Classic American ’60s Folk Rock – presented by Paul Wookey & The Zimmermen

Highly regarded and award winning Australian folk/blues singer Paul Wookey has put together a 2½ hour show that brings together the music of three of the giants of American folk rock: Bob Dylan, The Byrds and Crosby Stills Nash & Young. Paul and his band The Zimmermen will perform a set combining the best acoustic and electric songs from the Sydney, Melbourne and London shows of Bob Dylan’s famous 1966 world tour. This will be preceded by a track by track performance of ‘The Byrds Greatest Hits’ 1965-1970 and an acoustic set of the greatest hits of Crosby Stills Nash & Young.

The show consists of:

Dylan ’66 Revisited
In July 1965 Bob Dylan literally rocked the US folk world at the Newport Folk Festival by playing some of his songs with electric instruments and a backing band. In early 1966 Bob then set off on a World Tour with The Hawks (a.k.a. The Band) and actually played In Sydney and Melbourne in the April. In May 1966 Bob Dylan and The Hawks appeared at London’s Royal Albert Hall to play a scorching electric set that resulted in boos from the hard core folkies. Much of the material played came from the Highway 66 Revisited album but also included the hit single ‘Like a Rolling Stone’. Paul Wookey is a serious Bob Dylan fan and has discovered the set lists for Bob’s Sydney and Melbourne shows. This enables Paul to perform a set combining the best acoustic and electric songs from Bob’s Sydney, Melbourne and London shows.

The Best of The Byrds
The Byrds became the pioneers of folk rock when they converted Bob Dylan’s Mr Tambourine Man into a monster pop hit. Their highly successful career left behind a dozen great songs (like Turn! Turn! Turn! and Eight Miles High) all distinguished by their glorious harmonies and the jangling 12 string guitar of Roger McGuinn. The Best of The Byrds album will be presented track by track and cover the three distinct periods of their musical evolution: folk rock, country rock and psychedelic rock.

Crosby Stills Nash & Young (acoustic set)
CSNY were the rock world’s first supergroup and fittingly their first public performance was at the Woodstock festival in 1969. As that mostly acoustic first set showed, they had extraordinary harmony and song writing skills, exemplified by such gems as Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, Helplessly Hoping and 4+20. These songs plus other later CSNY songs will be played acoustically in honour of that first gig.

The Band:
Paul will be backed by The Zimmermen comprising Pete Robinson vocals, bass (The Strangers, The Substitutes), Peter Reed drums (Phil Manning Band, The Substitutes), Peter Summers vocals, guitar, keyboard (Riverina Playboys & The Substitutes) and Neil Scott vocals, guitar (ex Chalice).

Expect an ‘electrifying’ experience.

Youtube:
[Dylan] Like a Rolling Stone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZdMLJdjnks
[Byrds] Turn! Turn! Turn! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nInvmn0mDnQ
[CSNY] Suite: Judy Blue Eyes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16mAEyhU7kw