Evening show
Robyn playing guitar for Emma Swift.
Davey Lane did an opening set too.

Online review by Peter Viney
Emma Swift’s 2020 album Blonde on The Tracks consists of Bob Dylan covers. She doesn’t go for the obvious candidates either. I’ve long held the view that the very best Dylan covers are by women, and the same goes for Leonard Cohen. The change of gender removes direct comparison. There are several full albums … Chrissie Hynde, Barb Jungr, Thea Gilmore have all done one. Emma Swift produces one of the best, a combination of voice, choice and backing musicians.

Blonde on The Tracks was produced by Patrick Sansone of Wilco, and recorded in Nashville with her partner Robyn Hitchcock on guitar, who accompanies her on this show. Patrick Sansone plays keyboards on the album, which also had pedal steel, bass and drums. We’re getting the unplugged version.

She’s Australian, and moved to Nashville in 2013. Davey Lane, who did the support set, joined them for their set.

This is an intimate setting for around forty people. The special thing is that the singing and playing is unamplified … they use the natural room acoustic, which gives a completely different feel. Not a mic in sight. It took me back to the folk clubs of the mid 60s … I used to listen to Al Stewart performing Dylan songs like this, unampified, in the room. Robyn Hitchcock plays guitar on the album, but Davey Lane is an addition, and the intricate work of both guitars blend as if they’ve arranged this and played together for years … which they haven’t.The set is full of onstage banter too.

Emma Swift has a vibrant personality that comes across in the delivery and impeccable timing of the songs.

Simple Twist of Fate takes us off with a song from Blood On The Tracks, in a pure, faithful interpretation.

Queen Jane Approximately is stunning, with Robyn and Davey adding vocals in the chorus. Thats from Highway 61 Revisited. The guitar playing stands out … afterwards they joke about The Byrds, and there is a strong influence on Robyn’s playing on this one.

I Contain Multitudes is from Rough & Rowdy Ways, and Emma points out proudly that they were the first to cover it, right after the original came out. They recorded it during lockdown. I won’t steal the quip about that.

When Bob Dylan released “I Contain Multitudes” this year, I quickly became possessed. It’s magnificent and heartbreaking, a love letter to words and art and music, to all that has been lost and all that might be redeemed. To me this song has become an obsession, a mantra, a prayer. I can’t hope to eclipse it, all I hope to do is allow more people to hear it, to feel comforted by it, and to love it the way I do.”
Emma Swift, May 27 2020

Don’t Think Twice is not on the album, but added to live shows because they wanted something ‘friskier.’

Going Going Gone is from Planet Waves, and not one many have covered, nor one Dylan has often performed. Nearly everyone who’s looked at covering a Planet Waves song has gone for Forever Young. Not Emma Swift. This version is very good indeed and reminds me to revisit the song.

The Man In Me She takes the lyrics “folk singer” that is she sings the correct lyric (just as Judy Collins or Joan Baez would have done). There is no convoluted changing of she to he, etc. It’s another “not obvious” choice, this time from New Morning.

You’re A Big Girl Now, another with fidelity to the lyric, and another from Blood On The Tracks.

The Guardian album review in 2020 sums it up:

She sings with clarity and vulnerability, with just a hint of vibrato, but the key to these performances is her firm grasp of Dylan’s phrasing and timing.That doesn’t mean that Swift doesn’t put her own spin on such well-worn songs as You’re a Big Girl Now. The way she lets her voice drag just a little longer as she sings “I can change, I swear” will drive a corkscrew through your heart.
Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 13 August 2020

(Sooner or Later) One Of Us Must Know was the point on the 65 / 66 Dylan / Hawks tour where Bob had Rick Danko and Richard Manuel sing with him. This solo version brings out the intensity of the lyric beautifully. I’ve just realized that it’s the only Blonde on Blonde song on Blonde on The Tracks. However, we will be getting more from Blonde on Blonde …

In such a small setting it would be daft to go off for encores. Instead they went straight in to them as virtual encores. Neither encore is on the album either, which leaves me hoping that she’ll be doing a volume 2. The only song from the album that they haven’t played is Sad Eyed Lady of The Lowlands, and give its 12 minute length, that’s probably wise in a live setting.

The first encore Visions of Johanna is the one that readers of the Dylan fanzine The Telegraph voted their favourite Dylan song of all time. They said it was theirs. It’s mine too. The guitar playing from both was sublime (with no attempt to replicate the original’s RobbieRobertson lead guitar). I never expected to ever hear this song done this well live again.

The second is Just Like A Woman, with Robyn Hitchcock singing backing vocal, then a verse on his own. That’s a good choice too, as even more casual fans of Dylan know it.

I was left hoping to hear the three additions to the Blonde on The Tracks album on a sequel. The versions here really embrace the lyrics and shine new light. If you love Dylan, believe me, you really need a copy of this album.