Emerson Umbrella Presents 'Long Time Gone: Words & Music by Bob Dylan' 12/10 & 12/11

Long Time Gone: Words & Music by Bob Dylan. Selected & Performed by Peter Landecker, with Snow Crow & Friends. Eastern U.S. Premiere. Friday & Saturday, December 10 & 11, 8 pm. Tickets $18, groups of 10 or more $13.50 each. Presented by Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts, 40 Stow Street, Concord, MA 01742. Wheelchair accessible. For information and reservations, 978-371-0820, www.emersonumbrella.org.

Long Time Gone tells the story of the legendary troubadour Bob Dylan entirely through his own words and music. Shortly after staging an un-authorized version of Long Time Gone in Los Angeles, performer Peter Landecker met Dylan at a local gas station. On several occasions after that first chance meeting, Landecker discussed the show with Dylan, which then led to actually obtaining permission from Dylan to perform an authorized version of the show.

The show was then staged in San Francisco, with musical director Bob Johnston, producer of many of Dylan's greatest albums, putting together a band to accompany Landecker. The band included singers from The Weathergirls, along with guest performers Bob Weir and Maria Muldaur.

More recently Long Time Gone has been staged in Moville, Ireland as part of a DylanFest, and at The Brunswick House in Toronto. The Emerson Umbrella's upcoming production will be the Eastern U.S. premiere with plans to then take it on the road throughout the rest of the U.S. and beyond.

For the Emerson Umbrella production, Landecker will be accompanied by the 8-piece Massachusetts-based Snow Crow & Friends who will perform an interpretation, not an imitation, of Dylan's music. The songs are interspersed with Landecker's portrayal of Dylan, performing Dylan's writings and interviews.

Long Time Gone spans 50 years of Dylan's provocative musical and spoken soundtrack that is so directly related to much of our modern culture. His folk, rock, country, gospel, and blues are interwoven with his spoken word, some of the most witty, sarcastic, humorous text ever created.

Act One tells Dylan's story from Minnesota in the 1950's to his arrival in New York, becoming world famous by the age of 21 by means of his timeless protest songs, anti-love songs, and surreal rock poetry. Without a doubt, Dylan's arrival on the scene defined the times. Act Two reveals Dylan's quest for spirituality by way of country music as he copes with divorce, and his experience of rebirth by way of gospel. Long Time Gone then brings us to Dylan's present day status as a living legend.

The title of the show Long Time Gone is the title of a song Dylan wrote in 1962 and released for the first time in October 2010 as part of The Bootleg Series, Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964. "I'm a long time a-comin'," Dylan sings, "and I'll be a long time gone."

Performing artist Peter Landecker, a Los Angeles native, is currently based out of Québec. He bears a more than passing resemblance to Bob Dylan. An accomplished writer/producer/story editor, he began developing Long Time Gone while completing his theater degree at UCLA. Landecker has this to say about his ever evolving creation Long Time Gone: "Bob Dylan, on Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people of all time, is living proof of the power of words and music to inspire and influence. ‘Long Time Gone' takes an approach counter to the film ‘I'm Not There,' whereby different actors interpreted Dylan's different periods; rather in ‘Long Time Gone' we witness a natural evolution of one man who has remained true to his conscience. It's a theatrical biography, some of the biographical information is not even true, but we are more interested in how a legend is made and how one person can change the world through words and music, celebrating the songs and the man behind them."

Snow Crow & Friends was formed in 1989. They play an eclectic mix of music that ranges from pure acoustic and acapella folk and chants to electric blues and rock. More information on the band can be found at www.snowcrow.com.

 

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