all enjoy his music. And given how much more accessible technology has made his music, I don’t see any reason why future generations won’t keep going back to it. 

EN: Some people think Dylan will be the one singer/songwriter from this past 50 years that will still be studied 100 years from now. Do you agree with that assessment and why do you think that is?

MS: I do agree. If you listen to my podcast episode with Sean Latham from the University of Tulsa (The Bobcats, a Bob Dylan Fan Podcast), he provides some really great perspective on this. He says that because Bob incorporates so many real events, real people, cultural references, slang terms, jokes, etc, and uses many of the musical styles of the last hundred years, his music will basically serve as a time capsule for this era.

With Golden Chords drummer Leroy Hoikkala,
a member of one of Dylan's h.s. garage bands.

If we’re looking ahead hundreds of years, I think it’s also important to think about Bob’s music in a historical context. He has created music at a very pivotal time in history, so those studying events like the civil rights movement will look back to see how artists of this era responded to what was going on in society - and Bob is the first person they’ll come to. His career has also spanned a large portion of the dawn of the mass-distribution of recorded sound, which means people in the future will be able to go back and listen to everything he ever did. We don’t have that luxury when it comes to the vast majority of performers that have come before, so his music will be able to live on in a way other music hasn’t.

EN: You're one of the contributors to the new release Bob Dylan In Minnesota. How did that come about?

MS: I moved to Minnesota in 2006 and since then I’ve always been interested in his youth spent here and in how he’s perceived by his home state. There are still people out there who say that Bob Dylan hates Minnesota and has never said anything nice about Minnesota.

Keith Miles reached out to me a couple years ago on Twitter and said he was going to write another Troubadour Tales book, this time about Bob in Minnesota. I think he was just looking for a photo at the time because I’m a regular visitor to Duluth and Hibbing. He said he wanted to write a chapter about my family of Bob Dylan fans and asked if I wanted to write anything. I decided that it would be a good opportunity to debunk all those claims some people still make about Bob not liking Minnesota. Having read hundreds of his interviews and many biographies, I felt like I could provide a much more complete picture of how growing up in Minnesota helped shape his imagination, how it has affected his music, and how he feels about the place where he grew up, so that’s what my chapter is about.

EN: Do you have a favorite Dylan song or album? What is it and why?

MS: My favorite song since I was 7 or 8 has been Mr. Tambourine Man. I could explain why I appreciate it now in a more nuanced way, but at the heart of it it’s still just about his voice and the way he sings it.

* * * 

IT SHOULD BE NOTED HERE that Matt is one of several Minnesota contributors to the soon-to-be released Troubadour Series book Bob Dylan in Minnesota. It is very possible that books will be available for sale after Matt's talk with at least two of the authors contributing signatures that day (if not more).

You can read one of the early reviews here.

Related Links
Duluth Dylan Fest 2023
The Bobcats: A Bob Dylan Fan Podcast 
     On Spotify
     On Apple

A Visit with Seth Rogovoy: On Looking at Dylan Through a Jewish Lens
Rogovoy's John Bushey Memorial Lecture will be available live on Zoom, Sunday May 21. Login details will be posted on the Duluth Dylan Fest website.

A Rewarding Visit with Writer-Musician Jeff Slate, Author of the Liner Notes for More Blood More Tracks

Mark your calendar for May 25, An Evening with Jeff Slate

with Paul Metsa & Sonny Earl Opening

Don't Believe Everything You Read About Dylan

Who's Harry Belefonte? It's Belafonte, with an a.

This week I was doing library research about Dylan in Duluth. Specifically, I was reading through all the Dylan-related articles that our Duluth Public Library has catalogued in its archives. 

There were a number of surprises. First, I was surprised at how many clippings were stories I myself had written or had one of my paintings in. The bigger surprise was how many mistakes there were in some of the clippings. That is, in several instances there were misspellings, and in one instance an incorrect caption.

I didn't initially set out to document errors, but I did make note of a few. The first was a very nice article about the host of the Dylan-themed KUMD radio program Highway 61 Revisited, John Bushey. Except, throughout the article the author spelled his name Jon Bushy. Note to writers: when it comes to names, always doublecheck your spelling.

Yes, names can be tricky. That is why writers (and editors as well) need to go the extra mile to confirm spelling. For example, when I Google "Harry Belafonte" I get Harry Belafonte. And guess what? If you Google "Harry Belefonte," Google will reply, "Showing you results for Harry Belafonte." In our internet age it is really not all that hard to get it right.  Ask and you shall receive. 

There's another kind of error that is less easy to recognize. One of the articles had a photo of the Central Hillside home young Bob Dylan nee Robert Zimmerman lived in for his first six years. Or that is what it purported to be. This is where the Duluth Dylan Fest celebrates Dylan's birthday each year on May 24. We all know it well, but evidently the editor on this story did not know it so well because the caption reads, "Bob Dylan's childhood home in Hibbing."

Well, it just goes to show ya that you can't believe everything you read. Here's what the house in Hibbing looks like, along with accurate captions for both.

Today, both houses are owned by Dylan collector/archivist Bill Pagel who is in the process of restoring the homes to how they were back when "Bobby" was growing up and living here. If you're in the neighborhood, don't be shy. Stop on by.

As for accuracy, Dylan himself has a reputation of having been a notorious obfuscator. And occasionally you will find details in books about Dylan that repeat errors from earlier Dylan biographers. You wouldn't really know it was false because the "fact" has appeared so many times in print that it seems true. (This happens in many other contexts, especially politics and sports.) 

As the saying goes, it is what it is. Que sera sera.

Related Links
John Bushey Legacy Leaves No One Untouched

Andy & Renee Headline Concert to Celebrate the 30th Anniversary of KUMD's Highway 61 Revisited

It was a very special night at Sacred Heart here in Duluth. Andy & Renee, a pair of Los Angeles musicians who have been celebrating Dylan's music for 31 year, happened to be in Minnesota this week so they could celebrate the 30th anniversary of KUMD's Highway 61 Revisited. The late John Bushey, who hosted this weekly hour of Dylan music, would have loved the concert last night. 

Marc Gartman

Marc Gartman, one of our many talented local musicians, opened the show with a set that featured Dylan music from a variety of sources. My original intention was to not take notes but to simply enjoy the music. Now I wish I'd brought a pad of paper.

For those unfamiliar, Sacred Heart was formerly a Catholic church on Duluth's Central Hillside. Now it is a music and arts venue, among other things. The acoustics are simply outstanding, and the sound system engineering is second to none. All that to say that Marc Gartman's 12-string sounded remarkable.

Zane Bail, who welcomed us at the beginning of the evening, introduced Karen Sunderman to make a few remarks and share some anecdotes from the show's 30-year history. One story she told was how on one occasion John Bushey assembled a manufactured interview with Bob Dylan. He used clips from Dylan interviews and inserted his questions before the statements or answers Bob would make. 

As with Orson Welles' 1939 War of the Worlds radio broadcast, many people not only believed that John was interviewing Dylan, but that Dylan was up at the KUMD studio live on the air. Unexpectedly, people started showing up at KUMD with various items for Dylan to sign as he emerged after the interview. Alas, he wasn't there.

Miriam Hanson, who has now been host of the show for near four years, was unable to be present last night because she was globetrotting in Egypt. Karen shared how influential the show was for Miriam who first started listening when she was 15. It's a show that has touched many lives. 

Paul Metsa joined for It Takes a Lot to Laugh

As for Andy & Renee, they were superb. No question they've got talent. Their stage presence evokes warmth and enthusiasm. Throughout the evening their versatility was abundantly evident. Each took a turn at the grand piano, each took turns singing, and their guitar roles often reversed. And this being a Dylan program, there was plenty of harmonica. 

Here's the set list, beginning with Things Have Changed, which opened many, many Dylan concerts after it won the Oscar two decades ago.

Things Have Changed
Sweet Amarillo
Emotionally Yours
Watching the River Flow
One More Cup of Coffee
Blood on the Tracks 
Is Your Love In Vain
Up To Me
It Takes a Lot to Laugh, a Train to Cry
Power Lines and Palm Trees
Fuse 32
Times They Are A-Changin’
Working Man’s Blues #2
The Hour The Ship Comes In
Chimes of Freedom

A nice surprise was having Paul Metsa come out to perform with them on It Takes a Lot to Laugh, a Train to Cry. Paul has moved to Duluth and, for the time being, is living on the first floor of the duplex young Bobby Zimmerman lived in till he was six.

Dylan fans are likely aware that there is no song in his catalog titled Blood on the Tracks. Rather, it's a song Andy Hill wrote with Dave Tokaji and Weiner, a.k.a The Title Trackers, in the style of the songs on Blood on the Tracks, intended to serve as a "title song" for that album.  

All close-up photos on this post are courtesy Michael Anderson. 
To learn more about Andy & Renee you can check out this interview I did with them in 2019. 

To purchase their music, check out www.andyandrenee.com

Andy Hill and Renee Safier

Just Like Dave Dylan’s Blues: Engel in Minnesota

The Zimmermans lived upstairs in this house on 
Duluth's Central Hillside till Robert Allen was six.
(Birthday celebration with music, cake at Dylan Fest.)

One of the features of our annual Duluth Dylan Fest is the John Bushey Memorial Lecture Series. The lecture program derives its name from a man whose influence and impact goes far beyond what even his closest friends realize. For more than 26 years he was the voice of KUMD radio program Highway 61 Revisited, the Dylan-themed music hour that reached listeners around the globe. 

This years speaker will be Dave Engel, author of Just Like Bob Zimmerman's Blues: Bob Dylan In Minnesota. The book is a treasure trove of details about Dylan early life and roots that I doubt you will find in any other book. Just yestoday I saw the place where young Bob's grandfather died and the apartment building where his father lived when, three blocks away, the 1920 lynching in Duluth took place. 

I asked Mr. Engel if he had a working title for the book before it went to print and he replied, "I found my working title: On the Borderline: Dylan In Minnesota," adding, "Where the winds hit heavy…"

The John Bushey Memorial Lecture will be livestreamed Saturday afternoon from 1:30 to 3:00 pm CST. Specifics will be posted on DuluthDylanFest.com and our Facebook page. (Links at the end of this blog post.)

EN: Where did you grow up and how did you personally come to take an interest in Bob Dylan? Currently what do you do for a living or what did you do if retired?

Dave Engel: Born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., I am “Uncle Dave”—75 years later back in the same Range-like rust belt shut down paper mill town—as a former college English teacher, photographer, journalist, currently publisher of River City Memoirs books and Artifacts magazine, director of the historical society, only City Historian ever here, head bard and minstrel of Mid-State Poetry Towers.

My memory of first appreciating a song by “Bob Die-lan” is of riding in a ’58 Chevy on the county highway between Wisconsin Rapids and then-Wisconsin State University, Stevens Point, where I heard “Subterranean Homesick Blues” on the car radio. Wants eleven dollar bills and you only got ten! So does he want eleven one-dollar bills or does he want only eleven-dollar bills and you only got Hamiltons? 

Later in 1965, a guitar-strumming housemate pressed all of Bob’s early folk records on me, which I was obliged to play many times over, Bob, The Freewheelin’ Bob, Another Side of Bob, pretty hard to listen to at first but, as a coming generation of pothead hipsters would learn, it grows on you. The sun ain’t yellow, it’s chicken!

 

EN: Obviously researching this book was a major undertaking. How many years did it take from start to finish?

DE: Although I have kept files on Dylan since the “strummingbird” reference in Playboy—clipped while seated at 110 degrees F next to a mammoth Life magazine paper machine—researching and writing the book began on July 29, 1993, when my wife Kathy, daughter Angelica and I, returning from Ft. Frances, Ontario, stopped for a look at Hibbing. We visited the Greyhound bus museum in the Memorial Building, Old Hibbing, the Bob Dylan exhibit at the “Centennial Office” and dined at Zimmy’s. Remarkably, the owner of the Dylan boyhood home invited me to come in and look around.

The Dylan book project was suspended until, many months later, I received a list from Roberta Schloesser at the Hibbing Historical Society of persons to interview. On July 24, 1994, my family and I returned to Hibbing where I met with former high school principal Kenneth Pederson and tracked down a copy of the elusive 1959 high school yearbook. 

On Dec. 2, 1996, as my wife’s journal records, “Dave takes book to Palmer, Amherst.” 

“Just Like” was published in 1997 and went out of print not long after the printing company went bankrupt in 2000.

 

EN: There were a lot of books already written about Dylan when you published this. What prompted you to add another to the catalog?

DE: At the time of publication, most Dylan books had a coastal bias that included a condescending attitude to what the cultural elite viewed as the barren ore dumps of St. Louis County. In the late Sixties, I took a look at the peaceful tree-lined streets of Hibbing and thought, a lot like my home town, not so bad. 

EN: Just Like Bob Zimmerman’s Blues: Dylan in Minnesota – Did you have a “working title” while working on this project? 

DE: A few possible titles but can’t remember what they were after a quarter century. The book title is an obvious homage to “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues.” Zimmerman’s psychic blues encompass a young artiste’s discomfiture with his environment and with himself and all the Zimmermans. 

For musical blues, there are the laments up and down Highway 61 that helped transform Zimmerman into the chimera he called “Bob Dylan.”

 

EN: There are so many anecdotes that you write in which it is apparent someone who was there shared them with you, as if you were a fly on the wall. (Example: Echo said this or that)  

DE: My goal was to feel like I was there and to bring that feeling into print. Rather more of a wallflower than a fly, let’s hope. A ghost of myself for sure. And yes, I felt it: 1940s Duluth and 1950s Hibbing. Pretty much back home. 

Related Links

Just Like Bob Zimmerman's Blues (Amazon link)

2021 Duluth Dylan Fest Schedule

www.bobdylanway.com

www.duluthdylanfest.com

www.facebook.com/duluthdylanfest/

Official 2021 Duluth Dylan Fest Schedule Announced

"I was young when I left home..."

Details for the 2021 Duluth Dylan Fest have now been released. This will be the 11th annual DDF here in the Twin Ports where Robert Allen Zimmerman was born. The annual week-long celebration will run from May 22 - 30 in conjunction with Bob Dylan's 80th birthday.

Whereas last year's Fest was restricted to 5 online events due to the global pandemic, this year will be a hybrid mix of live and virtual events.  As DDF Committee Chair Zane Bail explains it in the official announcement, “With Bob Dylan turning 80, the committee wanted to pull out all the stops. Unfortunately, during the planning stages there were few assurances that a live Dylan Fest could take place. Compromises were made in the interest of public safety.  We are excited to have a host of virtual and in-person opportunities.” 

The week of events for Duluth Dylan Fest 2021 will begin with a tour of Bob Dylan sites on Saturday morning, May 22. Highlights of the week will include numerous live-streamed events as well as several in person outdoor gatherings celebrating the music of Bob Dylan. David Engel, author of Bob Zimmerman’s Blue: Bob Dylan in Minnesota, will give this year’s John Bushey Memorial Lecture.  

The streaming events have the benefit of sharing the week's events with new fans who have not been able to attend in the past.

Nov. 1979 -- Photo Bill Pagel

A major highlight of the fest this year is the new Duluth Does Dylan project featuring an incredible line-up of local and regional musicians including, One Less Guest, Rich Mattson and the Northstars, Colleen Myhre, and Paul Metsa.  Tim Nelson, co-producer of the five Duluth Does Dylan record compilations with Tom Fabjance shared, “It's been a blast and super fulfilling to produce the latest Duluth Does Dylan, especially since this year's compilation will commemorate Bob’s 80th birthday and will be released as part of the 2021 Duluth Dylan Fest. It's been 20 years since the first Duluth Does Dylan record was released. The latest compilation again features an incredible line-up of Duluth-centric musicians and I'm excited for people to hear it."

 

2021 Duluth Dylan Fest Schedule

Saturday, May 22

Tour of Bob Dylan Sites in Duluth
Armory Arts & Music Center Annex
1305 London Road, Duluth
9:00 AM | Free

Highway 61 Revisited Radio Show
KUMD 103.3 FM
5:00-6:00 PM | Free

Bob Dylan Revue Livestream Concert from Sacred Heart Music Center
Streaming link to come
7:00-8:30 PM

Sunday, May 23

Dylan Fest Acoustic Jam Session
with host Leslie Black
Bring your instruments and/or voice
Earth Rider Festival Field
1617 N 3rd St., Superior, WI
1:00-4:00 PM | Tickets on Eventbrite

Hard Rain: Bob Dylan and The Band Tribute Band 
Livestream from the Sky Line Lounge in Ballwin, MO
Streaming link to come
7:00-9:00 PM | Free

Monday, May 24

Bob Dylan Front Porch Birthday Party 

with live music by Greg Tiburzi
Dylan childhood home
519 N. 3rd Ave. East. Duluth
1:00-2:00 PM | Free

Highway 61 Revisited Radio Show
KUMD 103.3 FM
5:00-6:00 PM | Free

Duluth Dylan Fest Party
With music by Cowboy Angel Blue
Earth Rider Festival Field
1617 N 3rd St., Superior, WI
5:00-8:00 PM | Tickets on Eventbrite

Tuesday, May 25

Dylan Fest Happy Hour with Heaven’s Door Whiskey: 
A look behind Bob Dylan’s Whiskey brand and stories in between
Livestream on Zoom
5:00-5:30 PM | Free

Duluth Dylan Fest Song From the North Country Songwriter Contest Announcement
Live on Zoom
7:00-7:30 PM | Free

Wednesday, May 26

Dylan Fest Poetry Contest Event
Livestream via Zoom
6:30-8:00 PM | Free

Greg Tiburzi Sings Dylan
Valentini’s Bistro
4960 Miller Trunk Hwy, Duluth,
6:00-8:00 PM

Thursday, May 27

Dylan Fest Livestream from 2104 with Luke LeBlanc
6:30-8:00 PM | Free

Friday, May 28

Duluth Does Dylan Concert
Earth Rider Fest Grounds
1617 N 3rd St., Superior, WI
6:00-9:00 PM | Tickets on Eventbrite

Saturday, May 29

John Bushey Memorial Lecture
featuring Dave Engel, author of Just Like Bob Zimmerman’s Blues: Dylan in Minnesota Livestream from the Zeitgeist Teatro Zuccone
Streaming link to come
1:30–3:00 PM | Free

Highway 61 Revisited Radio Show
KUMD 103.3 FM
5:00-6:00 PM | Free

Bob Dylan Revue Concert
Earth Rider Festival Field
1617 N 3rd St., Superior, WI
6:00-9:00 PM | Tickets on Eventbrite 

Sunday, May 30

Song From the North Country Songwriter Contest Showcase
featuring Shane Nelson
Earth Rider Fest Grounds
1617 N 3rd St., Superior, WI
2:00-4:00 PM | Tickets on Eventbrite

Dylan Fest Livestream with Danny Fox
Streaming link to come
5:30-6:30 PM | Free

Blowin' in the Wind. Acrylic, 24"x 36" -- Ed Newman.

For interviews or more information:

Zane Bail, Duluth Dylan Fest Committee Member 218-393-7438

Ed Newman, Duluth Dylan Fest Committee Member 218-341-0480

Tim Nelson, Duluth Does Dylan Co-producer 218-348-4557

About the Duluth Dylan Fest

The Duluth Dylan Fest’s mission is to celebrate the spirit of artistic freedom, intellectual honesty and integrity of Duluth’s native son, Bob Dylan.  The Fest is dedicated to showcasing Duluth’s vibrant art scene.  The group of volunteers is committed to providing creative events that tap the talents of artists, poets, and musicians in Duluth and surrounding region.

www.bobdylanway.com

www.duluthdylanfest.com

www.facebook.com/duluthdylanfest/

Links to the Livestream events will be posted

on DuluthDylanFest.com and our Facebook page.

Winding Down: John Bushey Memorial Lecture with David Gaines

David Gaines at Wednesday evening's poetry event, Teatro Zuccone.
Photo: Michael Anderson

It's the end of an eight-day week and the sun is shining. Our farewell brunch behind us, we've dispersed to our various homes and a return to the semblance of normalcy. Time to get the lawn mower running, move some hay to the garden and start checking off items on the ever-expanding "to do" list of summer projects.

It's Memorial Day weekend, so two other traditions are in play as Duluth Dylan Fest cones to a close: The Battle of the Jug Bands at Amazing Grace in Canal Park here, and the Indianapolis 500, won by a racer from France wrapped in a bright yellow car, not a yellow vest.

The miserable misty rain that assaulted us while cutting the Bob Dylan Birthday Cake Friday had departed by Saturday. The striated lake was near smooth as a mirror, a view worth inhaling and one of the rich features of our city which hugs the Western tip of the largest freshwater body in the world.

Our John Bushey Memorial Lecture speaker this year was David Gaines, a Professor of English and Director of National Fellowships and Scholarships at Southwestern University. And the author of In Dylan Town: A Fan's Life. As last year, the lecture took place at Karpeles. He was introduced to us by Phil Fitzpatrick, a poet and retired teacher whom Gaines met on his first Northland trek during the 13th annual Dylan Days in Hibbing a few years back. Each was working on a book, and Prof. Gaines has finished his. (For the record, Phil will have a book of poetry released this fall. With illustrations by Penny Perry, the book is Hawks on High: Everyday Miracles in a Hawk Ridge Season)

Karpeles Manuscript Museum is housed in a former Christian Science sanctuary that is itself a wonderful piece of local architecture.  A portion of Bill Pagel's archives--this year titled "Which One is the Real Bob Dylan?"--will be on display through August 1 in the event you didn't get to see it this past week.

The John Bushey Memorial Lecture Program derives its name from multi-dimensional man whose influence transcended even what his closest friends realized. Bushey, for 26 years, was the voice of KUMD's Dylan-themed radio hour Highway 61 Revisited. (EdNote: Louis Kemp, author of Dylan & Me, will be here Tuesday, June 18 to talk about his upcoming book and more. Reception @ 5:30 p.m., lecture 6:30-7:30.)

*

The title of David Gaines' talk was "From the North Country to Stockholm and Back: A Tale of Two Journeys." At the outset he mentioned John Bushey and described some of the amazing magic tricks he did on the Blood on the Tracks Express the year he visited. One amazing trick involved he and another gentleman initialing a pair of cards they'd selected, which they never showed John, and how after some hocus pocus the two cards merged into one, back to back. Gaines pulled the card from his wallet and noted that he's been carrying it ever since, something akin to a good luck charm.

Prof. Gaines' talk, as the title suggests, was the story of two artists, the first being Bob Dylan' and his journey from the Northland to the Nobel Prize. The second story was about,"my other favorite artist –myself—and my journey."

"So many of the good things that happened to me have happened since I came to the North Country.
How intertwined all our lives are through Dylan. I will let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours," he added.

He shared a story about getting permissions, which is an essential part of producing a book like this.

David Gaines (L) with author Dave Engel.

Bob's story began 78 years and a day ago, in St. Mary's hospital a few blocks from here. He was a 24.5 inch baby, "about as big as a good-sized lake trout," Gaines said, quoting Dave Engel's Just Like Bob Zimmerman's Blues.
(EdNote: 24.5 is actually his birthday reversed, if you didn't catch it, 5-24.)

Gaines produced a litany of references where Dylan cites the importance of the Northland in his life. A few of these included the final two pages of Chronicles Vol 1

“My Life In A Stolen Moment”
Duluth’s an iron ore shipping town in Minnesota It’s built up on a rocky cliff that runs into Lake Superior I was born there — my father was born there...

In 1978 Dylan told Playboy that this place has a spiritual quality.

He then cited Dave Engel’s meticulously researched book Just Like Bob Zimmerman's Blues,  and Highway 61 Revisited: Bob Dylan’s Road from MN to the World by Colleen Sheehy & Thomas Swiss.

Gaines then drilled down into the importance of teachers and how there are certain teachers whose influence exceeds the small communities where they give a life of service. The noteworthy piece here is that having been a teacher himself, it is his hope to have been this kind of influence in some of his students. At Hibbing High, B.J. Ralphzen's class—Room 204--was an influential place for many students, including for Bob.

Of the school itself, Greil Marcus called Hibbing High "the most impressive public building I ever saw outside of Washington DC." If you come to the Northland at a time when you get the opportunity to visit the spacious auditorium, you will go away impressed indeed.

Bob Hocking shared how much this teacher meant to Bob Hocking, how transformational teachers can be. In his AARP interview, Dylan said, “If I had it to do all over again I would probably be a school teacher… teaching Roman History or Religion."

Dylan’s love of literature began in the North Country, and ultimately took him to Stockholm where he received the Nobel Prize.

He then shared this quote from Mary Keyes who with her husband own the Howard Street Bookstore: “If Bob walked into the store today, I would day, ‘Because of you, Bob, I have met the nicest people in the world.’” Certainly that is what happened again here in Duluth this past week, and will no doubt happen this coming week in Tulsa at the International Dylan Symposium.

"These words are at the heart of why I wrote the book I did," he said.

Flash forward to 2016. One morning his wife was unusually buoyant. “Guess what! Bob just won a Nobel Prize.”

Journalists all over the world reached out to people for quotes. John Bushey fielded calls that day. I was contacted from Tokyo because of this blog. And Professor Gaines received a call from Al Jazeera, where he was interviewed by a talking head. “I don’t think that anyone has the staying power of his importance,” he told the reporter. “He’s just a whole other level.”

The Nobel Prize is like a Super Bowl and Mardi Gras rolled into one.

He then played a clip from an interview he did in a Stockholm documentary about the Nobel Prize, followed by an NPR clip in which he looked especially charming and where he said Bob is “the gift that keeps on giving”

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The talk was a series of anecdotes that illustrated his own Stockholm journey and featured...
--A Christopher Ricks story
--Writing on a blog called The Big Tent
--Buying a croissant from Johanna
--The changing of the guard at Stockholm
--A Martini in Stockholm's grandest hotel
--How he seized the day and met Patti Smith
“I love your coat.”

Bob Dylan's influences began in grammar school and high school… here in the Northland, he again underscored. As an outro he played "When the Ship Comes In."

The best place to find David Gaines' book for purchase is here at the U of Iowa Press.

See photos of Hibbing High School in Architecture MN Magazine.

EdNote: Louis Kemp will be visiting Duluth to talk about his soon to be released Dylan & Me, also as part of the John Bushey Memorial Lecture Series. Tuesday, June 18. Reception at 5:30 and lecture from 6:30 to 7:30 p..m.

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AND FINALLY

A few photos from the Bob Dylan Revue Concert

Saturday night at Sacred Heart.
Photos courtesy Michael Anderson.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to make these events possible.