SEAN WILENTZ

SW will be appearing on two Los Angeles radio shows on Wednesday, February 15, to discuss, among other things, the new Amnesty International release, Chimes of Freedom.

With Cynthia Fox, KLOS, 3:15 p.m

AND

With Jon Wiener, KPFK, 4:00 p.m.

In connection with the Bob Dylan Examiner’s Christmas Gift Guide, SW has given a brief interview about Bob Dylan in America here.

Amnesty International today announced the impending release, on January 24, of an extraordinary 4-CD set of Bob Dylan songs performed by some of today’s greatest recording artists. The collection honors the fiftieth anniversary of AI’s formation — which happened to coincide with the young Bob Dylan’s arrival on the New York folk scene. The eclectic collection includes performances by Joan Baez (“Seven Curses”), Elvis Costello (“License to Kill”), KNAAN (“With God on Our Side”), Mark Knopfler (“Restless Farewell”), Diana Krall (“Simple Twist of Fate”), Ziggy Marley (“Blowin’ in the Wind”), My Chemical Romance (“Desolation Row”), and Pete Seeger (“Forever Young”) — 80 artists in all, performing 73 songs in new releases. SW, with great  pleasure, contributed the liner notes. Details and complete track list here.

Sean Wilentz and some good friends will be reading, performing, and hanging out at the KGB Bar at 85 E. 4th Street, NYC, this Tuesday, November 15. The festivities start at 7.

To help celebrate the paperback publication of Bob Dylan in America, Sean Wilentz will be making two appearances in October, reading from and discussing the book. Further readings in November to be announced soon.

**NEW YORK CITY**

92YTRIBECA
92YTRIBECA LECTURE HALL, 200 Hudson Street
Tuesday, October 11
12 PM
Tickets available for $18.00 here

**CAMBRIDGE, MA**

CAMBRIDGE FORUM
FIRST PARISH CHURCH, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue
Thursday, October 27
7PM
Entrance free

The paperback edition of Bob Dylan in America will be officially published by Anchor Books on Tuesday, October 4.
It can be pre-ordered here and here.

Anchor Books will publish the paperback edition of Bob Dylan in America next month.
Stay tuned for announcements of readings and public events in New York and Cambridge.

Forever Young: Celebrating Bob Dylan’s 70th Birthday
Presented by The GRAMMY Museum

Tuesday, May 24, 2011; 7:30pm

His accolades include a GRAMMY award, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, as well as inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Few artists can come close to achieving the musical and historical prominence of Bob Dylan. To commemorate Dylan’s 70th birthday, we invite you to join us for a special screening of Murray Lerner’s documentary, The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at The Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965. Described by the New York Times as “a remarkably pure and powerful documentary,” the film captures the musical genius of a young Bob Dylan and the controversy that surrounded him. After the screening, acclaimed writer and Rolling Stone contributing editor Mikal Gilmore, and Princeton professor and distinguished historian Sean Wilentz will discuss the film, Dylan’s career, and the importance of the evening’s occasion. Gilmore’s numerous outstanding works include some of the most revealing interviews Bob Dylan has ever given. Critics from the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and the Los Angeles Times praise Wilentz and his book, Bob Dylan in America, for uncovering Dylan’s art as never before. Gilmore and Wilentz will take audience questions and be available to sign copies of their books.

Doors open at 7:00pm. Admission is FREE; reservations required. Members receive priority seating. To reserve your seats, please call 213.765.6800 or e-mail programs@grammymuseum.org.

The music critic Alex Ross has posted an astute essay on the Dylan in China flap  here, which notes that  demanding an artist to perform incendiary material  is “the worst sort of armchair moralism,”  especially given what often happens after such displays.  Ross also points out that — believe it or not — there is as yet no evidence whatsoever that the Chinese authorities asked for any changes before approving Dylan’s setlists, or even proscribed any of his songs. In any event,  as Ross also observes, Dylan  sang some mighty edgy material in Beijing and Shanghai — although apparently it wasn’t “protesty” enough for some  critics. But who’s fooling whom?

There is a growing touch of the absurd about this entire controversy, worthy of one of Dylan’s  absurdist songs. It feels all the wackier when things like this surface — the front page of the Xinmin Evening News heralding, above the fold,  Dylan’s then-upcoming Shanghai concert. (Thanks to Eric Muhlheim.)

Maybe Dylan should have sung “Crazy.”

UPDATE UPDATE CORRECTION: YES, IT IS THE WRONG PICTURE!  (THANK YOU, ALAN.)

For The New Yorker, a reply to Maureen Dowd’s attack on Bob Dylan’s performances in China here.