Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart is taking a look at one of music’s most iconic names for his latest record, Dave Does Dylan.
Arriving as part of the global Record Store Day celebrations on April 12, Stewart’s 14-song homage to Bob Dylan sees the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer performing live, one-take covers of Dylan’s catalog – armed only with guitar and vocals. Featuring cover artwork evocative of Dylan’s Nashville Skyline, the record largely features tributes to Dylan’s songs from the ‘60s and ‘70s, though latter-period tracks also make the cut.
In a statement, Stewart explained that he had been a fan of Dylan since childhood, going so far as to perform two Dylan covers as part of his earliest gigs as a teenager in the mid ‘60s.
“I was insistent on getting into folk clubs, but I looked about 12 years old, so they kept me out for a while,” he recalled. “Then one chap, Mick Elliot, took pity and allowed me to play at The George & Dragon which became the center of the folk music scene in my hometown, Sunderland N.E. England, in the 1960’s. It was like stepping into a sacred room where visionaries and rebels converged — actually, it was simply a room upstairs in a pub full of older folk singers, beer, whisky and cigarette smoke everywhere. I was allowed to sing two songs, so I would play Bob Dylan songs from his albums that my brother had left behind when he went to college.
“The audience was always a bit shocked that this kid, who looked so young, was singing these lyrics — especially in that kind of folk club,” Stewart continued. “It was mostly old folk music that was being played from the local area about the coal mines and about the shipyards, which I loved too…and Dylan would have loved also. I started to sing and play these Dylan songs anywhere I could; in other folk clubs, even on the street all over the north east of England. From then on, I got every Bob Dylan album — and still do to this day — on vinyl and in every possible variation.”
“Captain Dave is a dreamer and a fearless innovator, a visionary of high order, very delicately tractable on the surface but beneath that, he’s a slamming, thumping, battering ram, very mystical but rational and sensitive when it comes to the hot irons of art forms,” Dylan himself said in a statement.
“An explosive musician, deft guitar player, innately recognizes the genius in other people and puts it into play without being manipulative. With him, there’s mercifully no reality to yesterday. He is incredibly gracious and soulful, can command the ship and steer the course, dragger, trawler or man of war, Captain Dave.”
Ahead of the release of Dave Does Dylan, Stewart is also set to tape an episode of the Recorded Live at Analog series on March 22 at Analog inside Nashville’s Hutton Hotel. The appearance will see him performing tracks from his upcoming record with the addition of strings, pedal steel guitar, and keys. The episode will air on PBS on an as-yet-unspecified date in July, with tickets available for audience members to attend the taping.
“I’ve played on stage with Bob in London, L.A. and Tokyo, and I find conversations with him — whether on the phone or when we’re together — really relaxed and easy,” Stewart added. “As you can imagine, he is full of great observations and wisdom, all wrapped up in a poetic language.
“I’m so, so grateful for getting to know him personally and to now record this album of songs after years of singing them to friends and to myself. It’s been a long road and these lyrics and melodies have kept me company through the best and the worst of times. I hope my album can do the same for Dylan fans out there—who understand the mastery and the mystery Bob has bestowed on us, and still does to this day.”
