OurNext Meeting: December 8th, 2024, to focus on Bob Dylan in Minnesota, with author Matt Steichen in attendance!

Our focus is on Bob Dylan in Minnesota by K.G. Myles with Paul Mesta, Ed Newman, Marc Percansky, and Matt Steichen. The Back Pages entry for this book is in development, so check back over the next week for that. You will discover lots of intersting information about our guest, author Matt Steichen, as well as an introduction to this book.
Posts are now being added to the Members Pages tab Book Impressions. You, too can contribute your thoughts on our last meeting!

The Book Impressions Page open for Dylan at 80 & Laura Tenschert of Definitely Dylan (November 10th, 2024, meeting)

What are your thoughts? Tells us your impressions (go to the Member Pages to find the page).

NEXT Bob Dylan Book Club Meeting: Sunday, November 10, 2 pm Eastern (US)

Our focus will be: Dylan at 80, edited by Gary Browning & Constantine Sandis, with guest Laura Tenschert, one of the contributing authors and the acclaimed host of the Definitely Dylan podcast. Book Club member (and one of our Club Advisors) Christopher Vanni will host the discussion. Zoom link will go out the morning of the meeting. Laura also wrote a chapter in a book we discussed earlier, Erin Callahan & Court Carney’s The Politics and Power of Bob Dylan’s Live Performances: Play a Song For Me, so further discussion of that contribution may also take place. The Zoom link will be distributed mid-morning on the day of the meeting.

Some New Book Club Inspirations

We want to announce 3 initiatives of the Bob Dylan Book Club
--Chapter Adoptions by Book Club members went so well with The Philosophy of American Song that we will look for opportunities to continue this format.
--Guest Hosts: We will generally welcome anyone who wants to talk about a Dylan book that they have read (and this applies to all of you, too) to share their thoughts and invite discussion.
--2 Books At a Time: You won't have to read two books, but, while focusing on one book, the discussion leader can "book talk" another book for comparison and one author can choose to give thoughts about 2 books they've been involved in.
The Book Club Advisors discuss ideas like the aboave, as well as our overall schedule and book selections, to please consider joining that group for one or two emails per month.

Fall/Winter Books & Meetings Preview (details being worked out): October 13th, November 10th, December 8th, & January 5th, 2 pm Eastern US) time-note that the Zoom link goes out that morning

October 13th: The Philosophy of Modern Song, Part 2, with Erin Callahan, Roberta Rakove, Molly Mullin, Nancy Cobb, and Timothy Drake (see https://www.bobdylanbookclub.com/poms2)
November 10th: Definitely Dylan’s Laura Tenschert on her contributions to Bob Dylan at 80 & The Politics and Power of Bob Dylan’s Live Performances
December 8th: Matt Steichen and Bob Dylan in Minnesota: Troubadour Tales from Duluth, Hibbing, and Dinkytown (partly to get us ready for the Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, set to be released on December 25th
January 5th: Daniel Singer and Lou Kemp,for a discussion of Kemp’s Dylan and Me: 50 Years of Adventures

Announcing Our Next Meeting, October 13th: PoMS Part 2!

We had so much fun with Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song at our September Meeting that, by popular demand, we are doing a PoMS Part 2. Go HERE for our Back Pages on this book and check by Book Impressions on the Member Pages as well. We will have new discussion leaders “adopting” new Chapters, linked HERE. Thanks again to Henry Bernstein (Truckin’), Christopher Vanni (Beyond the Sea), Brian Walsh (El Paso), Jim Salvucci (Saturday Night at the Movies), Daniel Singer (Waste Deep in the Big Muddy), and Peter White (me! Volare). Part of the fun was this format (suggested by Christopher Vanni), in which six separate voices worked towards the themes of the whole book through individual chapters, and a lot of the fun was Dylan’s colorful writing and unique perspective. WE MEET SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13TH, 2 PM EASTERN (US), WITH THE ZOOM LINK GOING OUT THAT MORNING.

If you aren’t yet on our list, use the Join Us option on the home page to get on the list.

After an August Summer Break the Bob Dylan Book Club will return on September 8th!

Our September book selection will be Bob Dylan’s own The Philosophy of Modern Song (2022). If you want to help lead the discussion, consider adopting a chapter from this book. There are some 66 chapters (each devoted to a song), with 4 already adopted. Email peterwhite217@gmail.com to claim a chapter and we’ll negotiate on that. You have 2 months. Carry the book to the beach, the mountains, or the air-conditioned retreat.

Our Next Meeting is July 7th, 2024

We will meet on July 7th, 2024, at 2 pm Eastern (US) to consider our book-of-the-month, Larry Starr’s Listening to Bob Dylan: Experiencing and Re-Experiencing Dylan’s Music. This is our 12th book! So we approach the 1 year anniversary of It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Reading): A Bob Dylan Book Club!

June 9th Meeting: Martin Newman’s Bob Dylan’s Malibu

The June 9th meeting of the Bob Dylan Book Club will feature Bob Dylan’s Malibu, an EDLIS publication, with Book Club member Craig Jamieson and also featuring a discussion of an original Bob Dylan painting. Our January 2024 book-of-the-month was Bob Dylan’s Hibbing and now we travel, with Bob, to California and the Pacific Ocean.

Mary Lee Kortes will join our next meeting, May 5th

I am very excited to announce that accompolished singer-songwriter Mary Lee Kortes, who has opened for Mr. Dylan, will join us on Sunday, May 5th, 2 pm Eastern (US) as we discuss her book Dreaming of Dylan: 115 Dreams About Bob Dylan (2018). Several of us have had dreams about Bob Dylan and if you haven’t had that sort of dream yet, keep up with Bob and it will happen eventually! For a preview of the book click HERE. Check our Books & Meetings page for more about Kortes. This meeting will be great fun, so don’t miss it. The Zoom link will go out the morning of May 5th. To get on that mailing list, join It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Reading) at bobdylanbookclub.com (its free!)

Our Next Meeting: Sunday, April 7th, 2 pm Eastern (US)

Our April Book-of-the-Month will be Raphael Falco’s No One To Meet: Imitation and Originality in the Songs of Bob Dylan (2022), winner of the Elizabeth Agee Prize in American Literature. This is a lively and well-written analysis that makes use of the Bob Dylan arhive in Tulsa and ranges across better known and more obscure Dylan songs and interviews. He even spends some pages on the focus of our last (March 2024) meeting, the Dylan liner notes to Joan Baez In Concert Part 2. No One To Meet is also available as an audio book. The Zoom link will be sent out the morning of April 7th. Raphael Falco is a founding editor and a current co-editor of the Dylan Review. He is a Professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. See also our Back (ground) Pages HERE.

Our Next Meeting: Sunday, March 3rd, 2 pm Eastern (US) time

Robin Haar facilitates & Graley Herren returns for a meeting focused on the free verse poems of Bob Dylan with special reference to the liner notes for Joan Baez In Concert, Part 2. Check bobdylanbookclub.com/booksmeets for more details!

Our Next Book & Meeting: February 4th, 2pm Eastern (US)

Co-authors Erin Callahan & Court Carney will attend our discussion of their new book: The Politics and Power of Bob Dylan’s Live Performances: Play a Song for Me. (2023). Book Club Member Chrisopher Vanni will be our facilitator.

This Sunday, January 14th is our next meeting

The Zoom invitation will go out Sunday morning and the conevenes at 2 pm Eastern (US) time. It’s a special meeting, focusing not only on the book Bob Dylan’s Hibbing but also on what has become known as the EDLIS project (see the entry under Books & Meetings for more information). Plus, Roberta Rakove will be our discussion facilitator.

New Features on the Member Pages!

Two new blogs are open for your perusal & for your posts!
Book Impressions is a blog for you to write down comments about our discussions & the books we read. You’ll find a thread for each of our selected books.
Member Profiles is a blog that aims to help Book Club members get to know one another.

You have to be signed up as a member to use both of these features (see Home page).

January & February Books

Our January Meeting will take place on January 14th, 2 pm Eastern US time (the Zoom link will be sent a few hours before the meeting on the 14th) and will feature Craig Jamieson and other members of the EDLIS group for a discussion of Bob Dylan’s Hibbing. In February, Erin Callahan and Court Carney will join us (February 4) for a discussion of their new book The Politics and Power of Bob Dylan’s Live Performances: Play a Song for Me.

Book Club Members Erin Callahan & Roberta Rakove in Conversation

Erin Callahan and Roberta Rakove engage in a very entertaining and interesting conversation on Erin’s podcast series that poses the question What Is It About Bob Dylan?
The podcast is part of Jim Salvucci’s Substack site, called the Dylantantes.
Find the conversation here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/thedylantantes/p/interview-with-roberta-rakove-by?r=1kwf0l&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Bob Dylan Book Corner added to website

Go to the Member Pages (if you are not a member, go to the homepage and click on “Join Now!”) and look for the link “Check the Bob Dylan Book Corner”. This is a page that will allow us to post any long or short essays or thoughts inpsired by Bob Dylan books and written by Book Club members (that is, written by you!) for books NOT YET scheculed for group discussion.

Sunday, December 3rd, 2pm Eastern (US) is our next meeting!

We have two orders of business:

1. Planning for the first several 2024 meetings--that is, selecting the next round of books to read.  EVEN IF YOU CAN'T ATTEND THE DECEMBER 3RD MEETING, PLEASE SEND YOUR THOUGHTS ON PRIORITY BOOKS to peterwhite217@gmail.com!  Check your bookshelf and consult the Bob Dylan Book List, linked HERE.

I have received the following nominations so far: Chronicles by Mr. Dylan, Folk Music by Griel Marcus, Why Bob Dylan Matters by Richard Thomas, Bob Dylan’s Hibbing, Bob Dylan’s Malibu, Bob Dylan and Me by Lou Kemp, Dylan at 80 edited by Gary Browning and Constantine Sandis, and Mixing Up the Medicine by Mark Davidson and Parker Fishel (thank you to Craig Jamieson, Roberta Rakove, Chris Vanni, and Bill Lattanzi!). ALSO: Craig Danuloff of thefm.club has offered to help us get discounted copies of Song & Dance Man by Michael Gray, which has been reissued in 2023 as a 3 volume set; Craig also offered to try to arrange for Michael to attend our meeting on that book.

2. Our December Book selection is Bob Dylan, On a Couch and Fifty Cents a Day (2021) and we will be joined by the author, Peter K. McKenzie who was in 15 in 1961 when Bob Dylan stayed with the McKenzie family in New York City from mid-May to mid-September (Dylan was a frequent visitor in the years thereafter).

November Book Selection and Website Published

I am excited to announce author and Xavier University Professor Graley Herren will join us at 2 pm Eastern (US) on November 12th for discussion of his recent book Dreams and Dialogues in Dylan’s “Time Out of Mind”.

Website News: I have removed the password from the public pages…but you’ll need to register (via the “Join Now” button on the site home page) to get to the Member Pages and that will help me shift Bob Dylan Book Club Email to that account!