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Easy Reader Review of the Dylan Fest!
"I'll Shall Be Released" - Renee Safier - 2008 Bob Dylan Fest
"Tangled Up In Blue" - Bob Malone - 2008 Bob Dylan Fest
"Blind Willie McTell" - Fuzzy Thurston - 2008 Bob Dylan Fest
MAY 8TH, 2010 @ St. Anthony's School, 1:00 - 9:00 P.M.
HOSTED BY ANDY HILL & RENEE SAFIER W/THEIR BAND HARD RAIN
ANDY HILL & RENEE SAFIER & HARD RAIN PRESENT THE 20TH ANNUAL BOB DYLAN FEST – SATURDAY, MAY 8, 2010
Folk/rock duo Andy Hill and Renee Safier will host their 20th Annual Bob Dylan Birthday Fest at St. Anthony’s School in El Segundo, 1:00 – 9:00 p.m. The fest will be held outside adjacent to the gym, rain or shine and a portion of the proceeds will benefit St. Anthony’s Elementary School. Musicians include Hill and Safier with their band Hard Rain, Bob Malone, Karen Nash and Marty Rifkin, who has toured and recorded with Bruce Springsteen, among others. Rifkin will accompany them on pedal steel. Soloists, bands and duos will perform over 60 songs from Dylan’s vast catalogue, with no repeat numbers. Chord charts are provided for instrumentalists to join in and musicians and bands are selected before the event, several returning each year. The audience is encouraged to dress up in costumes as “characters, things, interpretations and misinterpretations of Dylan’s song titles or lyrics,†states Andy. “A misinterpretation would be when our guitarist dressed up as Angus Young (of AC DC) as a play on the song title ‘Forever Young.’†Some of the costumes over the years have also included various versions of “Tangled Up In Blue,†“Highway 61,†“farmer’s daughter,†“Isis†and “baby blue,†among others. Last year’s performances are posted on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=pffriel22&view=video s
St. Anthony’s is located at 233 Lomita Street in El Segundo. Admission is $25 at the gate, children 12 and under are $10. Food and drinks will be available for purchase. For seating bring a beach chair. Advance tickets for $20 can also be purchased through andyandrenee.com or by contacting Andy at (310) 324-3663 or [email protected].
Andy Hill started the party in 1991 in celebration of Dylan’s 50th birthday (May 24). He had read in the liner notes of Dylan’s Biograph retrospective set of a party in New York where guests were invited to dress up as characters from Dylan’s songs. Andy’s band at the time knew a lot of the legendary songwriter’s material and booked the first gig at the Hermosa Saloon as a costume party. Since the party’s inception it has been held at various venues in the South Bay, including Andy’s backyard.
Andy and Renee are recording their tenth CD as well as a DVD of past Dylan Fest performances. Several of their CDs were produced by Marty Rifkin, including the critically acclaimed It Takes A Lot To Laugh that featured all Dylan songs. Reviews of the CD led to a performance at the Dylan Fest in Italy where the duo were also a hit in the after hours jam sessions, as they knew how to play most of Dylan’s material. With the help of their band Hard Rain and several friends, Andy and Renee also recreated a live performance of The Band’s legendary Last Waltz concert.
Andy and Renee play over 200 dates a year as a duo or with their band throughout Southern California, folk festivals including: Telluride Blues Festival (where Renee’s blues and jazz vocal chops won the 2005 Acoustic Blues competition), Kerrville Folk Festival, Napa Valley Folk Festival, Sierra Songwriter’s Festival and Winery Music Awards Festival.
Review of 2008 Bob Dylan Fest:
“The performers on stage last Saturday were more than mere imitators … There was ‘Nashville Skyline’ -era Dylan crooning Americana. There was coil-haired Dylan in a polka dot shirt wailing wild blues. And then there were the costumed characters from Dylan’s songs: ladies in leopard-skin pillbox hats, Big Jim ‘looking so Dandy and so fine,’ even ‘Tangled Up and Blue’ in a blue dress with knotted frayed ends.†– (Easy Reader)
It Takes A Lot to Laugh received such critical praise as:
"...Safier's voice oft drips with an aching sensitivity filtered through delicate beauty and a fragility that would break and disappear in less capable hands...Hill's cuts drenched in prairie sod, the workingman's lament, and a salt-of-the-earth sprechestimme.. – Folk Acoustic & Music Exchange
If you're admirer of the songwriting skills of Bob Dylan then this tribute from the SoCal folkies Andy Hill and Renee Safier is worth the effort. Drawing on a wide chronological range of the Dylan songbook, Hill and Safier, accompanied by Marty Rifkin on bass, guitar and various slide variations, offer 14 straightforward interpretations. Their selection of material is impeccable and impressive, frequently departing from the obvious in order to include the excellent. – 5 out of 5 stars – Cosmik.com
5 out of 5 stars Best Dylan tribute album I've heard in a long time. Reviewer: Steve Sevek, producer of Thinking About Bob Dylan
If Dogs Run Free/Isis