Review: Subterranean Homesick Yorkshire Blues, Studio, York Theatre Royal (From York Press)

Review: Subterranean Homesick Yorkshire Blues, Studio, York Theatre Royal

1:43pm Monday 9th March 2009 in Search By Richard Foster

A FORMER colleague was driving through Spain with a mate who slapped on a Bob Dylan tape in the car’s music system.

The erstwhile colleague took an instant dislike to the iconic spokesman of the baby boomer generation and, after a few bars of snarling harmonica, raucous vocals and strumming guitar, threw the cassette out of the car.

It’s difficult to be indifferent to Dylan; you either love him or hate him. This concoction of poetry, prose and song is for those not ashamed to admit owning more than 25 Dylan albums.

Subterranean Homesick Yorkshire Blues, written and performed by poets Helen Burke, Miles Cain, Paul Coleman, Oz Hardwick and Dave Gough, pays homage to the great survivor. Burke’s poem Bob Dylan's Toe-Nail takes a satirical swipe at celebrity culture, while her Sandra Is A Child Of Peace And Love has two friends reminiscing about the bohemian life. Burke's well-judged delivery brought out the past's poignancy.

Cain, Coleman and Hardwick are no slouches on guitar and they have great fun singing Dylan covers, including a passionate rendition of the apocalyptic All Along The Watchtower. Hardwick’s poem about Dylan going electric at Newport to the consternation of folk purist Pete Seeger articulates why music matters so much. Gough, absent from Friday night's gig, specialises in reworking the lyrics of Dylan classics. His colleagues recited an ecological Blowin’ In The Wind and the computer lament The Hard Disc's Gonna Stall – showing that Dylan is a man for all seasons.