The Female Bob Dylan

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Latest Episodes:

Episode 8: A Complete Unknown Legend In Her Time Jan 07, 2025

We're back to review the new Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown (**SPOILER ALERT**). We discuss Hollywood-ifying the cultural and political tensions of Dylan going electric, who's represented, misrepresented (Toshi Seeger, Alan Lomax) & left out entirely (Jean Ritchie, Harry Smith), Timothée Chalamet's press tour, and our yearning for the Nosferatu of the folk revival.

Episode 7: Odetta Takes This Hammer Dec 13, 2024

In our last official episode of the season, we celebrate the brilliant, iconoclastic life of singer, guitarist, and activist, Odetta. We talk interpreters & inheritors, Black music & Black history, and Odetta's role as a connector between the folk revival & the civil rights movement. We also redeem theater kids and confess our brushes with Unitarianism.

Episode 6: The Official FBD Last Waltz Tier List with Kana Zink Nov 27, 2024

Our Last Waltz Thanksgiving Special! While Sophie rests her voice, our friend Kana Zink steps in to help us rate the performances in Martin Scorsese's documentary of The Band's 1976 farewell show on a scale from "superior" to "madness or genius?" We also discuss Levon Helm's thousand yard stare, visit Garth Hudson's mulch factory, and consider the correlation (or causation?) between V-neck depth and ego.

Episode 5 Bonus: Hejira and the Anti-Troubadour with Lou Turner Nov 15, 2024

We bring one of our favorite songwriters and theme song artist Lou Turner on the pod to discuss Joni’s road album Hejira and Lou’s not-on-the-road album Microcosmos (2022). We also talk Nashville’s weird music underbelly, try hard troubadours, and that Wolf Eyes side project “Crazy Labrador.”

Episode 5 (Part 2): Joni Mitchell’s Contemporary American Music with Allison Chomet Nov 01, 2024

Round two of our own personal Joni Jam. Hissing of Summer Lawns - Hejira - Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter corridor, confronting Joni’s blackface and redface, collaborations with Jaco Pastorius and Larry Klein, streaming-era gripes, and sitting through Brandi to hear Joni.

Episode 5 Bonus: Joni Mitchell at the Hollywood Bowl Recap feat. Allison Chomet Oct 21, 2024

An on-the-ground recap of last night’s Joni Mitchell & The Joni Jam show at the Hollywood Bowl from someone who was really there, man.

Episode 5 (Part 1): Joni Mitchell's World of Emotion with Allison Chomet Oct 18, 2024

We enter the world of Joni Mitchell to discuss the dialectic of muse and muse-er, the appeal and cultural baggage of confessional songwriting, the bad men of the folk revival, "the cool girl" trope, life in Saskatoon and Laurel Canyon, and more. Featuring the brilliant and very fun Joni expert Allison Chomet!

Episode 4 Bonus: Pack Up Your Sorrows: On Mimi Fariña Oct 11, 2024

As we dug deep into Joan Baez’s history and lore we found ourselves drawn to her little sister Mimi Fariña, whose story is usually hewn to her husband Richard and to Joan. For a few minutes, we unspool the moment and send our flowers to Mimi and her beautiful voice.

Episode 4: You, Me & The Revolution: On Joan Baez Oct 04, 2024

We follow Joan Baez’s life through her meteoric popularity when folk music was the thing and discuss what exactly that thing was: as in, we talk revival and invention, tradition and interpretation, authenticity, corniness, and theft. We also sit with Joan’s politics, how she’s been positioned as *the* female counterpart to Dylan, and her vibe as a committed barefoot person.

Episode 3: Vashti Bunyan’s Vision Sep 20, 2024

Vashti Bunyan’s 1968-69 horse-drawn caravan trip from South London to the Isle of Skye has become a symbolic heroine’s journey of the British folk revival, but what was Vashti’s own vision for the trip? Drawing from her introspective memoir Wayward, we consider that voyage–with its terrible lentils and terrible men–which required her to let go of so much, including her music career. We discuss her preference for “plain sounds,” her rejection of the folk label, and how through her rediscovery 30 years later, she finally found her artistic agency and adoring audience.

Episode 2 Bonus: She Was a Rare Thing with Jake Xerxes Fussell Sep 13, 2024

Riffing on that Richard Thompson song about Anne Briggs (or was it Vashti Bunyan?), haylofts, and steamies.

Episode 2: What is Bob Dylan with Jake Xerxes Fussell Sep 06, 2024

We have the inimitable Jake Xerxes Fussell on the pod to help us think through the big question: WHAT (not who) is Bob Dylan? We also discuss Bobby D’s fashion choices, the difference between interpreters, presenters, and makers of tradition (and whether that matters), who (or what) Bob Dylan serves, and the difficulty of writing a good song about the current political moment.

Episode 1: Connie Converse’s Long Wandering Aug 22, 2024

Working from a biography with an unreliable narrator, we attempt to shake the great Connie Converse free from its pages and offer a fresh perspective on her music, radical politics, and deep community ties. We consider how to grapple with an artist’s legacy and the cloud of mystery surrounding them in a way that is respectful and ethical, while mindful of a biographer’s positionality, biases, and personal connection to their work.

Episode 0: Who Is She? Aug 22, 2024

In the words of the inimitable Garth Brooks this is the week we let the conversation begin. Intro to the pod + Sophie, Sarah, and Emily. And to Bob Dylan (courtesy Chat GPT), and the wonderful Connie Converse (as well as to the book about her, which we did not love). Episode 0! Who is she!

Trailer: Introducing The Female Bob Dylan Aug 18, 2024

THE FEMALE BOB DYLAN launches Thursday 8/22 with new episodes every other Friday.

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