James E. Akenson
Tennessee Tech University (Retired)
Cookeville, Tennessee, U.S.A
HH? No Dylan
“It was a dark and stormy night.” I’m not stealing from Snoopy of Peanuts fame as he wrote the beginning to never completed stories. It was, for sure, an overcast, gloomy, and threatening late afternoon as a special time with the music of Bob Dylan approached. Fortunately, the skies cleared to make a sunny late afternoon and evening for Bob Cylan’s music.
Second verse same as the first? No we’re not talking about Herman Hermits and the British Invasion. It’s not about “I’m Henry the 8th.” It’s Community Sings Bob Dylan 2 presented by Tennessee Tech University professor Andrew William Smith in the Cookeville Performing Arts Center (CPAC). I’m no Charles Dickens. I did, though, have some great expectations of what Second Verse Community Sings Bob Dylan 2 would offer.
In summer 2025, the first Community Sings Bob Dylan took place at CPAC. I didn’t collect any quantitative or qualitative data collected, but I got a very positive vibe that the audience and artists enjoyed it. It can’t be all wrong since a Community Sings Bob Dylan 2 just took place. Once again, second verse, at CPAC with some of the same cast of characters and some newbies.
You’ve got to admit that Dylan at 85 still interests folks. He’s monumental in the pantheon of American music. It shows that you can come from a small town on the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota and become iconic. Yes indeed, Dylan listened to Hank Williams as a young boy, recorded in Nashville, and has had an impact on Country Music.
Well then, what was I expecting for the Second Verse of Cookeville’s Community Sings Bob Dylan 2? I’m a believer in looking for patterns. I expected Dylan 2 to follow the pattern of Dylan 1. I expected it to be somewhat like a church service with predictable patterns of behavior by the audience and the artists.
I expected a mix of artists from Cookeville and the Upper Cumberland region, some folks maybe from Nashville, and maybe one or two from bordering states like Kentucky and Georgia. That made sense since Second Verse Community Sings Bob Dylan 2 functioned as a free event with donations going to a local charity designed to help the homeless. I wasn’t too far off. Check the pics.
I also expected the CPAC electronic sign to proclaim the Dylan 2 event. Check out the pic. And…I expected the lobby of CPAC to be a shrine to Dylan. There would be a variety of album covers, CDs, articles, and photos paying homage to Dylan. An event of this nature is a communal gathering rather like church with appropriate images of the deity. Check out the pics.
And…I thought the audience might be a touch on the over 40 side. A Sharpei kennel might be a good reference. I didn’t expect many fans of Taylor Swift, BTS, Black Pink, Lola young or Noah Kahan who grace recent cover of the “Rolling Stone.”
Generational allegiances shift no matter what we might want to think. How can they not be in love with our cultural icon? I ran into a great retired Tennessee Tech colleague Dr. Maggie Phelps with two of her friends. I also ran into my former dental hygienist who I hadn’t seen in over ten years. Take a look at the pic.
And…I thought the attendance would be about the same or just a touch smaller than for First Verse Community Sings Dylan. It’s not Coachella, Lallapalooza, or Nashville’s Fan Fair with a long time track record and big time funding. Sustaining an event through the admirable energy of a single dynamic ‘True Believer’ is not an ‘easy row to hoe.’ My subjective, not exactly quantitative assessment, wasn’t too far off. My humanities, non quantitative PhD friend Jim Clark thought the same.
And…I expected the CPAC auditorium to have some form of homage to Dylan and the worthy cause hanging on the stage along with a sound system ready to make the Dylan performances clearly audible. Take a look at the pic.
And…I expected some form of opening statement honoring the purpose of the Community Sings Dylan. It would provide a bit of a symbolic ‘invocation’ that unifies the audience and provides a clean, unified start to the worship service. They even added a minister of the Gospel to say a few words. Take a look at the pic.
And…I didn’t expect the addition of two young women holding a sign of “Community Sings Bob Dylan.” The women held up a sign for each of the artists throughout their two song performance. I thought it was an interesting touch. I did wonder if anyone would equate it with gender stereotyped throwback to the past. I wondered if someone might suggest it should be a male and a female.
And…I expected a service that combined the well known Dylan songs and those that Dylanologists and musicians would know. I know obvious songs like Blowing in the Wind but Dylan’s catalog is humongous and there are lots of his work I don’t know.
I left home dressed in jeans, loafers, shirt, and sport coat with sleeves turned up. I could have worn my On Cloud sneakers, but opted for blue shoes from “32 Bar Blues.” Don’t like a sport coat even with the sleeves rolled up? I like lots of pockets. I may be old, but I didn’t look completely fossilized. Partly fossilized, yes.
I loved the arrival sequence. It met all my expectations. The CPAC electronic sign, the lobby with the homage to Dylan, the energy of organizer Andrew William Smith, and the buzz created by the ‘congregants’ arriving. Check the pics.
Ten artists each did two songs. The Ballingers began the program with All I Really want Want To Do and If Not For You. I expect to ‘Bat .500’ and know one song each artist presented. Not so with The Ballingers, but they are great artists with a long track record including playing with Chet Atkins and being on “Austin City Limits.”. Their son Ethan brings additional Music City chops to the table as he plays with artists such as Lee Ann Womack.
Ben Higgins let me ‘Bat .500.” He performed It Ain’t Me Babe and Maggies Farm. I know about Maggie’s Farm, but don’t really ‘know it.’ But It Ain’t Me Babe takes me way back to my University of Minnesota days in the early 1960s when Dylan was also in Minneapolis performing in the Dinkytown district near the University.
Cheroke Hope continues to fascinate me despite lowering my batting average with It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train To Cry and one other I flat out don’t remember. Cherokee Hope also performed at Dylan 1. Since then she’s been very visible. I think she brings a folky vibe from small town Celina, Tennessee. She’s now performing some with one of my former students Andrew Buckner. Can she break through big time? That remains to be seen, but Cherokee Hope does have charisma that can’t be denied. She also responded well to the one young child in the audience who shouted out….call and response…positives.
Darrel Scott, Jeremy Ivey, and Michael David Ballard all held my attention at the same time they performed new songs. I was particularly taken by Michael David Ballard doing Freight Train Blues. It sounded like straight out of Jimmie Rodgers or Hank Williams…more so even than Dylan’s version.
I must say that I at least ‘Batted .500’ with Kat Starr on Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right, Nathan Dodson You Ain’t Going Nowhere, and Warren Gently Like a Rolling Stone. Great stuff to which I could sing along.
In keeping with a worship, congregational service Dylan 2 concluded with an all artist encore in which the audience participated. A true congregational participation of the faithful. Forever Young allowed the various artists to take the lead, the audience to sing, and the audience and artists to move much like a revival meeting. Don’t know the words? They’re on the back of the program. I sang along.
I left Community Sings Bob Dylan 2 with positive feelings. A couple of people came up to me and said hello as I left. I felt as if I had both learned more about Bob Dylan and joined in to the congregational feel of the performance. I drove down Spring Street to Maple feeling the energy of the evening.
Paraphrasing Dylan, I wondered “How many times can a Community Sings Bob Dylan exist and stalwarts stay true to the cause? How many times will artists agree to donate free to the cause? And, how many times can a dedicated staff have time and energy to stage this great event?” I hope the answer isn’t blowing in the wind. I hope it’s all forever young. Dylan may be 85 but his work touched everyone including the youngest five or six year old who shouted out her love. From Hibbing, Minnesota to Cookeville, Tennessee Dylan traveled well.
