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Artvoice Weekly Edition » Issue v8n49 (12/02/2009) » Section: Left of the Dial


Bob Dylan: Christmas in the Heart

A Bob Dylan Christmas album? It’s like the most improbable of improbable scenarios, but it is fact. It’s just another layer, another reinvention of one of popular music’s—and really popular culture’s—most important and enduring figures, a performer with six decades of stylistic change under his belt. The truth is, it’s not really as much of a reach as many would expect. Dylan is a disciple of the American songbook, and so many great pages of it happen to be Christmas songs. A few years ago, on his terrific Theme Time Radio Hour aired on satellite radio, disc jockey Dylan crafted a two-hour Christmas and New Year’s program which proved to be the greatest holiday mix tape these ears have ever heard. So, Christmas in the Heart might not such a stretch after all.

The Devil Went and Puked: Robert Pollard's Rock Show

Hard to believe it’s been five years since ol’ Bob Pollard pulled the plug on his Dayton, Ohio rock goliath Guided By Voices. The indefatigable 50-something indie rock superhero himself hasn’t slowed down. He’s often recording and releasing four or more records along with the seemingly endless reserve of unreleased GBV material, and even touring with some regularity and playing the old band’s “hits.” It’s like GBV never really stopped.



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