swamp dylan
CONTACT

ABOUT

Swamp Dylan is a tribe of Bob Dylan aficionados spanning from Detroit to Seattle. After more than 35 years of discovering and playing Bob Dylan compositions, Swamp Dylan has discovered a fresh new way to approach them: DO NOT THINK. Or as Bob would say: You can think once, 'but don't think twice'. In his early days, Dylan often recorded new material so soon after composing, so wholly in tandem with the process of composition, that later he would struggle to recall the songs when the time came to perform them in a live setting. Swamp Dylan takes its cue from this premise. The man who spearheaded the Swamp Dylan project, Detroit's Whitaker Caine-Smith, has always realized the scope of Dylan's influence on himself and the world around him and felt it right to try a new twist on an old theme. Caine-Smith felt himself pulled toward the newer Dylan material, especially songs from collaborations with Daniel Lanois (1989's Oh Mercy and 1997's Time Out Of Mind). These colossal artists epitomize what is most honest in music. Lanois' creative use of ambience made for a key ingredient to the Swamp Dylan sound (and provided the basis for the 'Swamp' in the group's name).

These recordings were undertaken with the intent not to over-think the process and, if possible, not to allow thinking into the equation at all. No musicians rehearsed arrangements and in most instances had never heard the compositions before arriving at the studio. No charts were used, just the basic chord structures were provided. Once a musician had performed and recorded between four to eight takes, and he began to understand and THINK about what he wanted to do, recording was stopped, thereby keeping only the freshest anticipatory energy for the arrangement, like a new-born baby or the first shoots of a flower breaking the ground.

Bob Dylan is as American as Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams... hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet. Arguably, Dylan is more prolific than any writer since Shakespeare. So much has been done with Dylan's early material that it only seems right for Swamp Dylan to lead a new interpretation of Dylan's timeless voice. As Dylan emulated Woody Guthrie, so Swamp Dylan emulates Bob Dylan, not as a hero (though he is that), but as a unique voice that touches the lives and experiences of several generations and surely generations to come. Think of Swamp Dylan as a "librarian's approach" to Dylan's body of work, no different than a chronicling of Shakespeare, for Bob Dylan is our modern day (modern times) Shakespeare.

Screen name:
swamp dylan
Member since:
Nov 22 2009
Active over 1 month ago
Level of commitment:
Very Committed
Years together:
4
Gigs played:
10 to 50
Tend to practice:
More than 3 times per week
Age:
61 years

Influences

bob dylan, tom waits, woody guthrie, howlin wolf

Members Of Band

whitaker smith
we are working on our 4th lp using a rotating case of performers. would like to put together something permanent.

EQUIPMENT

lots of gear and knowhow -
production professional see -
swampdylan.com
soweto.com

MUSIC