NewBerkshire.com

Since 1997

Bob Dylan in the Berkshires

Article by

Update: Bob Dylan at Tanglewood July 2, 2016.

Bob Dylan has an association with the Berkshires that spans the five decades of his career and includes a couple of events at the apogee of all Dylan fan’s “wish-I’d-been-there” list, even though there have been only four Bob Dylan concerts in Berkshire county. For concerts, there were two Bob Dylan shows at Tanglewood, July 4, 1991 and August 4, 1997 then two of his minor league ballpark shows at Wahconah Park in Pittsfield, June 23, 2005 and August 26, 2006.

The other two Bob Dylan appearances in the Berkshires were August 14, 1963 when he was Joan Baez’s unannounced guest at her concert at the Boy’s Club in Pittsfield and November 7, 1975 when Dylan and the Rolling Thunder Revue spent the day at Mama Frasca’s Dream Away Lodge in Becket.

Bob Dylan at Tanglewood – 1991 & 1997

The Tanglewood concerts of 1991 and 1997 were light years apart in Dylan’s performance and demeanor. Although he was uncharacteristically chatty during the first one, which set a Tanglewood attendance record of 20,516, he raced through an 18 song set in a manner that got the gig listed on Dylan Pool (defunct website) in response to the request, “What was your worst Bob Dylan concert?”

The 1997 concert was just his second after recovering from a near-fatal heart infection. He was his usual laconic self, nattily-clad in a shiny blue western suit, and did an abbreviated set of 13 songs, notable for an especially fine rendition of “Tangled Up in Blue,” and for the omission of “All Along the Watchtower,” which Dylan had sung at every concert since 1992. The opening act that night was BR5-49, whose multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron is now a member of Dylan’s band.

Bob Dylan concert reviews and articles by Dave Read

    Cowboy Junkies concert March 8, 2014 Mahaiwe in Gt. Barrington, MA

    Cowboy Junkies concert March 8, 2014 Mahaiwe in Gt. Barrington, MA

    Article by

    Cowboy Junkies concert scheduled MArch 8, 2014 Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Gt. Barrington, MACowboy Junkies, the Canadian alternative country/blues/folk rock band, have a concert scheduled for 8 mp on Saturday March 8, 2014 at the beautifully restored Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, MA. For more than 20 years, the Cowboy Junkies have remained true to their unique artistic vision and to the introspective, quiet intensity that is their musical signature, creating a critically acclaimed body of original work that has endeared them to an audience unwavering in its loyalty.They have released 16 studio albums, several live albums, and a number of singles and built up a dedicated following in the alternative rock community. (Mahaiwe 2014 schedule)

    Since the release of The Trinity Session (1987), the Cowboy Junkies have been popular and busy beyond the usual boundaries of rock stars and their music has been featured in dozens of television programs and feature films. Their The Nomad Series, made up of four albums, Renmin Park, Demons, Sing in My Meadow, The Wilderness was released over an 18-month period. The latest, The Wilderness, was released in February of 2012 and demonstrates that the Cowboy Junkies are still into that hypnotic melodious brooding thing.

    Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center tickets and directions

    Tickets are $30 to $50. The Mahaiwe is located at 14 Castle Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Box office hours are Wednesday through Saturday from noon to 6:00pm and three hours before show times.

    • 14 Castle Street
    • Great Barrington, MA 01230
    • Box Office: 413-528-0100
    • Mahaiwe.org

    [mappress mapid=”75″ width=”100%” height=”400″ adaptive=”true”]

    About the Mahaiwe

    Located in downtown Great Barrington, Massachusetts, the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center is the year-round presenter of world-class music, dance, theater, classic films, “Live in HD” broadcasts, and arts education programs for the southern Berkshires and neighboring regions. The intimate jewel box of a theater opened in 1905 and has been in continuous operation for over 100 years. In 2005, the theater experienced a renaissance as a beautifully restored 681-seat venue to offer a broad range of cultural and community events. Today’s “Mahaiwe Mix” of diverse, high quality programming strives to provide meaningful, memorable entertainment for all ages and interests.

    Remembering Dave Van Ronk

    Article updated June 26, 2018 by

    Inside Llewyn Davis, the 2013 Coen Brothers movie based on Dave Van Ronk’s memoir The Mayor of MacDougal Street, inspired me to tell the story of a few encounters with Van Ronk over the course of almost 25 years. We met at the Rusty Nail Saloon, Sunderland, MA twice in the mid and late 1970s and then did an interview before a concert at the Eighth Step Coffeehouse in Albany, NY in 1999.

    I had been turned on to Van Ronk my first week at college in 1967, when an upperclassman told me that I looked like him. I hadn’t heard of Van Ronk, so I borrowed his copy of Gambler’s Blues, and loved it right off the bat. Before long I added Gambler’s Blues and Dave Van Ronk Sing the Blues to my record collection, which already held 5 or 6 Bob Dylan LPs.

    Dave ReadI wasn’t aware of the relationship between Dylan and Van Ronk until I read Bob Dylan: An Intimate Biography, by Anthony Scaduto several years later. In it, Scaduto reports that Dylan recorded Van Ronk’s version of House of the Risin’ Sun without asking permission. Even to a Dylan freak, that seemed pretty rude. In the fall of 1975, both of them made appearances in my neck of the woods – Van Ronk played a mid-week show at the Rusty Nail Saloon in Suderland, MA and Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue played back-to-back shows in Springfield.

    Beside Dave Van Ronk at the Rusty Nail Saloon

    The latter was announced about one week in advance and the rumors were that Dylan’s musical cronies were showing up and playing. Van Ronk’s concert was a couple days before and so when I arrived and saw him sitting alone at the bar, I was excited to say hello and ask if he’d be appearing with Dylan later that week.

    He had a glass of whiskey in front of him and was holding his guitar in his lap, slowly moving his palm along it, as if he were warming it up. I said hello, told him I was a big fan, and asked about the Dylan shows. His reply, made in a polite and not unfriendly manner, was that he didn’t want to talk about Dylan. Oops, I thought, and left Van Ronk alone with his pre-concert routine.

    I thoroughly enjoyed the show, surprised that he was so entertaining, with a dimension of personality that I hadn’t noticed listening to the records. But I couldn’t help myself later, seeing him getting ready to leave the club; after saying great show, nice to meet you, I asked him to verify Scaduto’s House of the Risin’ Sun report. Dave stopped in his tracks, stared into the vacuum of my eyes, and said, “I told you I do not want to discuss that man.”

    Besides feeling like an idiot, and not a litle rude myself, that was all the verification I needed. I attended both Rolling Thunder Revue shows in Springfirld, but didn’t get a chance to run the story by Dylan. (Story about the Rolling Thunder Revue.)

    Meeting Dave Van Ronk again

    The second meeting occurred 3 or 4 years later, by which time I had made the acquaintance of young woman who became an ardent fan, even though she bore no resemblance to Dave Van Ronk, none whatsoever. Since she also was a guitar player, her esteem may have been more genuine than mine, a mere doppelganger. We got to the club early and saw Van Ronk by himself at the far end of the bar, just the same as before. Instead of approaching with a head full of ideas, this time I was content to introduce my friend to Dave, and tell him that she was a guitar player too. He seemed genuinely charmed and within a few minutes, the three of us were sharing a booth close to the stage.

    My recollection of the ensuing three hours is a little fuzzy, except that it was about as much fun as you could have, newfound friends, talking and laughing over round after round of whiskey. He did 3 or 4 sets and eventually the show had the feel of a conversataion between him and her. He ended with a charming dedication to her, but I cannot recall if it was Teddy Bear’s Picnic or Chicken is Nice?

    During the 1980s, I saw him again at various clubs in the Hudson Valley and the Berkshires. Those shows were before full houses and neither the opportunity nor the inclination to approach Van Ronk presented itself again. He did seem to be aging poorly, though.

    Dave Van Ronk concert and interview

    By the late 1990s, I’m writing a music column in a local newspaper and running a website, which credentials were enough to get me into a concert that he would be giving at the Eighth Step Coffeehouse in Albany, NY. We did a telephone interview from his Greenwich Village apartment the day before. (Interview with Dave Van Ronk.)

    Dave Van Ronk listening to Garth Hudson in Albany, NYI brought a tape recorder and a camera to the concert, but didn’t get much use out of either. The camera jammed up so I only got a couple eerie double exposures, and I left the tape recorder alone because I didn’t want to be intrusive. Instead, I scribbled notes furiously in the dim light as Dave gave a brilliant 2+ hour concert, which could’ve doubled as a lecture on the history of music in America. And Garth Hudson was in the house, to do a few songs by himself and to accompany Dave on accordian on a few others.

    Dave was hale and hearty, appearing way better than he had in the 80s. It’s none of my business, but maybe he’d quit drinking? That was the last time I saw Dave Van Ronk. The sadness of his untimely death in 2002, however, is assuaged by several factors:

    1. He was at the top of his game late in life;
    2. He’d received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP);
    3. He got props from Dylan in Chronicles, Vol. 1;

    Also of consolation is the fact that his posthumous CD, “Dave Van Ronk…and the tin pan bended and the story ended,” seems like a replica of the concert he gave at the Eighth Step Coffeehouse. Here’s hoping that Inside LLewyn Davis turns out to be deserving of it’s association with the story of Dave Van Ronk, whose influence extends far beyond the tenure and jurisdiction of the Mayor of MacDougal Street.

    Dave Van Ronk @ Amazon.com

    Mother Courage and her Children at Shakespeare & Co.

    Mother Courage and her Children at Shakespeare & Co.

    Aug. 2, 2013 performance reviewed by Frances Benn Hall

    Brooke Parks and Ryan Winkles in Mother Courage at Shakespeare & Co., Lenox, MABrecht’s Mother Courage and her Children now playing at Tina Packer’s Shakespeare and Co. theatre under the insightful direction of Tony Simotes, is one of the greatest plays of the 20th century. The play is set in central Europe in the 17th century during the Thirty Years’ War, which was fought largely between Catholics and Protestants.

    The play demands a large cast and style of production that is deliberately alienating as it weaves together its story in a series of scenes, songs, and projected text summaries and it is never stagy. These are real people. The plot concerns Mother Courage’s unsuccessful attempt to feed and care for her children, two sons and a daughter, during the dozen years that the play covers. She has set herself up with a wagon pulled onto the stage and from it she makes her living selling food and goods to soldiers.

    The wagon becomes a symbol always onstage reflecting her restless life and questionable prosperity. By the play’s end, it is a dilapidated cart and she is like an animal pulling it. Olympia Dukakis is marvelous in this, her 5th time grappling with the convoluted character. Although she is on stage most of the time, she never draws attention to herself if stress belongs to another character.

    The play opens as she and the children drag onstage the cart in which she and they live. Her co-stars, Apolo Dukakis as the Chaplain and John Douglas Thompson as the Cook, each bring their own relationship and attraction to Mother Courage’s conniving. Each role is played competently.

    All members of the cast are well drawn, and the audience cannot help being drawn by the most vulnerable. Of the 3 children, Kittrin, who hears but cannot speak, played by Brook Parks, moves through this role convincingly, giving her life (and the red shoes she finally gets), to save all the children in the village from attack.

    Despite calamities, this play is not depressing. The characters and situations that Brecht has woven into his play have produced a gem. It is a joy to have been able to see it on a local stage. Director Tony Simotes and Olympia Dukakis have pooled their talents to create an evening in the theatre this reviewer hopes to have the time to see again before it closes in September.

    Brecht’s Mother Courage at Shakespeare & Co.

    Brecht’s Mother Courage at Shakespeare & Co.

    Aug. 2, 2013 performance reviewed by Ann St. Clair

    Ryan Winkles, Olympia Dukakis, and Josh Aaron McCabe in Mother Courage at Shakespeare and Co.When the lights go up on an allusively radical, nearly-bare stage (designed by Patrick Brennan) at the Tina Packer Playhouse at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, we are plunged into Bertold Brecht’s concept of war as a complex, completely human endeavor. And when Anna Frieling ironically nicknamed Mother Courage for her decision to drag her canteen into what would become the 17th Century’s Thirty Years War appears before us in her homely cart, pulled by her two hapless sons, Swiss Cheese (Ryan Winkles) and Eilif (Josh Aaron McCabe), and accompanied by her mute daughter, Kattrin (the deeply expressive Brooke Parks), we aren’t distracted by cannon, we see people. War, Mother Courage sings, is many things to many people, but it demands survival or death of all it touches.

    On every level, director Tony Simotes has chosen a brave path. He has staged it as written, resisting the temptation to make its lessons obviously contemporary, and by doing so he has kept it universal. He has assembled a strong ensemble cast, led by the fine Olympia Dukakis, who brings the powerful wisdom of a serious life in the theater, and the experience of having played Mother Courage before. And if her projection on opening night was sometimes uneven, her understanding of her complex character and the predicament of her beleaguered family never flags, or fails to touch the audience. Even as we laugh at her dead-eyed analyses of war and commerce, or want to cry out when she haggles over the amount of the ransom fee for her son’s life, she breaks our hearts. And even as we recognize The Cook’s overwhelming selfishness, John Douglas Thompson draws us to him with his character-driven charm. The Chaplain (Apollo Dukakis) shows himself as less a man of God than a speculator in the broad marketplace of ideas and men. After all else is stripped away, the characters agree that beliefs and those who want to believe them remain.

    Arthur Oliver, usually known for the imaginative elegance of his costume design for theater, ballet and opera, has outdone himself in making every article of clothing in this play tell its own eloquent, sometimes painful story. At every turn, he confronts us with the ironic beauty of suffering and decay because heroism no less than deceit and cowardice yields loss. In her defiant strut Yvette (Paula Langton), the classically opportunistic camp follower expresses the spirit and vulnerability of us all. People in all times live, or try to live off war. It’s always all around us: thirty years, one hundred years, ten or twelve. We love war and we hate it. We hardly know how we create it; we seem unable to end it for long. Wars bring wealth to some, a meager living to others, and degradation to many. And this is the lasting appeal of Mother Courage and Her Children so affectingly brought to life at Shakespeare & Company.

    Mother Courage is a character not simply torn by contradiction but by internal as well as external conflict. She is not quite lovable, but we can see her try to do the best for herself and her family in terrible situations, even as our minds plead: “pay attention to the human value, Courage, not the numbers.” We leave the theater wiser and stronger for having met her. She is us.

    Joan Baez at Tanglewood

    June 23, 2013 concert review by

    Joan Baez performed at Tanglewood on Sunday afternoon, 6.23.13
    Joan Baez at Tanglewood; Hilary Scott photo.
    Joan Baez delighted an audience of perhaps 5,000 at Tanglewood on June 23, 2013 fifty years after playing to a sold-out audience at the Boy’s Club in Pittsfield on August 14, 1963. At Tanglewood, she sang Bob Dylan’s plaintive It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue, his vituperative Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right, and her own beautiful Diamonds and Rust, which describes her relationship with him. At the Boy’s Club show, she sang two Bob Dylan songs and then brought him onstage where he sang three of his own!

    Joan Baez cover of Time magazineJoan Baez appears as beautiful today in person as she did in 1962 when a Russell C. Hoban painting of her appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Anytime the 60s is mentioned, the image of Joan Baez is evoked, so long as the 60s still reference a time when world peace and human rights were what it’s all about. It always and everywhere is for her, from Mississippi in the 60s, to Czechoslovakia in the 80s, and Bosnia in the 90s. She got Amnesty International’s top award in 2011; top honors from the USA await.

    Today, she told us about the Woodstock museum at Bethel Woods where she performed the day before, pointing out that it is about way more than merely the August 1969 festival, which she headlined while pregnant with son Gabe, now collecting a check as her drummer. Father David Harris had been busted by the Feds a month earlier and wound up spending 15 months in prison for draft evasion.

    Joan Baez at the White House

    In 2010, Joan Baez performed at the White House Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement.

    The Indigo Girls opened the concert with a rocking set that had the audience up and dancing on the lawn.

    Joan Baez and the Indigo Girls at Tanglewood
    Joan Baez and the Indigo Girls at Tanglewood; Hilary Scott photo.

    Songs performed by Joan Baez at Tanglewood, June 23, 2013:

    Lily of the West (Traditional cover)
    It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (Bob Dylan cover)
    Joe Hill
    Long Black Veil (Lefty Frizzell cover)
    Deportee
    Hard Time Come No More
    Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Traditional cover)
    Country Blues (Give Me Cornbread When I’m Hungry) (Dock Boggs cover)
    The House of the Rising Sun (The Animals cover)
    Imagine (John Lennon cover)
    The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel cover)
    Diamonds and Rust

    Encore:
    Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (Bob Dylan cover) (with Indigo Girls)
    Welcome Me (with Indigo Girls)
    The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (The Band cover) (with Indigo Girls)
    The Water Is Wide (Traditional cover) (with Indigo Girls)

    2nd encore – with the audience: Blowin’ In The Wind (Bob Dylan cover)