The weekend in Melbourne was huge!
On top of having my poem, Birdwatching published in The Weekend Australian, and taking in readings at Fed Square (Kings in the Corner) and the launch of Famous Reporter at Collected Works, I also picked up a couple of stunning musical & literary purchases.
Musically, I discovered a Bob Dylan CD that I had not heard of called Folksinger’s Choice, which captures a 20 year old Bob live in the studio with Cynthia Gooding on March 11, 1962, prior to the release of his debut album. The performances are crackling, with Bob sounding like a blues singer, three (or more) times his age. His covers of blues standards, Fixin’ to Die (Bukka White) and Smokestack Lightning (Howling Wolf) have a wildness to them; the sound of a young genius, bursting his lungs. It is also the first ever known performance of his early classic, The Death of Emmett Till, which blows Cynthia away… and it’s the banter between songs that really makes this all the more special, Dylan already creating his own myth, spinning a yarn about 6-years spent with the circus and sounding completely believable. The other Dylan originals on this CD are Standing on the Highway (which riffs off the Robert Johnson classic, Crossroad Blues) and Hard Times in New York Town. I think this one is going to be on very high rotation in the coming weeks…
And to add to our Beat Collection, I picked up a copy of Poets on the Peak – Gary Snyder, Phillip Whalen & Jack Kerouac in The Cascades, which charts each mans time as a Fire Lookout and a lesser known gem, The Lowell Connector – lines & shots from Kerouac’s hometown, featuring poems by Clark Coolidge, Michael Gizzi & John Yau and photographs by Bill Barrette. I’m already dipping into Poets on the Peaks and loving it…
And to top all this off, the reading as part of the The Castlemaine Poetry Series, was up there with the very best interstate readings I have ever participated in. In fact, the day felt like a session at a Poetry Festival, featuring some of Australia’s finest voices including Jane Williams, Robyn Rowlands, Matt Hetherington, Maurice McNamara, Anna Fern, Ray Liversidge, Ross Gillette, Nathan Curnow, Gillian Pattinson, my lovely wife, Julie Beveridge and MC extraordinnaire, Ross Donlon. With all of these poets performing alongside esteemed translator, Richard Perry, who gave a stunning reading from the work of Ryokan & Ikkyu and another launch of Famous Reporter (including readings from, BN Oakman, Lucy Williams & Lorraine McGuigan), needless to say, I was in seriously good company. I closed the day with a reading of material from Ocean Hearted as well as some newer poems, including Birdwatching from The Australian and believe me, you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face at the end of it. A large, warm, attentive crowd… it was blissful! Julie took some video footage of my reading so keep watching the site, as I plan to post that sometime this week.
