“Rock on at the scintillating concert where fans bow to the god of the guitar”
If you visit Shillong once, you will keep coming back again and again, goes an old saying. The same sentiment echoes for the annual Bob Dylan fest in Shillong which began on May 24, 1972 to celebrate Dylan’s music, a tradition that continues every year on his birthday. As a young performer in the heydays of Kolkata’s Park Street, the now iconic Lou Majaw was introduced to Dylan’s songs. This introduction started a lifelong love for Dylan’s tunes, hence the long running duration. A selective and most devoted group of people, from Mumbai, Delhi, Goa, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Guwahati and other parts of the north – east region and of course Shillong, attend the Dylan fest.
Taking the form of story – telling from folk music and the blues, Dylan changed the way popular music would be written. Besides his seemingly effortless genius with lyrics, he has been and continues to be a musical stylist constantly evolving a sound that is his own. The same culture of ethos continues to evoke in the celebration at Meghalaya’s capital.
Die- hard Dylan fans (mostly graying), to some that don’t really know the music nevertheless partake to be enveloped by the energy and become one with the spirited soulfulness that is Dylan’s music. After all, this is rock n roll at its rawest delivered by the ace of Spades – Lou Majaw on vocals and guitar, accompanied by fellow Dylanites Lew Hilt on bass, Nondon Bagchi on drums. The band gets together once in a year just to play on Dylan’s birthday celebration in Shillong and Kolkata. Very often, the show starts with Majaw playing a couple of Solo tracks – Tambourine Man or Buckets of rain – and the band join in shortly. This is the listening part of the show as the audience’s eyes are locked and riveted on Majaw as he sings the gospel… according to Bob.
The Dylan fest is not about fancy pyrotechnics or incessant extravaganza but about the essence of the legendary prophetic singer’s time less music. Just the way Dylan himself would want it.
