News

Right up until his death in 2022, Bob Neuwirth was known to cognoscenti as a songwriter (“Mercedes Benz,” famously recorded by Janis Joplin), painter, recording artist, and onetime member of Bob Dylan’s inner hipster circle. The last thing he was known for was being famous, which his longtime partner, music executive Paula Batson, says was intentional. “He was very self-effacing in a way,” she says. “He didn’t believe in blowing your own horn. He loved promoting other people and helping them, but he wasn’t good at self-promotion.”

Two...

Jonathan Taplin wasn’t present at the creation, but in rock & roll terms, he came close enough. He witnessed Bob Dylan going electric at the Newport Folk Festival, saw Jimi Hendrix and many others at Monterey Pop, flew into Woodstock while working for the Band, helped coordinate George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh, and was aboard the famous Festival Express, during which the Band, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and others rode a train around Canada, playing concerts along the way.

But those days were just the beginning of Taplin’s unique journey.

Bob Dylan’s 77th birthday was celebrated with a kinetic reimagining of his 1963 solo concert at New York’s Town Hall. Titled Tomorrow Is A Long Time, the May 24 event produced by Hal Willner featured a slew of talented guests — among them: contemporary performers like The Milk Carton Kids, Emily Haines and Teddy Thompson, 60’s survivors like Geoff Muldaur and Bob Neuwirth, poetess Anne Waldman and savvy stage performers like Gina Gershon, Steve Buscemi and Bill Murray — and followed the original concert’s set list, providing ardent, idiosyncratic musical settings for Dylan’s songs with barely a hint of nostalgia. Musical Director Steven Bernstein and the Town Hall Ensemble led the tribute, which was filled with humor, social commentary and an impressive range of musical styles.

While Dylan’s original concert was a solo acoustic affair, the brawny Town Hall Ensemble contained a number of amazing musicians including bandleader Bernstein on trumpet,...

Terry Gilliam is making a comeback this year. In July, the ex-Monty Python animator will reunite with his Flying Circus colleagues for an O2 residency. Before then, though, Gilliam returns to dystopian sci-fi with The Zero Theorem, a film whose patchwork aesthetic can't help but recall his 1985 masterpiece, Brazil.

Apt really, considering how prescient his visionary fable has become. Never mind the imminent World Cup. Gilliam's Brazil – a land where the authorities wield information as a weapon and where dreams are shackled by callous austerity – is even more pertinent to life in 2014.

What is Brazil? It's the story of clerk Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce), whose diligence in resolving a messy, fatal paperwork trail brings him into contact with Jill (Kim Greist) – the girl who haunts his dreams of combat with a giant baby-faced samurai, and who may or may not be a terrorist.

Where is Brazil? "Somewhere in the 20th century,...

1963

Johnny Cash: Blood, Sweat and Tears (Columbia)

Some of Cash's '60s concept albums were burdened with much too talking between tracks; here the tribute to the American working man gets to mostly stand alone on its musical merits, and shines. Notably, it incluces the top version of the traditional "John Henry"” about the most legendarily heroic working man ever, and the version of "Casey Jones" here is classic as well. Politically and psychologically, Cash was the perfect man for this job.

1968

Byrds: Notorious Byrd Brothers (Columbia)

Sometimes transitional albums, confusing listeners expecting a group's earlier style, are underrated. Not so with this classic. It's true that it didn't sell as well as earlier Byrds LPs, nor did the single from the album chart very high, but for decades Notorious Byrd Brothers has been widely revered, and not just by fans; some critics have even anointed it as the band's best album.

Singer-songwriter-producer Peter Case has a wealth of good friends. The rocker was sideswiped by astronomical medical bills after emergency heart bypass surgery. His friends got word that the musician was without medical insurance, and rallied to put on a benefit to raise funds to offset his expenses. Held at McCabe's in Santa Monica, California, the master of ceremonies T-Bone Burnett, invited comic Eric Idle, singer Katie Melua and folk rock legend Richard Thompson among other surprise guests to the stage on Sunday night . It was the final night in a series of three sold-out shows benefiting Case. Burnett's Sunday night revue also featured Joe Henry, Sam Phillips, Syd Straw, Bob Neuwirth, Carla Olson, Geoff Muldaur, and Case's former...