Wick writer involved in Bob Dylan retrospective
A Wick-based writer is involved in a Bob Dylan retrospective due to be performed at the Wee Red Bar in Edinburgh on July 22.
Kevin Crowe is author of 'No Home In This World' and editor of the Highland LGBT+ magazine 'UnDividingLines'.
The event, which revisits Dylan's 1989 critically acclaimed comeback album Oh Mercy, will see a specially selected band of Edinburgh musicians performing all the songs on the album, with each track being introduced by a piece of flash fiction written by Kevin. Each of the stories explores characters or themes present in the songs.
The event is the brainchild of Edinburgh musician and songwriter Andrew Ferguson who recruited the band and asked Kevin Crowe to write the introductions.
Kevin said: “When Andrew approached me, I jumped at the opportunity. I have been a massive Dylan fan since the 1960s. I first saw him live in 1969 at the Isle of Wight Festival and have seen him live many times since and have all his records. I consider him to be a worthy recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
"His work has stood the test of time and even now, in his 80s, he is still writing, recording and touring. He continues to be an inspiration to countless songwriters, poets and writers.”
Explaining his approach to the spoken word pieces, Kevin said: “From the start I decided I didn't want to paraphrase Dylan's words: that would have been a pointless exercise. Instead, I used themes and characters in the songs as well as the recording process Dylan described in his autobiography 'Chronicles Volume 1' and used them as a launching pad for stories that explore a variety of contemporary concerns.”
The stories cover a wide range of topics, including loneliness, depression, compassion, adultery, betrayal, religion (both its value and shortcomings), mortality and love transcending terminal illness.
Kevin added: “Before the Covid lockdown I used to regularly read in public, but this will be the first live reading I will have done since. I am really excited by it and have spent much of the past few months writing and editing the work.”
