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Looks like Bob Dylan used the Leon Busy photo as a reference for his painting. - Fred Bals

Looks like Bob Dylan used the Leon Busy photo as a reference for his painting. - Fred Bals

And then, just as Bob Dylan came onto the stage, Trixsee came pushing and shoving from off to the side somewhere to plant herself directly in front of us. The happy energy of the crowd around us shifted as people protested Trixsee shoving her way into the space we had diligently homesteaded. The 20-something girl in braces in front of me, and her previously cheerful boyfriend both began to scream at Trixsee to get away from her squatted position in front of the stage. - Fred Bals

And then, just as Bob Dylan came onto the stage, Trixsee came pushing and shoving from off to the side somewhere to plant herself directly in front of us. The happy energy of the crowd around us shifted as people protested Trixsee shoving her way into the space we had diligently homesteaded. The 20-something girl in braces in front of me, and her previously cheerful boyfriend both began to scream at Trixsee to get away from her squatted position in front of the stage. - Fred Bals

Bad As Me is Tom Waits’ first studio album of all new music in seven years. This pivotal work refines the music that has come before and signals a new direction. Waits, in possibly the finest voice of his career, worked with a veteran team of gifted musicians and longtime co-writer/producer Kathleen Brennan. - Fred Bals

Bad As Me is Tom Waits’ first studio album of all new music in seven years. This pivotal work refines the music that has come before and signals a new direction. Waits, in possibly the finest voice of his career, worked with a veteran team of gifted musicians and longtime co-writer/producer Kathleen Brennan. - Fred Bals

Famous as a veritable den of iniquity, it was home at one time or another to the likes of Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Iggy Pop and Leonard Cohen. - Fred Bals

Famous as a veritable den of iniquity, it was home at one time or another to the likes of Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Iggy Pop and Leonard Cohen. - Fred Bals

Pop music fans remember him as the ghostly presence in Bob Dylan's anti-boxing harangue, "Who Killed Davey Moore?" - Fred Bals

Pop music fans remember him as the ghostly presence in Bob Dylan's anti-boxing harangue, "Who Killed Davey Moore?" - Fred Bals

Videotaped at Ukulele Expo '96 just two hours before he suffered a non-fatal heart attack in front of a standing-room-only audience of admiring fans, it was Tiny's wish that "Songs and Stories of the Crooners" be produced expressly for the benefit and promotion of the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of ukulele music and history. - Fred Bals

Videotaped at Ukulele Expo '96 just two hours before he suffered a non-fatal heart attack in front of a standing-room-only audience of admiring fans, it was Tiny's wish that "Songs and Stories of the Crooners" be produced expressly for the benefit and promotion of the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of ukulele music and history. - Fred Bals

My search for the long-lost location of the Blonde on Blonde album cover shoot (which I have still not found), led me to discover two other memorable Dylan album photo sites - that of Highway 61 Revisited and also that of Another Side of Bob Dylan - in places in New York City that I would never have thought of. - Fred Bals

My search for the long-lost location of the Blonde on Blonde album cover shoot (which I have still not found), led me to discover two other memorable Dylan album photo sites - that of Highway 61 Revisited and also that of Another Side of Bob Dylan - in places in New York City that I would never have thought of. - Fred Bals

The voice on the little antique cylinder record is tinny, scratchy, barely audible through storms of static. But if you listen closely, you can just hear a young woman reciting a nursery rhyme: "Twinkle, twinkle, little star." - Fred Bals

The voice on the little antique cylinder record is tinny, scratchy, barely audible through storms of static. But if you listen closely, you can just hear a young woman reciting a nursery rhyme: "Twinkle, twinkle, little star." - Fred Bals

And if you want a purely political message for our times, it's there in the final lines: "They don't like you to be so free." - Fred Bals

The chitlin’ circuit was more than just music — it nurtured comedians and was championed in the plays of August Wilson — but Preston Lauterbach’s focus is on “how the chitlin’ circuit for live music developed from the late 1930s and nurtured rock ’n’ roll from the early 1940s to the mid-1950s.” - Fred Bals

And if you want a purely political message for our times, it's there in the final lines: "They don't like you to be so free." - Fred Bals

The chitlin’ circuit was more than just music — it nurtured comedians and was championed in the plays of August Wilson — but Preston Lauterbach’s focus is on “how the chitlin’ circuit for live music developed from the late 1930s and nurtured rock ’n’ roll from the early 1940s to the mid-1950s.” - Fred Bals

Bob Dylan epitomized the hard-traveling folk troubadour, and he established this image largely on a vintage Gibson Nick Lucas model flat-top guitar. - Fred Bals

Bob Dylan epitomized the hard-traveling folk troubadour, and he established this image largely on a vintage Gibson Nick Lucas model flat-top guitar. - Fred Bals

This is the third night of this memorable Fillmore West run. An outstanding show from beginning to end, containing several song transitions unique to this show and a wonderful version of "Lovelight" with Janis Joplin sitting in. This is one of the all time classic Grateful Dead shows. - Fred Bals

This is the third night of this memorable Fillmore West run. An outstanding show from beginning to end, containing several song transitions unique to this show and a wonderful version of "Lovelight" with Janis Joplin sitting in. This is one of the all time classic Grateful Dead shows. - Fred Bals

This is the third night of this memorable Fillmore West run. An outstanding show from beginning to end, containing several song transitions unique to this show and a wonderful version of "Lovelight" with Janis Joplin sitting in. This is one of the all time classic Grateful Dead shows. - Fred Bals

“I was invited to come to LA to hear that record when it was done. I sat there in this little room and I was stunned. I could not imagine anything more bleak and bitter and desolate. I thought there was no way it would be released. There was no hope, no chance - every song sounded like a suicide note. It was just so powerful. That was when I knew that Dylan was now doing work of a completely different kind, but as full and rich and unending as anything he had ever done. And so the story started all over again.” - Fred Bals

Mimi and Richard Farina made some of the most exotic music within the ’60s folk scene. In 1965, the Putnam Ave. residents dropped by the studios of WTBS (now WMBR) with electric guitarist Barry Tashian (of Barry & the Remains) for music and talk. - Fred Bals

Mimi and Richard Farina made some of the most exotic music within the ’60s folk scene. In 1965, the Putnam Ave. residents dropped by the studios of WTBS (now WMBR) with electric guitarist Barry Tashian (of Barry & the Remains) for music and talk. - Fred Bals

“I was invited to come to LA to hear that record when it was done. I sat there in this little room and I was stunned. I could not imagine anything more bleak and bitter and desolate. I thought there was no way it would be released. There was no hope, no chance - every song sounded like a suicide note. It was just so powerful. That was when I knew that Dylan was now doing work of a completely different kind, but as full and rich and unending as anything he had ever done. And so the story started all over again.” - Fred Bals

Last year I wrote a story about the myriad bootstrap methods musicians have discovered or created to help them finance the recording process as so many of the music industry’s traditional avenues have turned into dead ends. - Fred Bals