Disgruntled colonists in taverns and town squares borrowed British melodies to support new lyrics expressive of a developing national consciousness.
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Ted Olson,
The Conversation,
2 July 2026
Even more than usual, critics and Dylanologists scrutinized Modern Times for references and allusions, finding words and melodies paraphrased from the works of Muddy Waters, Bing Crosby, and the Roman poet Ovid.
McGill’s superbly nuanced calls, runs, and trills elicited commentary from a second audience, perched in the trees above—a colloquium of finches, towhees, titmice, kingbirds, juncos, and Eurasian collared doves.
—
Alex Ross,
New Yorker,
29 June 2026
Musselwhite punctuated the music with his harmonica trills and moans while his right knee bounced in time with the rhythms.
Produced again by the classic-rocker whisperer Andrew Watt (Paul McCartney, Elton John, Pearl Jam), the band delivers a clutch of strong songs.
—
Marc Ballon,
Los Angeles Times,
10 July 2026
But we writers of historical fiction should never forget, in our focus on the vast sweep of time and change, that the symphony itself is composed of lots of little songs.
The way new songs were circulated in the 1800s, explains John Troutman, music curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, was that words were published on broadsides or in magazines, to be applied to familiar tunes.
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Steven Johnson,
Washington Post,
14 July 2026
Its fundraising concerts, popular affairs in the Hudson Valley known as Midnight Rambles — which have recently featured Amy’s stepfather, Donald Fagen, laying down some Bob Dylan tunes — have been postponed in the interim.
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