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Comrades From The North

In his modern classic Mississippi Dylan authored these telling lines:

Everybody movin' if they ain't already there
Everybody got to move somewhere
Stick with me baby, stick with me anyhow
Things should start to get interesting right about now

The sentiments expressed therein have frequently had the ring of truth at various times in Dylan's career but they sure did get mighty interesting recently. To everyone's surprise Dylan delivered his second album in a year. As if that weren't enough, he goes and blows away all preconceptions and fills it full of Christmas songs and carols, or holiday songs in his parlance.

Christmas In the Heart is a largely jolly effort crammed with much ho-ho-ho-ness and many a merry beat interspersed with dollops of dreariness and well-loved carols. Now the album has been made for charitable purposes and we applaud that fact. It has a lovely warm sound which clearly captures that 1950's feel and evokes a nostalgic image of gentle, family-orientated Christmases past. However, the over-familiarity of the material, the cringe-worthy vocal syrup which is the backing singers and the sheer lack of range in Dylan's own voice makes for some testing performances - for the listener. Turn the pages of this issue of The Bridge to find out what other contributors think.

Things did get mighty interesting in a recent episode of the US series FlashForward. As one of the key characters sat at her desk up onto her computer screen popped a video clip of Dylan performing Shelter From the Storm from the Hard Rain TV show from Fort Collins 23 May 1976. Is there some insider dealing going on here? This show has never been commercially released on video or DVD but it must have been sourced legally, you would think. No matter, it livened up the show no end!

May you climb on every rung ..........



Mike & John


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