Album Notes

Rolling Thunder comprises of Mike 'Bottleneck' Thomas, Bob Muse and Sarah Cunliffe

Rolling Thunder were formed nine years ago from a common interest in the work of Bob Dylan by Mike and Bob. They met every week and played Dylan songs slowly increasing their repertoire to almost 100 songs. They have taken their interpretations onto the road and have always been met with enthusiasm. The common aim in this project as always was to be true to Dylan's own philosophy of keeping things simple and direct.

'I believe that one man and a guitar can blow whole armies off stage' Bob Dylan

During this period of learning many live Dylan performances have been analysed:

'When you go to a Dylan show the stage is a blank canvas, any thing can happen, but when you see the Grail you can be blinded by the light and many versions of Dylan's songs performed by other artists are complicated, Dylan is always pointing the way back to simplicity' Bob Mewett

'We've tried to keep these arrangements sympathetic to the feel of the song never trying to obscure the words, the words are important.' Mike Thomas

The album contains new interpretations of 'Watchtower' and 'Baby Blue' both acknowledged Dylan classics. Also later songs such as 'Love Sick' and 'Long Black Coat' rub shoulders with the early master piece ' Lilly Rosemary and the Jack Of Hearts 'here rendered close to the original. There are no particular reasons for the choice of selections on this album: 'With so many great songs to choose in the end we just did the ones we enjoyed doing' Sarah Cunliffe

This album is an album of devotion and praise for the mercurial talents of Bob Dylan:

'We felt we just had to do it you know, Dylan's given knowingly or unknowingly to so many people This is just us saying thanks like so many have done before by playing the music.'

'Rolling Thunder I have been listening all morning . ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL. a real 1st class job. cant praise it enough some very original thought has gone into this . will be playing it a lot in the future ,the feel on "long black coat" is great . keep in touch '. Michael. Dylanesque Tribute Band