New Dylan Album Set For April Release

Columbia Records announced today that Bob Dylan’s new studio album will be released on April 28.  Together Though Life, produced by Jack Frost, was recorded late last year, prompted by the composition of a new song, “Life Is Hard,” which was written for a forthcoming film by French director Oliver Dahan (La Vie En Rose).

The new album will be the 46^th release from Bob Dylan, and follows 2006’s Platinum album Modern Times, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 and reached the top of the charts in seven additional countries and the Top 5 in 22 countries around the world.

 Bob Dylan’s three previous studio albums have been universally hailed as among the best of his storied career, achieving new levels of commercial success and critical acclaim for the artist.  The Platinum-selling Time Out Of Mind from 1997 earned multiple Grammy Awards, including Album Of  The Year, while “Love and Theft” continued Dylan’s Platinum streak and earned several Grammy nominations and a statue for Best Contemporary Folk album.  His most recent studio work, Modern Times, became one of his biggest albums worldwide, selling more than 2.5 million copies and earning Dylan two more Grammys.

Those three studio albums fell within a ten-year creative span that also included an Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning tune, “Things Have Changed,” from the film Wonder Boys, in 2001, a worldwide best selling memoir, Chronicles, which spent 19 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List, in 2004, a Martin Scorsese-directed documentary, No Direction Home, in 2005, and several volumes of the best-selling Bootleg Series, which culminated in last year’s highly-acclaimed Tell Tale Signs.

Dylan was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.”  He was also the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 1997, the French Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 1990, Sweden’s Polar Music Award in 2000 and numerous other awards and accolades.

Tags: April, Bob Dylan, New Album, Release, Together Through Life

Rush To Release Snakes & Arrows Live

One of my favorite rock groups of all time, Rush, will be releasing a new live CD in early April. The material for this new CD was captured during “Part 1″ of the Snakes & Arrows tour while they performed at the Ahoy Rotterdam arena in The Netherlands last October.

The new live album is scheduled for release on April 8, which is just three days before “Part 2″ of the Snakes & Arrows tour gets underway with a first-ever performance in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Rock radio listeners can also expect to start hearing the live version of the Snakes & Arrows Track “Workin’ Them Angels” beginning on March 10 when the single is released to rock radio stations nation-wide.

I’ve taken a little heat in the past about my lack of interest in live albums and I confess that I have not changed my ways. However, since Rush — as alluded to earlier — is perhaps my favorite rock group of all time, it’s nice to hear that they are coming out with a new CD. I’m quite happy with my studio version, but more power to all the Rush fans who are eager to get their hands on the live version.

I should also point out that my lack of interest in live albums does not reflect on my feelings with regard to attending a live performance. Listening to a live CD and being present at a live performance are vastly different experiences and I might grab the chance to go see Rush live when they pass through my neck of the woods this summer.

Rush is scheduled to be on the road at least into the end of July, which will complete an ambitious tour schedule that will take them to some cities that they have not visited for ten or more years.

Tags: April, Rush, Snakes & Arrows Live, tour, Workin Them Angels