SEAN WILENTZ
Author & Historian
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 [...]
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, [...]
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.
Anchor Books will be publishing the paperback edition of Bob Dylan in America next month. More news very soon about readings and public events in October in New York and Boston.
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 [...]
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 [...]
For The New Yorker, a reply to Maureen Dowd’s attack on Bob Dylan’s performances in China here.
After a break, the latest radio appearance on BDiA, this time with Vincent Woods on the Arts Tonight program, recently broadcast in Ireland on RTE Radio One, here.
The stories about the great Michael Bloomfield and the making of “Like A Rolling Stone” are many and oft-repeated. Not least interesting: the one about how Al Kooper showed up at the Columbia studio hoping to play guitar, heard Bloomfield play and knew he was overmatched — but then snuck back in to play the [...]
SW appeared along with George Packer and Ross Douthat on the Charlie Rose show to discuss the recent shootings in Tucson, President Obama’s speech honoring the victims, and the rise of violent political rhetoric in recent years. See video here.
SW’s Daily Beast review of Bob Dylan’s NYC Thanksgiving week shows at Terminal 5 appears at http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-11-27/bob-dylan-concerts-at-terminal-5/
The video of SW discussing Bob Dylan in America with the poet and arts leader Dana Gioia at the Aspen Institute in Washington on 11/23 is available at http://www.aspeninstitute.org/video/dialogue-featuring-sean-wilentz-author-bob-dylan-america
SW: Since back in L.A., I’ve been able to rest up from the most intense to-ings and fro-ings connected to Bob Dylan in America and settle in a little. Weekdays generally find me working at the Huntington Library, with its wonderful accumulation of manuscripts and rare books on U.S. history. And the weekends? This past [...]
For those of you who were unable to attend last September’s Bob Dylan in America reading in New York, or who missed the C-SPAN broadcast last weekend, the video is now available for viewing and downloading here.
C-Span 2 Book Notes is broadcasting the book reading held at Barnes and Noble in New York in September. The first airing just occured (it caught us by surprise), but it will air again on Sunday, October 31, at 10 AM and 4 PM, Eastern Time.
SW: The week back East brought great fun and pleasure. On the Dylan front, the New-York Historical Society sponsored the long-scheduled event on Thursday night involving Rosanne Cash, Bill Flanagan, and myself. Bill was his usual witty, engaging, provocative self, asking questions raised by his reading of BDiA. Rosanne reflected on Dylan’s music, her dad’s, [...]
Robin Washington, an editor at the Duluth News Tribune, has prepared a superb radio documentary marking the anniversary of Coltrane’s recording of “My Favorite Things.” It will air on various public radio stations around the country this Thursday, October 21: check your local listings or follow the link on Robin’s comment to the preceding post.
Next week — October 21, to be exact — marks the fiftieth anniversary of the recording of “My Favorite Things” by John Coltrane, with McCoy Tyner on piano, Steve Davis on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums, for Atlantic Records. In commemoration, here is a video of the John Coltrane Quintet (with Eric Dolphy on [...]
From SW: Back at the end of the summer, when this website got launched, I tweeted about what had become one of my favorite traditional-style music groups, the Carolina Chocolate Drops. I say traditional-style, because their music, while steeped in old string band tradition, is anything but reverential or imitated. Justin Robinson, Rhiannon Giddins, and [...]
SW will be returning to New York next week for a pair of events. First, the New-York Historical Society is hosting a session on Bob Dylan in America with Bill Flanagan, Rosanne Cash, and a special guest, on Thursday, October 21, at 6:30, at the Society for Ethical Culture on 64th Street and Central Park [...]
