Jim Kweskin is a folk music legend with a capital "L." He knew, knew of, or worked with everybody who was anybody in the genre going back to the 1960s. Now a gloriously youthful 84, Kweskin began with his famous Jug Band decades ago. He and the Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue are on the verge of releasing an exciting new album of classic folk songs dating back to yesteryear titled Doing Things Right from Jalopy Records. It drops on April 25.
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Kweskin has an wonderfully encyclopedic memory when it comes to people in the folk music industry. He knew Bob Dylan at the start of the brilliant Nobel Prize laureate's historic career. In a recent conversation with Wide Open Country, Kweskin matter-of-factly said of Dylan, "I go back a long way with him and I performed with him. I was playing at the Gaslight Cafe [in Greenwich Village in New York] in 1961 and so was he. We used to perform together."
Of course, Bob Dylan has gotten loads of attention lately. That is largely thanks to the much-ballyhooed, James Mangold-directed film about his life and work, A Complete Unknown. It recreates not only Dylan's own musical oeuvre, but the teeming cultural milieu of that time as well.
Jim Kweskin has some intriguing thoughts on the movie, which he generously shared with WOC.
Jim Kweskin's Opinion Of 'A Complete Unknown'
The film A Complete Unknown has been causing quite a stir. It landed a slew of Academy Award nominations. The film is up for best picture, best director (James Mangold). best actor (Timothee Chalamet), best supporting actress (Monica Barbaro), best supporting actor (Edward Norton), best costume design, and best writing (adapted screenplay).
On Sunday, March 2, the 97th Academy Awards ceremony takes place. Will A Complete Unknown walk away with an armload of the coveted golden statues? We will have to wait and see!
Jim Kweskin apparently enjoyed the buzzed-about biopic. "I thought it was a very good movie - with a lot of inaccuracies." Asked to be more specific, he mentioned a fight that broke out between Albert Grossman, Dylan's manager at the time, and influential folk music scholar Alan Lomax - and the real reason behind it.
Kweskin Cited What He Believes Is An Inaccuracy In The Acclaimed Film
Kweskin said, "According to the movie, the fight was about Alan Lomax, who wanted to shut the sound off when Dylan went electric, and Albert Grossman, who was his manager, who wanted to stop him. So they had a big fight over it."
Kweskin added, "Well, in fact, Albert Grossman and Alan Lomax did have a fistfight at [the] Newport [Folk Festival]. I was right there when it happened. It had nothing to do with Bob Dylan. It was earlier in the day at the blues workshop. Alan Lomax was the emcee. There were all these great Black blues artists that he revered so much. The closing act for that particular concert was going to be the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. When Alan Lomax got up to introduce them, he said, 'And now here are some white boys who are going to try to play the blues.'"
According to Kweskin, Albert Grossman, who managed the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, was allegedly highly offended by Lomax's remark. That was evidently the crux of that fight, he said, not Bob Dylan.
Kweskin Isn't Fazed By The Alleged Liberties Taken With The Truth In The Film
Hollywood is famous for playing fast and loose with the facts in films depicting actual people and events. Sometimes it's to enhance the dramatic quotient of a flick. Or because Tinseltown tends to portray human beings as either villains or heroes, with precious little gray area in between.
Jim Kweskin pretty much shrugs off the creative license that the makers of A Complete Unknown seemingly took. "It doesn't really matter," he said. "It's a good movie anyway."
