Folk Songs and More Folk Songs

This newly authored version (thanks George for the work you put in) surfaced and was shared in February 2005. And in terms of amateur authoring, its one of the finest out there. The menus are well put together and easily navigable.

This show is really very strange to watch. Watching it nowadays is a strange experience and even funny if you're slightly mentally altered. Its the bizarre mixture of traditional folk music (say the brothers four) with the more modern (and ultimately more enduring) music of Mr Dylan.

His version of Hollis Brown is a joy to watch. My own calculations have this as only the 4th or 5th public performance of the song. Blowin in the Wind is a relatively identical cut to that we saw on Freewheelin, and considering its reknowned as one of the classic Dylan songs means this version is very nice. The third song performed by Mr Dylan is Man of Constant Sorrow, again this being only its 4th or 5th outing. Its a traditional song and Bob does it justice here, outshining his so called peers.

The whole show seems to have rather strange production and a most unique style. Its a strange foamy set that could only have been used in the 60s when people felt that foam rocks and a painted back drop were a great way to create a mountain and countryside like ambience and feel for a TV show. Its very easy to see how Bob quickly outgrew a scene like this, and granted this probably isn't the best document of folk, but this is probably as close to a snapshot of the mainstream folk scene as we're likely to get.

The other artists featured here are very hit and miss. Some seem to just simply be going through the motions, and with the exception of the Staple Singers, I don't believe any had much of a career outside of specialist folk music.

So taking this as an image of the scene that a very young Bob Dylan found himself in (this may be the first pro-shot footage of Dylan on tape currently circulating, feel free to correct me), it is a treat. The DVD features a good quality probably second generation, maybe first, copy of the video and good broadcast quality sound aswell.

All in all, get this to see exactly what Bob was before he became the man we know him better as.

Important document. I've never seen Dylan youngest (on the screen). It can help you to understand why was Dylan so unique in the beginning of the 60's. Brothers Four and Carolyn Hester (and Barbara Dane in her first solo) try to search how to play folk songs (and they are a little funny from todays poit of view), but Dylan knows it (he is miles ahead of them with Man Of Constant Sorrow) and he writes his own "folk songs" and he's heading to future. Only Barbra Dane with jazz group in her third appearance approaches him a little in singing and playing a guitar (Staples Singers are great, but there's an another kind of music). Worth to have for those who want to know ways music went through.