April 6, 2026 • 43 mins
Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home (1965): The Album That Changed Everything In this episode of Music Rewind, we dive deep into one of the most pivotal and influential albums in rock and folk history: Bringing It All Back Home by Bob Dylan, released in 1965.
This wasn't just another record — it was a cultural earthquake. Splitting its identity between electric rock and acoustic introspection, the album captured Dylan mid-reinvention, challenging the expectations of the folk community and redefining what a singer-songwriter could be. It helped ignite the folk-rock movement and permanently altered the trajectory of modern music.
Host Steve is joined by musician and songwriter William John Titus Bishop to unpack the album's enduring legacy — track by track, side by side.
What We Cover
- Dylan's bold transition from folk purist to electric innovator
- The controversy and tension his electric turn created within the music community
- The album's dual structure: electric Side A vs. acoustic Side B
- Track-by-track highlights, including Subterranean Homesick Blues, Mr. Tambourine Man, She Belongs to Me, Love Minus Zero/No Limit, and more
- How Bringing It All Back Home bridges two artistic worlds with confidence and conviction
- Why the album remains a cornerstone of creative risk-taking and artistic evolution
- Connecting Dylan's 1965 transformation to the challenges artists face today
About the Guest: William John Titus Bishop
William John Titus Bishop is a musician and songwriter whose work blends introspective lyricism with modern indie and alternative influences. Drawing inspiration from classic songwriters while forging his own creative path, his music reflects a deep appreciation for storytelling, melody, and emotional authenticity.
🎵 Listen to William John Titus Bishop's music: https://beacons.ai/wjtbishop
Episode Details
🎙️ Show: Music Rewind 📅 Season 5, Episode 3 💿 Album: Bringing It All Back Home 🎤 Artist: Bob Dylan 📆 Year Released: 1965 🏷️ Genre: Folk Rock, Electric Folk, Acoustic Folk, Singer-Songwriter ⏱️ Era: 1960s Rock & Roll, British Invasion response, American folk revival
Get the Album
🛒 Pick up Bringing It All Back Home on vinyl or CD: https://ebay.us/VXEzoC
More From Sidereal Media Group
📀 Album Archives: The Vault of Music History Every great album has a story. Counting down the Top 300 Albums of All Time — one record at a time. New episodes every Monday. 🔗 https://pod.link/1822387190
🎬 Cinema Decon — Deconstructing the movies of the 80s, 90s, and 2000s 🔗 www.cinemadecon.com
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Episode Transcript
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[Music]
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Hello and welcome to Music Rewind, a podcast where we look to tell the stories behind our favorite albums.
I'm your host Steve Epley and in each episode we invite a guest on to tell us about their favorite music album,
how they discovered it and what makes it special to them. Joining me tonight is musician and songwriter William
John Titus Bishop, a classically trained pianist and composer. William has three full-length studio
(00:42):
albums in his catalog. His Spotify streams are in the millions. His music is even used in university
courses. William brings a unique perspective to songwriting, blending academic roots,
classical training in a drive to carve his own path. Welcome William and thank you for being on the show.
Oh no proclamations, thank you very much for having me Steve. William was very kind enough to
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reschedule because my son had a shoot so thank you very much. I'm glad we were able to make this happen.
No it's a pleasure. No proclamations. All right well let's jump right into this. What album did you
bring to the table and what makes it special to you? The album that I chose was bringing it all back home
by my book Dylan. For me it was one of the first albums I listened to when I was growing up
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which wasn't classical music because I came from a very classical background and the first sort of
rock or pop or folk music that I listened to was Bob Dylan and particularly this album and it kind
of got me starting to thinking about different types of music and different sorts of sounds and
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it switched on a few lights musically. How did you discover it then? My parents because
X obviously is one of the most sort of key album in terms of musical culture and music history
and all of those things. It's obviously got a very big place in the history of music but my parents
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were big fans of that era and they used to play it all the time and it's one of the first things that
I listened to which wasn't that sort of classical stuff. Did your classical training and stuff come
through your parents also? Is that is like a musical roots in the family? Oh that will interesting
question but no that was through sort of school and through that sort of there was always music going
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on at school and it was always classical stuff. I didn't get out of chance when I was growing up so
this since other genres of music and then sort of I heard Dylan and particularly this album and
yeah and it's sort of I decided to think about writing some different sorts of music myself.
How old were you? Well this was when I was gosh I must have been in my teens, my early teens.
(03:32):
So popular music at the time was very different. It was very very different pop music at the time
but this caught my ear much in a different way. Obviously you're not from the States. So a question
of how available was this music on the radio and stuff there for you or was like were you able
to expand from Dylan after this? Did they have the catalogs available to feudalistitute?
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Not in the same way. There was obviously everyone knew Dylan and everyone knew sort of these artists
from that sort of era, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, all that sort of 60s, 70s funk music
if you like. It was all available. It was all there. It just wasn't what was being pushed on the radio.
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It wasn't what was being in the charts. That sort of music wasn't being pushed and wasn't being
listened to in the UK in the same way. It was British bands. It was Britpop and Oasis, things like that.
So it takes a bit more sort of searching for. It's there. It's hard enough certainly.
(04:40):
Hey Mr. Timberman, bless on for me in the jingle time. Good morning. I can follow you.
So obviously this album is basically the catalyst of his transition from folk to folk rock.
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And that's what you alluded to that earlier. It's place in music history. I found that quite
fascinating researching this episode. I'd always known of it that Dylan did this, but I didn't really
know when that point in time was. And at what point in his quite large catalog really. He's got
a lot of albums. So I was great that you picked this one. But then when I listened to it, I didn't
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hear the change. And that was interesting to me because hearing subterranean blues and Maggie's
farm really all these songs, I lumped that into just folk music in general. And I didn't hear the
change at first. Does that make sense? I know. I know I get what you're saying. I think because
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it was still quite early in his career. I think it was still on the earlier albums. And he was on
tour at the time or around the same time. He was on a world tour. So he was playing electric instruments.
And he was playing all of these folk songs that he had written on his first three albums. He was
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playing all these songs with electric instruments. And he was getting a lot of pushback from fans
about that. So that kind of transition was happening in the live side of things. And I think that's
reflected in the music. I think the preceding album was another side of Bob Dylan, which was entirely
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acoustic songs. And the kind of half and half sort of mix of acoustic songs and electric
sort of instruments, which is not so unusual now. But at the time, I think it was very, very unusual,
especially for a folk music icon to be doing that, to be then using electric instruments. I think
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a lot of people sort of reacted to that quite strongly, understandably, because folk music is
very special to a lot of people. So I think there's quite an understandable reaction to what he was
doing both live and in the studio with sort of experiments who had different sounds. It's one of
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those lenses where innovation in hindsight, it looks ordinary from today's perspective. But at the time,
it was a gigantic leap revolutionary compared to what he was doing before. And like you said, the fans
took it very personal. That folk voice of the generation was theirs. And from what I was reading,
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they took it as he was trying to emulate the Beatles and other acts, which in turn they emulated Bob Dylan.
It's a classic rock, it's a very small community, which is one of the reasons I love it.
And I really just found it fascinating that when I went back and looked at it, I listened to the first half
and I thought, this is just Bob Dylan to me. This is not Bob Dylan folk or Bob Dylan electric. This
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is just just Bob Dylan. And then once you hit the second half of the album and it's all acoustic,
like, okay, I see the difference now, but it's still just Bob Dylan to me. Good Bob Dylan, but
it's amazing how my mind, I just lump all that together. Yeah, it is interesting. I think because
that it might be slightly different in the UK, but I know in the US, but the image of Dylan, as someone
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who is always present somewhere in popular culture, you do kind of just get used to this idea of,
if he's sound, he's kind of that mixed sound, you kind of just get used to it and you expect that.
From Dylan, but at the time, I guess it must have been a big shock to some people. I think he'd
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been on the last tour of the Dudes with Joan Baillais and I think, I mean, it's folk purists and
there are still a lot of those around, kind of affected with very sort of almost religiously
the interested in sort of folk music. And I think to a lot of those people, I think you can totally
understand that it would make them feel uncomfortable, at least, for some like Dylan to be doing that.
(09:11):
Yeah, he had that, the festival at the end of that tour, was that Newport? Yes, that was the infamous
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Newport festival, which I think Pete Seagull also, Dylan almost took a fence at Dylan playing an
electric guitar at a folk festival. I don't know, of course, but I think part of what Dylan was doing was,
I think, was doing that to provoke some sort of reaction from people and from music. I think it's
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very much a wake up call, I think for a lot of people, I think it must have come across like I see that.
Yeah, he was trying to stir the part. He did it intentionally. I think he must have, I can't
believe he didn't know in his mind. They've been playing with sort of very, very established folk
musicians and then suddenly he comes out and you know, with electric guitars and I think he must have
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known that something was going to erupt out of that. And I think, yeah, he did, you know, that must have
had an effect. I think he went off to, I think after he did the electric album, he went down to Nashville,
so I was on, but went down to Nashville to do a country album. So I think it did have a knock on
effect into, you know, the way he made music after that himself. It wasn't just the electric too,
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because as I was reading into this, a lot of the lyrics, I mean, we hear him now, it's Bob Dylan
being poetic, but at the time, a lot of it was not really anti folk, but it was anti folk establishment.
That's interesting because Dylan wasn't, obviously Dylan was a protest singer. That was how Dylan
had made a name for himself. He was also a protest singer, but I don't think people expected him to
(11:12):
protest against the establishment that he was partly held to build. Yeah. You know, hugely
instrumental in civil rights movements and in sort of, I think, more domestic political issues.
He was very, very big spokesperson and a very big mouthpiece for those sorts of issues. And I don't
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think people expected him to be doing something which was sort of anti the establishment he came from,
which is what this is typical, you know, it's kind of a very typically rebellious thing to do. And
it's not uncommon for musicians to do something rebellious in that sense. But I think coming from Dylan
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at that time, it did, well, provoke a lot of people and it did create a, I think,
Clayton and New Shomer out of music, which hadn't been heard up to that point.
Absolutely. I agree. And I think it was the natural evolution of that folk style.
Like those, some of those guys were just itching to take that next step. And Bob Dylan kind of took
(12:17):
that first leap for them. Yes. No, I have not absolutely. He was kind of the catalyst in a lot of ways,
I think. And for making that sort of music accessible to a wider audience. And some people who
wouldn't normally have have listened to that before, you could sound you could still certainly hear
special Delirics that it is still definitely Bob Dylan. Some of the most beautiful lyrics
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certainly around them and certainly still some of the most beautiful lyrics written. There was certainly
a shift in a way in musical culture after that album in particular. So walk me through how you
listen to the album, do you bounce around or do you go straight through? Oh, that's a good question.
A legal track by track or we can just talk about your highlights is however you listen to the album.
(13:05):
I don't tend to go track by track. I tend to jump in and out depending on on sort of what I
was looking to listen to at the time. But I do tend to jump in and out. So where do you jump into?
What do you stand out tracks for this album? What is this is one of the albums where I do like
all 11 track. And I don't think you can say that about a lot of albums. I don't think there's a
(13:27):
weak track on the album. I agree with that. Even the stuff which is very, very foaky and very kind of
dense lyrically is still very listenable. It's still very, very kind of accessible. The one that I
subtraining homesick blues, which I know sounds obvious, but it's probably one that I listen to the most
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from the album is subtraining homesick blues. It's a great opener because it really kicks off with
a beautiful guitar twang. You alluded to some of his country lines later on, but that
lousy country twang that that song has, it really sticks with you. You can easily identify that with
Dylan and you can write that on the other electric albums. You can hear that on Highway 61, Revisited,
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and you can hear that on Blondon Blond as well. I think you can hear that very distinctive
guitar sound on all of those albums. And I think that's when I go to probably the most.
I would say after that gates of Eden.
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It is very much lyrically
it's very poetic and this one of his more poetic songs. Just a sort of a strike
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folk song with just acoustic guitar and a couple of guitars on there and vocal. It's a very sort of
straightforward folk song that you wouldn't expect on an album like this. I think it always stops you
and makes you think of it. You've got something like that on a. The Garden of Eden itself as an image
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is perfect for a protest baseline to throw in the imagery in there. So gates of Eden just
is right there in his sweet spot. Dylan has a very unique voice. The tone, the pitch, the sound
of his voice. In the way he says gates of Eden fits his voice so well. Oh, that's absolutely true.
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Whether that's Dylan doing that deliberately is an interest. I think it's an interesting thing. Whether
he's because he changes his voice for an album like the National Skyline. He does change his voice
and he sounds very different. That's a very different tone on the National Skyline. We sounds like
it just a country singer. So I don't know whether that is Dylan deliberately thinking about how he's
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pitch in those words or whether that's a kind of a natural sort of all these stories doing that
naturally. Well, it's a good question. I mean, because what I know of Dylan is mainly this style of voice,
whether it's his early stuff or stuff with the wheelbereys. That's that Dylan voice that I've just
just been beaten into my head through classic rock radio. Yeah. He has a very distinctive voice,
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a very distinctive way of singing, which again has been criticized, but he has a very distinctive
way of singing. It just tends to work very well with getting the songs across to people. We definitely
listen and you pay attention when Dylan sings. He's got a very good way of delivering those songs,
I think. I think that's that you might think you hit on something there. You know, people listen to
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that unique voice when he when he sings it's you zero in on it. That's likely honed through the clubs
when he was coming up. I mean, in order to get the attention of that crowd, whether that voice and
that tone was natural or intentional, that's one thing or if it was curated in order to keep the
the attention of the crowd. Interesting that you should bring up the folk clubs and the coffee houses
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and those sorts of places. And yeah, it must have those sorts of clubs. Obviously, there is so much
competition at those places. There are so many folk singers and there are so many musicians playing
on that sort of that sort of scene that yes, I think you would have to do something a little bit
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different in order to get noticed in a way. Might take away tracks, outlaw blues.
I enjoyed that one. I enjoy a good Western story and he and that kind of jumped out at me.
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Now I see that. And then on the road again, that was a good one.
Sinvassolk White Dance. Yeah, yeah. By the way, this was the first time listen for me.
Oh, okay. Other than Maggie's Farm and Subterranean and Mr. Tam Reenman.
And I'm all right, Ma. You know, there's everything else was like brand new to me, which is one of
the great things about this podcast. I got a lot of these albums that I do. I haven't really
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listened to their entirety. That's a wonderful dude to experience this stuff.
Well, I wake up in the morning, there's frogs inside my socks. Your mama, she's hiding inside.
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The only other Dylan album I have listened to in its entirety was the free wheel and Bob Dylan,
which was excellent. Right. Okay. So this was, let's say like a natural progression from that album to
me right there in that sweet spot of the early 60s. So when I heard her songs like say outlaw blues
and on the road again, they're just right there in that Dylan hit and astride for me. Yeah.
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This definitely trace a line from songs on the free wheeling, which are kind of your typical
sound a lot of that's your typical sort of typical western sort of cowboy, cowboy songs. And that's
still that definitely those elements in this album. I also like that closer. It's all over now, baby blue. Yeah.
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Look at the scenes are coming through. And it's all over now, baby blue.
As a folks on, I don't think you can go a lot better than that to me. If a you want an example of
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I've really good sort of folks on that I think is a brilliant example. It's a nice musical journey.
Going from subterranean all the way to baby blue. I know it was that we spoke about it with the
the people at the time. Some didn't like it because of the changes, but to me it's really a real nice
complete journey from one to 11. I don't get a chance to listen to it all the way through very often.
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It is worth sitting down with this you got the time is worth sitting down with and listening from
start to finish. It is one of those albums I think that every track works well and every track is
good on that one. Now I agree. I think that is just one of the greatest folk albums that my only
complaint I would say would be it's alright, Ma. Who only bleeding in that it's very long
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it's very deep dark and depressing. It is that's the thing I think Dylan's writing around the time.
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I think you see him pitched a lot with people like Adam Ginsburg and he talks about Jack Kererak a lot.
He's trying a lot of these are beat poets or they're from that beat generation and a lot of this stuff
a lot of these lyrics do read like beat poetry and they do read like something out of an Adam Ginsburg
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book and I think he can sometimes be too wordy if the focus is just on the lyrics and on the imagery
it can take the focus away from the music sometimes and they are very long songs a lot of them as well.
So that was it's definitely a long beat poem because the music is not revolutionary on that
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particular album it's the same chords over and over to this long poem. I would say it's just about one or
two stanzas too long where you got the point. It wouldn't work on the radio they would definitely
cut it down I think for a radio edit they would you know they cut that one right down to sort of two
three minutes so yeah that's the ton that comes across I think a lot with Dylan is that sometimes
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the poetry kind of overshadows the music sometimes with them I think yes.
Bringing it all back home made the top of your list what albums would be on your short list
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three to five albums that you could have brought to the table. Oh after bringing it all back home
some some of run by Leonard Cohen that's a very good question. T for the Tillerman by Kat Stevens.
Oh fantastic. Which is a really great album I think underrated if you know I think that
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Kat Stevens album blue by Journey Mitchell and more because she is such a massive folk artist and she's
a very huge folk artist and really there's not a lot comparable to Journey Mitchell I think as a female
folk singer. Oh yeah I'm not big on Journey Mitchell personally here voices is very shrill to me and I
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don't care for it. No I get that I'll take you and me Lou Harris over Journey Mitchell any day. Oh
no no I that's interest technically there are a lot of better theme our folk singers. Oh it's
technically yes I think I think some of Carol King or you're king is a unique but great voice
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and she's a very songwriter itself yeah I think there is some much better technically than Journey
Mitchell but again she has a quite a prominent place in I'll take John Baez over Journey Mitchell
is just something about Journey Mitchell I just just she don't know why yeah no I get that there
are definitely some much better technical singer than Journey Mitchell out there and I guess there's
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another one there's a a focusing you called Nick Drake yes there's the album is five leaves left I
think it's called and it's a fantastic he didn't make many albums but he's a fantastic folk album so
I'd have to put that there yeah the only one I know from here it is pink moon as the only one I've
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dove into and that was a good album oh yeah I think what fantastic sort of example of folk music and
I think one of the few British artists who's managed to cross over into American and US sort of
folk music culture as well so I'd have to put that on the list as well tragically you know he died
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shortly after pink moon but there was a Volkswagen commercial in the 90s that had his pink moon song on
it and Volkswagen commercial in the States it skyrocketed his name recognition and it gave him a second
you know life on the charts yeah that is interesting I do a side show called Alamarqives and I've
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done several of those albums T for the Telemann pink moon we're just little 10 minute music history
snippets and those were really fun albums to dive into in their entirety that for it yeah that's
one my the ones that I listen to most the ones that I go back to myself tends to be those so is
folk rock in folk year go to when you're able to listen to your music on your own I'd like to listen
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to as much music as possible and as much music from a wide variety of genres as possible so I'd
add to this into everything but the stuff that I go back to most is folk rock is that sort of music
bring y'all back home as a segue you know since it was a shift in musical direction but let's talk
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about your your world and your music because you're classically trained but you've gone a couple
different directions with your catalog growing up and when I was went to school and when I was
learning music it was always classical music and there's a very clear sort of path that classical
musicians tend to take from school you know that they you then join a an orchestra on a professional
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level you know you're an orchestra or a run something like that and you're going to doing a very
different sort of work you get put into other people's songs when they need a classical
cellist they will hire a classical cellist and you get very much stuck in the same lane this classical
music and you tend to be the the backing musicians if you like for another project and I was listening
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to a lot of this folk music and a lot of the folk rock and I wanted to make music like that
that's how I wanted to sound not in the sense of I wanted to impersonate Dylan or I wanted to sound
light then a cow in but in the sense of I want to make music which sounds more like that than folk
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music and I wanted to go and sing and play the guitar and go to these rock clubs and you know I wanted
to experience that side of things so I started to write songs essentially at what point like age-wise
and career-wise did you start writing your own songs I must be whoo when I was in my early 20s
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so when I had left school and I'd left education because you weren't able to do that at school
there was no songwriting classes there was no outlet for that at school or at university or whatever
so I kind of thought right I'll go and do this myself and take these songs and play them in
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in bars and in pubs life music in the UK tennis to be based around pubs and that was actually going
to be my next question is is to do the live grind putting the stuff out there musical culture in the UK
it tends to be sort of open mic nights in pubs and in bars and kind of smaller bars smaller pubs
(28:43):
local pubs local bars and it's one of these nights where you have a like an MC and then
seven or eight people go up and perform one or two songs throughout the course of the evening and
that's how a lot of people start with live music and you know that's what I did as well because
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that's where people are playing these songs and it's a kind of very there was no pressure in that
environment because it was just seven or eight different people playing a couple of songs
and there was no sort of ego there was no pretension it was just a local bar and you know everyone was
(29:28):
friendly and everyone do each other and it's a kind of very safe way of performing live and that's how
a lot of artists I think gets started in certainly in the UK so how did you go from the live grind
and just right of your own to having that significant following and hearing music as being taught at
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universities and how did you travel that gap when I started playing those local shows and people
started to say to me you know do you write your own songs then people started saying because I would
always play covers and then you know I'd always play covers I would always play Mr. Tambourine man
or go from the North Country or you know the I would always play covers and then people started saying
(30:16):
to me well do you write your own songs so I thought all right I'll start to write some songs and play
that these nights and I started to write music and then I put the songs out there on the internet
basically on sort of soundcloud and bandcamp and a lot of these sort of these sort of which are fantastic
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services fantastic sort of free services for artists to get their music onto a platform yeah I always
try to push people to bandcamp you know it gives a lot of this fantastic one it's very very good
because it's free for us you know for a start and because it allows people to directly you know
benefit from the sales of that music and it's a very very good one bandcamp and it's one which a lot
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of critics and a lot of people who you'd associate with the music industry it's a lot of
those people use bandcamp as well so it's a great one and I started putting stuff out on there and then
from there the following started to build from there so how many albums have you put out so far?
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last time I checked and because I don't really like to do that so much there was so it's a massive
industry now social media and it's a huge huge industry and when I started making music that wasn't
there so that's something which is kind of which I had to learn to some degree and I've always worked
(31:45):
with other people who are much more experienced in that area than I am so it's not it's not really
something which I have too much knowledge of but they do occasionally have these things where
people ask what's your fan base and you know how many followers have you gotten that you know you
do get these questions occasionally I think last time I checked in total I think just over
(32:10):
two million I think on social media which is a significant number in the great scheme of things
there are many many artists with many many more than that so I'm pretty sure you miss her
me I didn't ask how many followers you had oh sorry now say because I'll be honest followers come
(32:34):
and go just because I'm with you on that I mean hell music rewind has several thousand followers and
I'm get those numbers on every episode I was asking how many full length albums have you completed
so far I think it was three okay so well I've released so far eight albums the three that are mentioned
(32:54):
the most the studio albums were I released when I was with the orchard which are part of Sully and
I released three albums with them and those are the ones that are picked up on most frequently but
(33:16):
this eight in total that I've released that's fantastic so your music is used in university over there
how did that come about and are you and were you involved in that curation that's an inked well again
it's it was I think it's quite interesting to look at the way that music is picked up by academic
institutions because I was studying or at university at the time at the university of York which is
(33:44):
in the north of England so if you don't know the geography of the UK think of London as in the south
I'm aware of our listeners might be unaware of England London as in the south of the UK
and everything revolves around that sort of area York is kind of north almost up to all Scotland
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and I was studying there and the student radio station because it's kind of like college radio
that they have but not quite as extensive the student radio stations asked me if I wanted to come on
and talk about one of my songs and so yeah I said of course I said no problem and I went on and I
(34:29):
um I did a show with them and a couple of weeks later I got another sort of an email from the department
of television film and media at the university and they said could we do a recording of you and
of one of your songs live for one of the courses and I said yeah so that's now well that performance
(34:54):
at least is now there was part of the degree courses at the at that university which is very cool
especially if it's helped your students to with their degrees if it's you know if it's going to
get you used then yeah then I think that's cool hopefully they'll link to your bank here if it does
(35:16):
it feed into mind no it's interesting because if you didn't I thought no a university is using that
music for a specific purpose and it's not strictly a commercial activity that is true that's a good
way to look at it it was just me working with the university there was no sort of um financial aspect
(35:40):
to that and it was very much so the music is being used for an educational purpose which I think is great
well ties back all sort of something you said earlier where when you were in university there are
no courses for songwriting there was no class to help you nurture that aspect so if you give them back
in a non-financial way of this manner that that speaks volumes hopefully people will pick up on that
(36:06):
and students will be able to pick up on that and it will feed into their courses and to their
own education I'm hoping that's sort of a good use for their music and I think they you know they
do that sort of thing a lot with musicians so it was nice it was a very nice and a nice thing to
(36:27):
be able to be a part of so what's next for you well hopefully America before the pandemic before
the lockdowns and everything like that I was doing some recording in a studio in Brooklyn
and I was saying out in Brooklyn for a little while and then the sort of the pandemic happened
(36:50):
and I had to come back to the UK but I was doing some recording out there and I was starting to
spend more time working in America with American musicians and logically the next step would be to
work more in the States absolutely hopefully you do make it back over here if you get it land on your
(37:13):
list let me know oh no I certainly will that would be fantastic you'd be definitely in my mind to
now things are settled down and things are easier now travel wise and things like that it would
definitely be a plan within the next couple of years to be working and performing in the States
work if people find you work and they get your music all the usual channels I'd like to make that
(37:38):
as available as possible so I'd like to say whichever is your the place you go to to listen to music
so YouTube or Spotify or any of the streaming platforms you'll find it there and on social
media as well if that's the way you choose to listen it's available on there as well so hopefully
(38:02):
wherever you would normally go to to listen to music it will be you'll be able to find it there
and I'll put links in the show notes too so if anyone's interested by all means definitely seek out
Will's music it's good stuff thank you so what can progress sadly but I was listening today
your beautiful on piano you're quite talented oh yeah the piano stuff I had a very good piano teacher
(38:26):
it's a nice thing to be able to sort of to be able to sit down and work out a piece of music on a
piano so yeah some glad you found something in that I did enjoy that anything else you want to
mention as far as Bob Dylan your music or anything in general with Dylan that is just such a huge
cultural presence and has been since the 60s and we're now in sort of what 2026 2325 to either 2026
(38:52):
he's such a massive ongoing cultural presence that listen to Bob Dylan it's what I would say you
know if you've never heard of him before and you don't like folk music Dylan is such a massive presence
and it's so ubiquitous within musical culture that he is difficult to ignore so I would um
I say god I'm just bringing it all back home and you know get involved in that I'm using a live
(39:18):
once only once sadly my sorry met Wembley Stadium I swam my once and it was exactly as you'd expect
from Dylan it was exactly what you'd expect from a live show but you know wasn't that polished it
wasn't the highest quality of performance I've seen Dylan once and it was one of the worst shows
(39:40):
you see that he doesn't allow recording devices into his concerts and that made me something behind
that it's I think he has a reputation certainly for not putting very much effort into his live
performances he was obviously on my legends list you know if he comes to town make a good effort
(40:01):
to see him and my wife and I went and saw him and I think yeah he had just had a new album out as this
was would have been you know 2013 2014 somewhere in there and I don't know it was just he mumbled
for an hour and a half in poor lighting and no one could really understand what he was saying
(40:21):
and he was playing stuff from his new album so obviously people wanted to hear his the old classics
and he just ignored them yeah it wasn't quite the new port festival but there was just a lot of
people staring at their phones I think that that is the repertoire that is the repetition he has
and certainly when I saw him it was what you would exactly expect from Dylan but no it was
(40:44):
interest but part of our problem is we start like Paul McCartney a month prior and that dude was
sprinting up and down the stage you know making us out of breath from his perspective it must be
quite difficult to sustain that level of performance yeah then to his 80s I can't imagine it's an
easy thing to do for someone like that I would say we seem again because you know because it's him
(41:09):
I would like to see Bob Dylan in a more intimate sort of venue I mean like you mentioned Wimbley
we saw him in a big amphitheater outside I would like to see him in like we have a place in Atlanta
called the Tabernacle it's an old church okay and and I mean I've seen several acoustic acts there
and it's small like a couple hundred people and I mean to see Bob Dylan in that setup I bet would be
(41:35):
phenomenal where you could hear him and see him and it would be an atmosphere that better fits the
artist I think so it's a shame that he got so popular in a way because you know I guess he doesn't
have the chance to play it's thought the smaller more intimate performances yeah yeah I mean tickets
for that would probably be three thousand dollars that was stupid it would be interesting but a great
(41:59):
experience if he did you know he might suddenly he never know he might suddenly decide to just do
intimate small venues for a wine's trip yeah yeah you never know there we're no
it was a pleasure to sit and talk with you about Bob Dylan's bringing it all back home and your entire
(42:22):
music career quite the pleasure man all the ritual thank you again for having me on
it's been fantastic thank you thank you for listening this episode of Music Reward as always we
appreciate a ready-gen review wherever you listen and go to musicrewardinpodcast.com for
information on the show more extras and future episodes so as I always say listen to the full hour
(42:49):
until next time
A podcast from the Sidereal Media Group Back to You, Anchors
[Music]
(00:21):
Hello and welcome to Music Rewind, a podcast where we look to tell the stories behind our favorite albums.
I'm your host Steve Epley and in each episode we invite a guest on to tell us about their favorite music album,
how they discovered it and what makes it special to them. Joining me tonight is musician and songwriter William
John Titus Bishop, a classically trained pianist and composer. William has three full-length studio
(00:42):
albums in his catalog. His Spotify streams are in the millions. His music is even used in university
courses. William brings a unique perspective to songwriting, blending academic roots,
classical training in a drive to carve his own path. Welcome William and thank you for being on the show.
Oh no proclamations, thank you very much for having me Steve. William was very kind enough to
(01:03):
reschedule because my son had a shoot so thank you very much. I'm glad we were able to make this happen.
No it's a pleasure. No proclamations. All right well let's jump right into this. What album did you
bring to the table and what makes it special to you? The album that I chose was bringing it all back home
by my book Dylan. For me it was one of the first albums I listened to when I was growing up
(01:48):
which wasn't classical music because I came from a very classical background and the first sort of
rock or pop or folk music that I listened to was Bob Dylan and particularly this album and it kind
of got me starting to thinking about different types of music and different sorts of sounds and
(02:14):
it switched on a few lights musically. How did you discover it then? My parents because
X obviously is one of the most sort of key album in terms of musical culture and music history
and all of those things. It's obviously got a very big place in the history of music but my parents
(02:37):
were big fans of that era and they used to play it all the time and it's one of the first things that
I listened to which wasn't that sort of classical stuff. Did your classical training and stuff come
through your parents also? Is that is like a musical roots in the family? Oh that will interesting
question but no that was through sort of school and through that sort of there was always music going
(03:04):
on at school and it was always classical stuff. I didn't get out of chance when I was growing up so
this since other genres of music and then sort of I heard Dylan and particularly this album and
yeah and it's sort of I decided to think about writing some different sorts of music myself.
How old were you? Well this was when I was gosh I must have been in my teens, my early teens.
(03:32):
So popular music at the time was very different. It was very very different pop music at the time
but this caught my ear much in a different way. Obviously you're not from the States. So a question
of how available was this music on the radio and stuff there for you or was like were you able
to expand from Dylan after this? Did they have the catalogs available to feudalistitute?
(03:55):
Not in the same way. There was obviously everyone knew Dylan and everyone knew sort of these artists
from that sort of era, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, all that sort of 60s, 70s funk music
if you like. It was all available. It was all there. It just wasn't what was being pushed on the radio.
(04:18):
It wasn't what was being in the charts. That sort of music wasn't being pushed and wasn't being
listened to in the UK in the same way. It was British bands. It was Britpop and Oasis, things like that.
So it takes a bit more sort of searching for. It's there. It's hard enough certainly.
(04:40):
Hey Mr. Timberman, bless on for me in the jingle time. Good morning. I can follow you.
So obviously this album is basically the catalyst of his transition from folk to folk rock.
(05:00):
And that's what you alluded to that earlier. It's place in music history. I found that quite
fascinating researching this episode. I'd always known of it that Dylan did this, but I didn't really
know when that point in time was. And at what point in his quite large catalog really. He's got
a lot of albums. So I was great that you picked this one. But then when I listened to it, I didn't
(05:25):
hear the change. And that was interesting to me because hearing subterranean blues and Maggie's
farm really all these songs, I lumped that into just folk music in general. And I didn't hear the
change at first. Does that make sense? I know. I know I get what you're saying. I think because
(05:46):
it was still quite early in his career. I think it was still on the earlier albums. And he was on
tour at the time or around the same time. He was on a world tour. So he was playing electric instruments.
And he was playing all of these folk songs that he had written on his first three albums. He was
(06:11):
playing all these songs with electric instruments. And he was getting a lot of pushback from fans
about that. So that kind of transition was happening in the live side of things. And I think that's
reflected in the music. I think the preceding album was another side of Bob Dylan, which was entirely
(06:32):
acoustic songs. And the kind of half and half sort of mix of acoustic songs and electric
sort of instruments, which is not so unusual now. But at the time, I think it was very, very unusual,
especially for a folk music icon to be doing that, to be then using electric instruments. I think
(06:55):
a lot of people sort of reacted to that quite strongly, understandably, because folk music is
very special to a lot of people. So I think there's quite an understandable reaction to what he was
doing both live and in the studio with sort of experiments who had different sounds. It's one of
(07:15):
those lenses where innovation in hindsight, it looks ordinary from today's perspective. But at the time,
it was a gigantic leap revolutionary compared to what he was doing before. And like you said, the fans
took it very personal. That folk voice of the generation was theirs. And from what I was reading,
(07:38):
they took it as he was trying to emulate the Beatles and other acts, which in turn they emulated Bob Dylan.
It's a classic rock, it's a very small community, which is one of the reasons I love it.
And I really just found it fascinating that when I went back and looked at it, I listened to the first half
and I thought, this is just Bob Dylan to me. This is not Bob Dylan folk or Bob Dylan electric. This
(07:59):
is just just Bob Dylan. And then once you hit the second half of the album and it's all acoustic,
like, okay, I see the difference now, but it's still just Bob Dylan to me. Good Bob Dylan, but
it's amazing how my mind, I just lump all that together. Yeah, it is interesting. I think because
that it might be slightly different in the UK, but I know in the US, but the image of Dylan, as someone
(08:23):
who is always present somewhere in popular culture, you do kind of just get used to this idea of,
if he's sound, he's kind of that mixed sound, you kind of just get used to it and you expect that.
From Dylan, but at the time, I guess it must have been a big shock to some people. I think he'd
(08:47):
been on the last tour of the Dudes with Joan Baillais and I think, I mean, it's folk purists and
there are still a lot of those around, kind of affected with very sort of almost religiously
the interested in sort of folk music. And I think to a lot of those people, I think you can totally
understand that it would make them feel uncomfortable, at least, for some like Dylan to be doing that.
(09:11):
Yeah, he had that, the festival at the end of that tour, was that Newport? Yes, that was the infamous
(09:35):
Newport festival, which I think Pete Seagull also, Dylan almost took a fence at Dylan playing an
electric guitar at a folk festival. I don't know, of course, but I think part of what Dylan was doing was,
I think, was doing that to provoke some sort of reaction from people and from music. I think it's
(09:56):
very much a wake up call, I think for a lot of people, I think it must have come across like I see that.
Yeah, he was trying to stir the part. He did it intentionally. I think he must have, I can't
believe he didn't know in his mind. They've been playing with sort of very, very established folk
musicians and then suddenly he comes out and you know, with electric guitars and I think he must have
(10:20):
known that something was going to erupt out of that. And I think, yeah, he did, you know, that must have
had an effect. I think he went off to, I think after he did the electric album, he went down to Nashville,
so I was on, but went down to Nashville to do a country album. So I think it did have a knock on
effect into, you know, the way he made music after that himself. It wasn't just the electric too,
(10:47):
because as I was reading into this, a lot of the lyrics, I mean, we hear him now, it's Bob Dylan
being poetic, but at the time, a lot of it was not really anti folk, but it was anti folk establishment.
That's interesting because Dylan wasn't, obviously Dylan was a protest singer. That was how Dylan
had made a name for himself. He was also a protest singer, but I don't think people expected him to
(11:12):
protest against the establishment that he was partly held to build. Yeah. You know, hugely
instrumental in civil rights movements and in sort of, I think, more domestic political issues.
He was very, very big spokesperson and a very big mouthpiece for those sorts of issues. And I don't
(11:34):
think people expected him to be doing something which was sort of anti the establishment he came from,
which is what this is typical, you know, it's kind of a very typically rebellious thing to do. And
it's not uncommon for musicians to do something rebellious in that sense. But I think coming from Dylan
(11:56):
at that time, it did, well, provoke a lot of people and it did create a, I think,
Clayton and New Shomer out of music, which hadn't been heard up to that point.
Absolutely. I agree. And I think it was the natural evolution of that folk style.
Like those, some of those guys were just itching to take that next step. And Bob Dylan kind of took
(12:17):
that first leap for them. Yes. No, I have not absolutely. He was kind of the catalyst in a lot of ways,
I think. And for making that sort of music accessible to a wider audience. And some people who
wouldn't normally have have listened to that before, you could sound you could still certainly hear
special Delirics that it is still definitely Bob Dylan. Some of the most beautiful lyrics
(12:42):
certainly around them and certainly still some of the most beautiful lyrics written. There was certainly
a shift in a way in musical culture after that album in particular. So walk me through how you
listen to the album, do you bounce around or do you go straight through? Oh, that's a good question.
A legal track by track or we can just talk about your highlights is however you listen to the album.
(13:05):
I don't tend to go track by track. I tend to jump in and out depending on on sort of what I
was looking to listen to at the time. But I do tend to jump in and out. So where do you jump into?
What do you stand out tracks for this album? What is this is one of the albums where I do like
all 11 track. And I don't think you can say that about a lot of albums. I don't think there's a
(13:27):
weak track on the album. I agree with that. Even the stuff which is very, very foaky and very kind of
dense lyrically is still very listenable. It's still very, very kind of accessible. The one that I
subtraining homesick blues, which I know sounds obvious, but it's probably one that I listen to the most
(13:50):
from the album is subtraining homesick blues. It's a great opener because it really kicks off with
a beautiful guitar twang. You alluded to some of his country lines later on, but that
lousy country twang that that song has, it really sticks with you. You can easily identify that with
Dylan and you can write that on the other electric albums. You can hear that on Highway 61, Revisited,
(14:14):
and you can hear that on Blondon Blond as well. I think you can hear that very distinctive
guitar sound on all of those albums. And I think that's when I go to probably the most.
I would say after that gates of Eden.
(14:37):
It is very much lyrically
it's very poetic and this one of his more poetic songs. Just a sort of a strike
(14:58):
folk song with just acoustic guitar and a couple of guitars on there and vocal. It's a very sort of
straightforward folk song that you wouldn't expect on an album like this. I think it always stops you
and makes you think of it. You've got something like that on a. The Garden of Eden itself as an image
(15:19):
is perfect for a protest baseline to throw in the imagery in there. So gates of Eden just
is right there in his sweet spot. Dylan has a very unique voice. The tone, the pitch, the sound
of his voice. In the way he says gates of Eden fits his voice so well. Oh, that's absolutely true.
(15:39):
Whether that's Dylan doing that deliberately is an interest. I think it's an interesting thing. Whether
he's because he changes his voice for an album like the National Skyline. He does change his voice
and he sounds very different. That's a very different tone on the National Skyline. We sounds like
it just a country singer. So I don't know whether that is Dylan deliberately thinking about how he's
(16:05):
pitch in those words or whether that's a kind of a natural sort of all these stories doing that
naturally. Well, it's a good question. I mean, because what I know of Dylan is mainly this style of voice,
whether it's his early stuff or stuff with the wheelbereys. That's that Dylan voice that I've just
just been beaten into my head through classic rock radio. Yeah. He has a very distinctive voice,
(16:31):
a very distinctive way of singing, which again has been criticized, but he has a very distinctive
way of singing. It just tends to work very well with getting the songs across to people. We definitely
listen and you pay attention when Dylan sings. He's got a very good way of delivering those songs,
I think. I think that's that you might think you hit on something there. You know, people listen to
(16:55):
that unique voice when he when he sings it's you zero in on it. That's likely honed through the clubs
when he was coming up. I mean, in order to get the attention of that crowd, whether that voice and
that tone was natural or intentional, that's one thing or if it was curated in order to keep the
the attention of the crowd. Interesting that you should bring up the folk clubs and the coffee houses
(17:19):
and those sorts of places. And yeah, it must have those sorts of clubs. Obviously, there is so much
competition at those places. There are so many folk singers and there are so many musicians playing
on that sort of that sort of scene that yes, I think you would have to do something a little bit
(17:40):
different in order to get noticed in a way. Might take away tracks, outlaw blues.
I enjoyed that one. I enjoy a good Western story and he and that kind of jumped out at me.
(18:11):
Now I see that. And then on the road again, that was a good one.
Sinvassolk White Dance. Yeah, yeah. By the way, this was the first time listen for me.
Oh, okay. Other than Maggie's Farm and Subterranean and Mr. Tam Reenman.
And I'm all right, Ma. You know, there's everything else was like brand new to me, which is one of
the great things about this podcast. I got a lot of these albums that I do. I haven't really
(18:34):
listened to their entirety. That's a wonderful dude to experience this stuff.
Well, I wake up in the morning, there's frogs inside my socks. Your mama, she's hiding inside.
(18:57):
The only other Dylan album I have listened to in its entirety was the free wheel and Bob Dylan,
which was excellent. Right. Okay. So this was, let's say like a natural progression from that album to
me right there in that sweet spot of the early 60s. So when I heard her songs like say outlaw blues
and on the road again, they're just right there in that Dylan hit and astride for me. Yeah.
(19:21):
This definitely trace a line from songs on the free wheeling, which are kind of your typical
sound a lot of that's your typical sort of typical western sort of cowboy, cowboy songs. And that's
still that definitely those elements in this album. I also like that closer. It's all over now, baby blue. Yeah.
(19:42):
Look at the scenes are coming through. And it's all over now, baby blue.
As a folks on, I don't think you can go a lot better than that to me. If a you want an example of
(20:05):
I've really good sort of folks on that I think is a brilliant example. It's a nice musical journey.
Going from subterranean all the way to baby blue. I know it was that we spoke about it with the
the people at the time. Some didn't like it because of the changes, but to me it's really a real nice
complete journey from one to 11. I don't get a chance to listen to it all the way through very often.
(20:31):
It is worth sitting down with this you got the time is worth sitting down with and listening from
start to finish. It is one of those albums I think that every track works well and every track is
good on that one. Now I agree. I think that is just one of the greatest folk albums that my only
complaint I would say would be it's alright, Ma. Who only bleeding in that it's very long
(20:55):
it's very deep dark and depressing. It is that's the thing I think Dylan's writing around the time.
(21:24):
I think you see him pitched a lot with people like Adam Ginsburg and he talks about Jack Kererak a lot.
He's trying a lot of these are beat poets or they're from that beat generation and a lot of this stuff
a lot of these lyrics do read like beat poetry and they do read like something out of an Adam Ginsburg
(21:48):
book and I think he can sometimes be too wordy if the focus is just on the lyrics and on the imagery
it can take the focus away from the music sometimes and they are very long songs a lot of them as well.
So that was it's definitely a long beat poem because the music is not revolutionary on that
(22:14):
particular album it's the same chords over and over to this long poem. I would say it's just about one or
two stanzas too long where you got the point. It wouldn't work on the radio they would definitely
cut it down I think for a radio edit they would you know they cut that one right down to sort of two
three minutes so yeah that's the ton that comes across I think a lot with Dylan is that sometimes
(22:37):
the poetry kind of overshadows the music sometimes with them I think yes.
Bringing it all back home made the top of your list what albums would be on your short list
(23:05):
three to five albums that you could have brought to the table. Oh after bringing it all back home
some some of run by Leonard Cohen that's a very good question. T for the Tillerman by Kat Stevens.
Oh fantastic. Which is a really great album I think underrated if you know I think that
(23:26):
Kat Stevens album blue by Journey Mitchell and more because she is such a massive folk artist and she's
a very huge folk artist and really there's not a lot comparable to Journey Mitchell I think as a female
folk singer. Oh yeah I'm not big on Journey Mitchell personally here voices is very shrill to me and I
(23:48):
don't care for it. No I get that I'll take you and me Lou Harris over Journey Mitchell any day. Oh
no no I that's interest technically there are a lot of better theme our folk singers. Oh it's
technically yes I think I think some of Carol King or you're king is a unique but great voice
(24:08):
and she's a very songwriter itself yeah I think there is some much better technically than Journey
Mitchell but again she has a quite a prominent place in I'll take John Baez over Journey Mitchell
is just something about Journey Mitchell I just just she don't know why yeah no I get that there
are definitely some much better technical singer than Journey Mitchell out there and I guess there's
(24:32):
another one there's a a focusing you called Nick Drake yes there's the album is five leaves left I
think it's called and it's a fantastic he didn't make many albums but he's a fantastic folk album so
I'd have to put that there yeah the only one I know from here it is pink moon as the only one I've
(24:53):
dove into and that was a good album oh yeah I think what fantastic sort of example of folk music and
I think one of the few British artists who's managed to cross over into American and US sort of
folk music culture as well so I'd have to put that on the list as well tragically you know he died
(25:17):
shortly after pink moon but there was a Volkswagen commercial in the 90s that had his pink moon song on
it and Volkswagen commercial in the States it skyrocketed his name recognition and it gave him a second
you know life on the charts yeah that is interesting I do a side show called Alamarqives and I've
(25:37):
done several of those albums T for the Telemann pink moon we're just little 10 minute music history
snippets and those were really fun albums to dive into in their entirety that for it yeah that's
one my the ones that I listen to most the ones that I go back to myself tends to be those so is
folk rock in folk year go to when you're able to listen to your music on your own I'd like to listen
(26:02):
to as much music as possible and as much music from a wide variety of genres as possible so I'd
add to this into everything but the stuff that I go back to most is folk rock is that sort of music
bring y'all back home as a segue you know since it was a shift in musical direction but let's talk
(26:24):
about your your world and your music because you're classically trained but you've gone a couple
different directions with your catalog growing up and when I was went to school and when I was
learning music it was always classical music and there's a very clear sort of path that classical
musicians tend to take from school you know that they you then join a an orchestra on a professional
(26:48):
level you know you're an orchestra or a run something like that and you're going to doing a very
different sort of work you get put into other people's songs when they need a classical
cellist they will hire a classical cellist and you get very much stuck in the same lane this classical
music and you tend to be the the backing musicians if you like for another project and I was listening
(27:17):
to a lot of this folk music and a lot of the folk rock and I wanted to make music like that
that's how I wanted to sound not in the sense of I wanted to impersonate Dylan or I wanted to sound
light then a cow in but in the sense of I want to make music which sounds more like that than folk
(27:38):
music and I wanted to go and sing and play the guitar and go to these rock clubs and you know I wanted
to experience that side of things so I started to write songs essentially at what point like age-wise
and career-wise did you start writing your own songs I must be whoo when I was in my early 20s
(28:00):
so when I had left school and I'd left education because you weren't able to do that at school
there was no songwriting classes there was no outlet for that at school or at university or whatever
so I kind of thought right I'll go and do this myself and take these songs and play them in
(28:20):
in bars and in pubs life music in the UK tennis to be based around pubs and that was actually going
to be my next question is is to do the live grind putting the stuff out there musical culture in the UK
it tends to be sort of open mic nights in pubs and in bars and kind of smaller bars smaller pubs
(28:43):
local pubs local bars and it's one of these nights where you have a like an MC and then
seven or eight people go up and perform one or two songs throughout the course of the evening and
that's how a lot of people start with live music and you know that's what I did as well because
(29:06):
that's where people are playing these songs and it's a kind of very there was no pressure in that
environment because it was just seven or eight different people playing a couple of songs
and there was no sort of ego there was no pretension it was just a local bar and you know everyone was
(29:28):
friendly and everyone do each other and it's a kind of very safe way of performing live and that's how
a lot of artists I think gets started in certainly in the UK so how did you go from the live grind
and just right of your own to having that significant following and hearing music as being taught at
(29:50):
universities and how did you travel that gap when I started playing those local shows and people
started to say to me you know do you write your own songs then people started saying because I would
always play covers and then you know I'd always play covers I would always play Mr. Tambourine man
or go from the North Country or you know the I would always play covers and then people started saying
(30:16):
to me well do you write your own songs so I thought all right I'll start to write some songs and play
that these nights and I started to write music and then I put the songs out there on the internet
basically on sort of soundcloud and bandcamp and a lot of these sort of these sort of which are fantastic
(30:39):
services fantastic sort of free services for artists to get their music onto a platform yeah I always
try to push people to bandcamp you know it gives a lot of this fantastic one it's very very good
because it's free for us you know for a start and because it allows people to directly you know
benefit from the sales of that music and it's a very very good one bandcamp and it's one which a lot
(31:00):
of critics and a lot of people who you'd associate with the music industry it's a lot of
those people use bandcamp as well so it's a great one and I started putting stuff out on there and then
from there the following started to build from there so how many albums have you put out so far?
(31:22):
last time I checked and because I don't really like to do that so much there was so it's a massive
industry now social media and it's a huge huge industry and when I started making music that wasn't
there so that's something which is kind of which I had to learn to some degree and I've always worked
(31:45):
with other people who are much more experienced in that area than I am so it's not it's not really
something which I have too much knowledge of but they do occasionally have these things where
people ask what's your fan base and you know how many followers have you gotten that you know you
do get these questions occasionally I think last time I checked in total I think just over
(32:10):
two million I think on social media which is a significant number in the great scheme of things
there are many many artists with many many more than that so I'm pretty sure you miss her
me I didn't ask how many followers you had oh sorry now say because I'll be honest followers come
(32:34):
and go just because I'm with you on that I mean hell music rewind has several thousand followers and
I'm get those numbers on every episode I was asking how many full length albums have you completed
so far I think it was three okay so well I've released so far eight albums the three that are mentioned
(32:54):
the most the studio albums were I released when I was with the orchard which are part of Sully and
I released three albums with them and those are the ones that are picked up on most frequently but
(33:16):
this eight in total that I've released that's fantastic so your music is used in university over there
how did that come about and are you and were you involved in that curation that's an inked well again
it's it was I think it's quite interesting to look at the way that music is picked up by academic
institutions because I was studying or at university at the time at the university of York which is
(33:44):
in the north of England so if you don't know the geography of the UK think of London as in the south
I'm aware of our listeners might be unaware of England London as in the south of the UK
and everything revolves around that sort of area York is kind of north almost up to all Scotland
(34:08):
and I was studying there and the student radio station because it's kind of like college radio
that they have but not quite as extensive the student radio stations asked me if I wanted to come on
and talk about one of my songs and so yeah I said of course I said no problem and I went on and I
(34:29):
um I did a show with them and a couple of weeks later I got another sort of an email from the department
of television film and media at the university and they said could we do a recording of you and
of one of your songs live for one of the courses and I said yeah so that's now well that performance
(34:54):
at least is now there was part of the degree courses at the at that university which is very cool
especially if it's helped your students to with their degrees if it's you know if it's going to
get you used then yeah then I think that's cool hopefully they'll link to your bank here if it does
(35:16):
it feed into mind no it's interesting because if you didn't I thought no a university is using that
music for a specific purpose and it's not strictly a commercial activity that is true that's a good
way to look at it it was just me working with the university there was no sort of um financial aspect
(35:40):
to that and it was very much so the music is being used for an educational purpose which I think is great
well ties back all sort of something you said earlier where when you were in university there are
no courses for songwriting there was no class to help you nurture that aspect so if you give them back
in a non-financial way of this manner that that speaks volumes hopefully people will pick up on that
(36:06):
and students will be able to pick up on that and it will feed into their courses and to their
own education I'm hoping that's sort of a good use for their music and I think they you know they
do that sort of thing a lot with musicians so it was nice it was a very nice and a nice thing to
(36:27):
be able to be a part of so what's next for you well hopefully America before the pandemic before
the lockdowns and everything like that I was doing some recording in a studio in Brooklyn
and I was saying out in Brooklyn for a little while and then the sort of the pandemic happened
(36:50):
and I had to come back to the UK but I was doing some recording out there and I was starting to
spend more time working in America with American musicians and logically the next step would be to
work more in the States absolutely hopefully you do make it back over here if you get it land on your
(37:13):
list let me know oh no I certainly will that would be fantastic you'd be definitely in my mind to
now things are settled down and things are easier now travel wise and things like that it would
definitely be a plan within the next couple of years to be working and performing in the States
work if people find you work and they get your music all the usual channels I'd like to make that
(37:38):
as available as possible so I'd like to say whichever is your the place you go to to listen to music
so YouTube or Spotify or any of the streaming platforms you'll find it there and on social
media as well if that's the way you choose to listen it's available on there as well so hopefully
(38:02):
wherever you would normally go to to listen to music it will be you'll be able to find it there
and I'll put links in the show notes too so if anyone's interested by all means definitely seek out
Will's music it's good stuff thank you so what can progress sadly but I was listening today
your beautiful on piano you're quite talented oh yeah the piano stuff I had a very good piano teacher
(38:26):
it's a nice thing to be able to sort of to be able to sit down and work out a piece of music on a
piano so yeah some glad you found something in that I did enjoy that anything else you want to
mention as far as Bob Dylan your music or anything in general with Dylan that is just such a huge
cultural presence and has been since the 60s and we're now in sort of what 2026 2325 to either 2026
(38:52):
he's such a massive ongoing cultural presence that listen to Bob Dylan it's what I would say you
know if you've never heard of him before and you don't like folk music Dylan is such a massive presence
and it's so ubiquitous within musical culture that he is difficult to ignore so I would um
I say god I'm just bringing it all back home and you know get involved in that I'm using a live
(39:18):
once only once sadly my sorry met Wembley Stadium I swam my once and it was exactly as you'd expect
from Dylan it was exactly what you'd expect from a live show but you know wasn't that polished it
wasn't the highest quality of performance I've seen Dylan once and it was one of the worst shows
(39:40):
you see that he doesn't allow recording devices into his concerts and that made me something behind
that it's I think he has a reputation certainly for not putting very much effort into his live
performances he was obviously on my legends list you know if he comes to town make a good effort
(40:01):
to see him and my wife and I went and saw him and I think yeah he had just had a new album out as this
was would have been you know 2013 2014 somewhere in there and I don't know it was just he mumbled
for an hour and a half in poor lighting and no one could really understand what he was saying
(40:21):
and he was playing stuff from his new album so obviously people wanted to hear his the old classics
and he just ignored them yeah it wasn't quite the new port festival but there was just a lot of
people staring at their phones I think that that is the repertoire that is the repetition he has
and certainly when I saw him it was what you would exactly expect from Dylan but no it was
(40:44):
interest but part of our problem is we start like Paul McCartney a month prior and that dude was
sprinting up and down the stage you know making us out of breath from his perspective it must be
quite difficult to sustain that level of performance yeah then to his 80s I can't imagine it's an
easy thing to do for someone like that I would say we seem again because you know because it's him
(41:09):
I would like to see Bob Dylan in a more intimate sort of venue I mean like you mentioned Wimbley
we saw him in a big amphitheater outside I would like to see him in like we have a place in Atlanta
called the Tabernacle it's an old church okay and and I mean I've seen several acoustic acts there
and it's small like a couple hundred people and I mean to see Bob Dylan in that setup I bet would be
(41:35):
phenomenal where you could hear him and see him and it would be an atmosphere that better fits the
artist I think so it's a shame that he got so popular in a way because you know I guess he doesn't
have the chance to play it's thought the smaller more intimate performances yeah yeah I mean tickets
for that would probably be three thousand dollars that was stupid it would be interesting but a great
(41:59):
experience if he did you know he might suddenly he never know he might suddenly decide to just do
intimate small venues for a wine's trip yeah yeah you never know there we're no
it was a pleasure to sit and talk with you about Bob Dylan's bringing it all back home and your entire
(42:22):
music career quite the pleasure man all the ritual thank you again for having me on
it's been fantastic thank you thank you for listening this episode of Music Reward as always we
appreciate a ready-gen review wherever you listen and go to musicrewardinpodcast.com for
information on the show more extras and future episodes so as I always say listen to the full hour
(42:49):
until next time
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