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Hibbing’s Dylan Days committee disbands
I bring some long awaited, sadly official news tonight. Dylan Days, the arts and literary event held every May in Bob Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota, will be going on indefinite hiatus. The three-member steering committee (of which I was a founding member) voted to disband this fall. In the time since we’ve been working…
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Dylan Days opens today in Hibbing
For much of Bob Dylan’s meteoric career arc, most people in his Iron Range hometown of Hibbing called him Bobby Die-lin and wondered what he was singing about. Some still do, but by now the practice is reserved as a sort of passive-aggressive protest by people who wish they could get paid that much to…
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Dylan Days waning in Hibbing
Bob Dylan’s birthplace of Duluth, Minnesota, kicked off its annual Dylan Fest this past weekend with a concert and live music. They’ve got more events going on throughout the week. Then, this Friday, May 23 and Saturday, May 24 (Bob’s birthday), Bob Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing begins its annual Dylan Days event up here on…
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Times a’ Changin’ in Bob Dylan’s hometown
When Robert Zimmerman left Hibbing in 1959, it’s unlikely he or his hometown would predict these facts: That a “space theatre” named for a prominent local grocer would be constructed a few blocks from the Zimmerman home … because, you know, men walked on the moon; That the Zimmerman home would one day be on…
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Grammy’s Bob Dylan photo exhibit coming to Hibbing
Here’s a stroke of great news amid a rough year for Bob Dylan fans in the music legend’s hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota. The Grammy Museum exhibit “Daniel Kramer: Photographs of Bob Dylan” will be making its United States debut after stops in Paris and London. Not in New York. Not even in Minneapolis. The Kramer…
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Dylan Days 2014 to continue despite Zimmy’s closure
As many of you know I’ve been part of the team that organizes Dylan Days in Hibbing, Minnesota, since 2001. This has been one of our hardest years yet, with the closure of Zimmy’s Restaurant, the spiritual and cultural hub of Dylan Days, where “Dylan pilgrims” have landed for decades. Well, Dylan Days 2014 will…
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Bob Dylan pitches for Chrysler in Super Bowl ad
Folks who stuck with the Seattle Seahawks blowout in the Super Bowl were treated to one of Chrysler’s trademark American heartstrings ads: this one featuring Hibbing’s own Bob Dylan. The reclusive folk/rock troubadour waxed poetic about America, the road, and the Detroit-made goodness of Chrysler automobiles. My local social media feed did not lack the…
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Bob Dylan and the Iron Range
I happened across a 2007 essay “A Trip to Hibbing High” by the Bob Dylan historian Greil Marcus, one of the best known scholars of Dylan’s work, after his trip to Hibbing that year. I recall his visit because of my work with Dylan Days, but had not read the piece before. He describes a…
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Interactive Dylan video ‘channels’ new art concept
Though it’s already been around the internet for a week or so, this new interactive Dylan video is a groundbreaking must watch. Bob Dylan’s classic song, “Like a Rolling Stone,” has been named by the magazine Rolling Stone as the most important rock ‘n’ roll song of all time (to be fair, the magazine drew…
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Bob Dylan: ‘I’ve been around iron all my life’
(POST UPDATED 11/18/2013) — Bob Dylan was born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota, raised up north in Hibbing on the Mesabi Iron Range. Much is made of his relationship with his hometown. He, like many Iron Rangers in the 1950s, left and built a life elsewhere. Bob Dylan’s life so happens to include five…
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Minnesota native Bob Dylan awarded Légion d’honneur
The nation of France awarded iconic singer/songwriter and northern Minnesota native Bob Dylan its highest distinction this week, the Légion d’honneur (Legion of Honor). According to the BBC, French cultural minister Aurelie Filippetti gave a glowing speech Nov. 13, 2013, citing Dylan’s influence by French poetry and how he inspired student uprisings in the 1960s,…
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Bob Dylan rock opera set to drop this month
As a longtime coordinator and media representative for Dylan Days, the annual arts and music event in Bob Dylan’s Iron Range hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota, I’m used to receiving oddities in the mail. For instance, there was this notice about a new rock opera album being released featuring Bob Dylan music. The band, Diva De…
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Dylan Days reach fever pitch today in Bob’s hometown
Dylan Days continues this morning with the famous Bobby Zimmerman bus tour, an interactive storytelling experience that takes visitors through “Bob’s” Hibbing. The tour departs from downtown Hibbing at 10:30 a.m. and lets out at 2:30 p.m. (refreshments available) at Howard Street Booksellers. Author M.L. Liebler will hold an event there at the end of…
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See the ‘Dylan by Duluth’ sculpture concept
Last Sunday I talked about a new Bob Dylan sculpture project in Duluth in my preview of northern Minnesota’s Dylan Fest and Dylan Days (starting today!) Here’s a sneak peak at the sculpture, which was unveiled at a preview yesterday: The “Dylan by Duluth” website launches Monday, with a Kickstarter raising funds for the project…
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Dylan Days commence in Hibbing, Minnesota
Today Dylan Days starts in earnest in Bob Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota. Duluth poet laureate Sheila Packa will lead a poetry workshop from 1-3 p.m. at the Hibbing Memorial Building dining hall. At 3, M.L. Liebler and the Coyote Monk Band Great Northern Radio Show alumnus and Hibbing’s own Iris Kolodji will provide entertainment…