Bob Dylan: Roads Rapidly Changing - In & Out of the Folk Revival 1961-1965 (2015) [Blu-ray]

“Roads Rapidly Changing” is a full two-hour documentary by film maker Tom O’Dell.

In 1940, New York City became the centre of activity for an emerging folk scene. Alongside leading lights such as Lead Belly and Josh White were two white musicians and performers, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. These artists in particular would become pioneering figures in the redefinition of American Folk, penning their own material in the mould of the traditional tunes that had inspired them, and using music and lyrics as a vessel for political commentary.

By the mid-1950s however, ill-health plagued Guthrie and the post-WWII anti-communist ‘witch-hunt’ had almost put an end to Seeger’s career. Folk refused to die however and by the early Sixties a new breed of musicians was again looking to the past for inspiration. One such performer was Bob Dylan. Informed and influenced by Woody Guthrie, Dylan hit the Big Apple in the bitterly cold winter of 1961, and the rest, as they say, is history. But while Bob Dylan would of course compose and perform the songs around which virtually the entire revival was based, and epitomise the scene like no other, as quickly as he became the face of New American Folk he was jumping ship and moving swiftly on.

This film tells the story of Dylan’s entry into and departure from the U.S. Folk Revival, and features new interviews with many of the players from the scene as it unfolded, as well as an abundance of timely footage, rare performances, archive media and much more.