- Singing as a spiritual practice

Posted Fri, 02/05/2010 - 11:40pm by Doug Daller

“I had a singing audition after a few months with Doug. The director commented: 'Wow! Have you being taking voice lessons?'”

Andrew Edlin

Doug Daller's blog

Bob Dylan Talks About "Together Through Life" with Bill Flanagan

Posted Sun, 03/07/2010 - 11:44pm by Doug Daller

A lot of this album feels like a Chess record from the fifties. Did you have that sound in your head going in or did it come up as you played?

Well some of the things do have that feel. It’s mostly in the way the instruments were played.

Bob Dylan Talks About Christmas in the Heart with Bill Flanagan

Posted Sun, 03/07/2010 - 11:34pm by Doug Daller

Bob Dylan has at various times revolutionized folk, rock, country and gospel music. However, any Dylan fan who says he was not surprised that Bob has released an album of traditional Christmas songs is pulling your leg. Christmas In The Heart is another surprising move by an artist famous for surprises. Yet when you hear Dylan’s direct and obviously sincere readings of “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “Little Town Of Bethlehem,” and “The First Noel,” this unlikely exercise seems of a piece with the rest of Dylan’s work.

Stephen Foster - the first American pop song

Posted Thu, 09/03/2009 - 7:50pm by Doug Daller

For the first half of the nineteenth century in America, almost everybody carried around the same question, namely, what in blazes are we doing here? Between the War of 1812 and the Civil War, we fought Mexico for Texas and, to our surprise, won the whole Southwest. We talked the British out of Oregon. We simply took California. I imagine this group of our forefathers to be more or less in the position of the dog who finally catches the car it's been chasing. Then the dog has to learn to drive the car.

Martha Graham: "There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening..."

Posted Fri, 10/24/2008 - 5:41pm by Doug Daller

About Martha Graham, Agnes de Mille said: ‘I was bewildered and worried that my entire scale of values was untrustworthy. ... I confessed that I had a burning desire to be excellent, but no faith that I could be. Martha said to me, very quietly,’

‘There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique...

Liner Notes from Bob Dylan's Tell Tale Signs, Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (long essay)

Posted Tue, 10/21/2008 - 10:41am by Doug Daller
The simple fact that this release is number 8 in the ongoing Official Bob Dylan Bootleg Series speaks volumes about the incredible breadth and fecundity of the Minnesota Bard's output. Eight volumes, all multidisc, of songs that never saw the light of day on official releases! To mere mortals in the music business, eight records is a career. A long one...

Swamp Thang - Videos of Dr. John

Posted Thu, 10/02/2008 - 9:55pm by Doug Daller

Two very swampy videos of Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya & Where Ya At, Mule?...