Hot on the heels of his 2008 documentary "Inside Bob Dylan's Jesus Years: Busy Being Born ... Again!" (bobdylanjesus.com) comes a completely different look at the folk-rock icon from director/producer Joel Gilbert.

The film is titled "Bob Dylan Never Ending Tour Diaries: Drummer Winston Watson's Incredible Journey," (bobdylandiaries.com) and it's an insider's account of life on the road with Dylan from a happy-go-lucky musician who never, in his wildest dreams, figured he'd be backing someone of Dylan's stature. Watson's beaming personality, incredible insight and good-natured sense of humor make him a compelling interview subject, and what emerges is a portrait of Dylan that reveals much about the man, his work and how he interacts with those in his employ.

The DVD of Gilbert's movie — with Watson's detailed diaries and crystal-clear memories of his time in Dylan's band providing the bulk of the material for it — will be released April 7 on MVD Visual. Gilbert took time out to talk about his documentary and what Watson brought to it with Goldmine. Here's what he had to say about:

It's interesting how mysterious Bob Dylan is even to those in his band. The tale of how Winston comes to join the Dylan tour for the first time is so funny, because you can feel how nervous and unsure of himself Winston is in trying to figure out how he fit in. What was the turning point for him do you think as far as him feeling like he belonged?
Joel Gilbert: In my film, Winston reveals that he felt inadequate for the first year, and that the band interaction with Dylan was “an awkward romance.” However, Winston mentions that by the beginning of 1994 they were starting to gel together as a band. The band had gained Dylan’s confidence as Dylan would rely on them to come up with arrangements. You can see from the audience concert footage in my film that the band is interacting on stage and enjoying the performances much more than in the 1993 footage.

This really is an "insider's account" of what it was like touring with Dylan, and it reveals a lot about the inner workings of Dylan's band. From listening to Winston, how did Dylan relate with his band? It doesn't seem like he's dictatorial, but there's no doubt who the boss is.
JG: Winston does a great job in the film of conveying Dylan’s unique way of communicating to the band through various means. This included everything from piercing glances to “calls on the carpet” to simply not communicating. Winston said, “Bob could make you feel like you were on top of the world, but he could also make you feel like you belonged in the bottom of a bilge tank too.” The most effective thing seemed to be that the band considered themselves to be warriors in Bob Dylan’s personal army, and the last thing they ever wanted to do was let him down in any way.

Tell us about Winston. He comes across as such a warm, engaging personality, and a guy who was a little star-struck by the experience, but as a musician, he really added a lot to the group's dynamics. How did you come to meet Winston and when did the idea for this documentary take shape?
JG: Winston became involved with Highway 61 Revisited, my Bob Dylan tribute band, in the summer of 2006, just prior to our 30th anniversary “Rolling Thunder Revisited Tour” of the U.K. I met Winston only by coincidence. I was in the Beverly Center shopping mall in Beverly Hills, Calif., looking for some “gig” shirts at a trendy store called “Traffic” when I was recognized by one of the sales staff whose name was Jason. Apparently he had seen my band at a recent House of Blues show in Los Angeles. He introduced himself and told me he was a friend of Dylan’s former drummer, Winston Watson, whom I had seen perform with Dylan several times in the early 1990’s.  I recalled Winston’s energetic performance on Dylan’s 1994 "MTV Unplugged" video. Jason asked if he could make the connection for me to Winston, but my reaction was, “no, thanks, I wouldn’t want to bother the guy.” However, within a few weeks, my band’s drummer was having some scheduling issues, so it occurred to me to ring Jason at the store and get a contact number for Winston. I did this, and Winston and I met a few days later at a café on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. We had an instant rapport. I immediately sensed he was a very sincere and humble guy with a great sense of humor. While just sitting next to him I could feel he was oozing with artistic talent! Winston told me he hadn’t played music for almost two years but was willing to come to a rehearsal with my band and consider joining for the U.K. tour. A few days on, we rehearsed at Sound Arena studios in Van Nuys, Calif., with my full band, including violinist Scarlet Rivera. It went very well; there was a real joy in the air as we rehearsed — Winston literally lifted up the entire room. He quickly taught us introductions and endings on "I Want You" and "Just Like A Woman" that he’d performed with Dylan. After the rehearsal, Scarlet Rivera, who has a keen sense of musicianship, told me she was particularly impressed with Winston and hoped he would join up. The next day Winston agreed to join the band for two shows in Canada — at Casinos Regina and Moosejaw in Saskatchewan — and thereafter for the U.K. tour in the fall. Lucky for me, Winston has performed with my band ever since! Winston’s joyful energy onstage has been a profound addition to the group. He is a show within a show and his dynamics are unsurpassed — he can rock the house or bring it down and take the breath out of an entire concert hall in an instant.
 
From the moment I began touring with Winston, it was apparent that he was a wonderful storyteller and was extremely articulate and very funny. His memory was flawless and his descriptive manner was captivating. Many times I would sit fascinated listening to Winston, Rob Stoner and Scarlet Rivera swap “dueling Dylan” stories of both pain and triumph. I felt a film of Winston’s anecdotes and perspectives of his time with Dylan would make for a wonderful film. Over breakfast at the Tavistock Hotel in Tavistock Square in London in November of 2006, I mentioned my idea to Winston, who thought it would be a fun and worthwhile project. However, I was planning to begin production on my Middle East documentary film "Farewell Israel: Bush, Iran and The Revolt of Islam" after the tour, so there was no immediacy. In addition, I told Winston we needed to come up with a “theme” that characterized the film concept.

Over the next two years of touring and performing with Winston, he shared more interesting anecdotes with myself and the band, as Winston and I continued to speak about doing the film project. All the while, I continued to insist that we needed a theme to wrap the anecdotes around.  Finally, on Feb. 6, 2008 we were in the dressing room at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles preparing for a performance at the opening of the Bob Dylan exhibit (this was the final stop — we had opened the exhibit in Seattle at Experience Music Project in 2005) when Winston happened to mention that he kept daily diaries while on tour with Dylan! I exclaimed, “That’s it! Bob Dylan Never Ending Tour Diaries!” and we had our theme. Soon after, Winston searched his storage facility in North Hollywood and produced 6 volumes of personal diaries as well as four two-hour Video 8 cassettes of footage from his home life and the Dylan tours from 1992-1996. Winston’s video footage added another huge dimension to the project.

In talking to him, how did the experience change Winston?
JG: It is clear that Winston grew in many ways that even he could not imagine from his experience. He traveled the world 10 times over, playing over 400 shows with Dylan. He was the drummer in what could be described as “the greatest bar band in the history of the world.” Anyone who accomplished this much in a few years would reach levels of development musically and personally that few people achieve in a lifetime. You can tell from the film that Winston’s level of intellect, sense of humor, and even vocabulary reveal a person of great depth.

Even though there is no interview footage with Dylan or anybody else, a real picture of Dylan and what he's like on the road really develops in this documentary. Did you learn anything about Dylan from Winston that you didn't know about him before?
JG: Winston’s experiences confirmed the portrait of Dylan’s personality and way of working musicians that I had garnered from previous interviews and my relationships with various Dylan band members. Dylan has a mercurial characteristic to his personality, defined by Webster’s dictionary as “subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind.” In addition, Dylan is someone who can hurt those who loved and supported him, but also push them to great heights.

Most interesting is that anyone who ever played with Dylan describes the experience as among the greatest experiences of their lives. Initially, I assumed that musicians who played with Dylan would say something along the lines of “I thought he was some giant, but once you get to know him he’s just a regular guy.” But it's quite the opposite; those who’ve played with Dylan are even MORE in awe of him than fans who idolize Dylan and his music.

In a sense, you could say that Chris Darrow came in through the back door and left the same way in the 1970s without attracting much attention — that is, outside of people in the know who could spot a musical master when they heard one.

His band Kaleidoscope, for all of the critical praise heaped on its exotic blend of country, blues, folk, Middle Eastern and psychedelia genres on such fine albums as Side Trips, never had the hit single or album a band of its capabilities should have had. And whether it was with The Corvettes or the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, or even in the session work he did for giants such as Leonard Cohen, James Taylor, Gene Vincent and Hoyt Axton, among others, the spotlight seemed to pass over him, despite how essential his multi-instrumental talents were to those who hired him.

Still, Darrow, whose two criminally overlooked solo albums, 1973's Chris Darrow and 1974's Under My Own Disguise, are being reissued by Everloving Records as a two-CD/two-LP vinyl deluxe package, did get to rub elbows with some of the most important artists of the day, including Linda Ronstadt.

In a recent interview for Goldmine, Darrow gave us his thoughts on some of the big-name artists he's worked with over the years. And here they are:

Gene Vincent

Chris Darrow: I remember seeing Gene Vincent In the movie "The Girl Can’t Help It," and if there was anything that made me dig him any more, that was it. I was always a Gene Vincent fan, and when Tom Ayres, his producer, called me and asked me to play on his album, I was honored, to say the least. Tom was from an area around the Texas/Louisiana border and loved my style of Cajun fiddle playing. He was going to produce a version of the classic Cajun song "Danse Colinda" for this album.

I was thrilled and showed up early for the session. We were recording at Dave Hassinger’s studio, The Sound Factory, on Selma and I walked in and looked around for Gene himself. The studio wasn’t real large, and with his back to me, I saw a guy that looked like he might be the janitor, finishing his clean up. He was wearing dark gray pants and a matching short-sleeved shirt. He had on black, shiny shoes and had a big key chain hanging on his black belt. He turned around, and to my surprise, it was Gene himself, looking very much older than I thought he would be. Gene was limping on the bad foot he got in that famous accident with Eddie Cochran in England in 1960, where Eddie died and Gene survived. I will never forget the image of Gene that day. The band on the record was a combination of members of the Sir Douglas Quintet and the tracks were great. They were one of my favorite bands. The session went well, and I got to see Gene a couple of more times and got to know him a bit, but he was a sad guy who never really got to realize his full potential. Gene Vincent died at the age of 36 within a year of our recording.

James Taylor

CD: Although having played on Sweet Baby James and hanging around a lot with Peter Asher at the time, I never got into a deep personal relationship with him. We always had good rapport, and he is certainly a talented guy. I feel great having played on two of the great singer-songwriter albums of all time, The Songs of Leonard Cohen and Sweet Baby James.

Hoyt Axton

CD: Hoyt Axton was a guy who lived his life to the fullest, all the time. His music was his way of dealing with the world. He had a knack of writing to the pulse of the time, a great gift. "Greenback Dollar" was the first major success, as I recall, for the Kingston Trio. John Stewart was the lead singer on it. I played on the original "Never Been to Spain," "Joy to the World" and his version of "The Pusher," on which I play electric violin. He was a larger-than-life figure, and one who shouldn’t have died so young. He was a big guy with a big appetite, whose heart couldn’t take the pressure. 

John Fahey

CD: I was the first guitarist sideman to ever play on a John Fahey record. The album, Of Rivers and Religion, recorded in 1972, was in the top ten of Time magazine’s best records of the year. Using many musicians from yesteryear, most notably, Johnny St. Cyr, the great, New Orleans, jazz, banjo player, who played with Kid Ory, King Oliver and Louis Armstrong, the album is a far cry from John’s usual, solo guitar work. He set up the careers of guys like Leo Kottke and Toulouse Engelhardt, by taking traditional guitar played in the folk style, to another level. His slow but insistent groove was the mainstay of his strong, finger-picking style.

Sonny & Cher

CD: I had the opportunity to do a session for the "Sonny and Cher" TV show. I was playing fiddle on "Louisiana Man" that they were going to sing on their show. I just said, "Hi," and that was it. There was no interaction.  

Helen Reddy

CD: Kim Fowley produced the album, and I was musical director on a few songs of Helen Reddy’s Ear Candy in 1977. For someone whose music has been so maligned, she was a great person with a lot of spunk and a great sense of humor. When one does sessions for other people, you never know what you are going to get. Helen was a wonderful surprise, and the record turned out to be a pretty good one.

What for more on Darrow in the April 10 edition of Goldmine. And visit everloving.com to find out more about the Darrow reissues.

It's hard to say if you did, indeed, hear it here first, but in June, we reported in this blog that the New York Dolls were, in the words of David Johansen, " ... probably going to think about making a studio album." And that probably made us pretty damn close to being the first to report it.

What we didn't know, and what Johansen didn't know either, was how the band was going to distribute that record. All is now known.

Teaming with noted producer Todd Rundgren, the Dolls are set to release their fourth studio album, Cause I Sez So, on May 5 on Atco Records. The album was recorded a long, long way away from the dirty bowels of New York City that birthed the glam-rock gutter rats. The studio work was conducted in, of all places, Kauai, Hawaii, at Utopia Sound Studios.

Among the tracks is a new version of "Trash," one of the highlights from the Dolls' 1973 debut album.

"It was amazing working with Todd again, and I think we were able to evoke the special sound of our first album and drag it by the hair into the present," says Johansen.

Comprised of Johansen, guitarists Sylvain Sylvain and Steve Conte, bassist Sami Yaffa and drummer Brian Delaney, the Dolls will partake in the annual South By Southwest extravaganza — that's the music conference and festival in Austin, Texas.

Here's the schedule:

Friday, March 20
    2-3:15 p.m. Panel — The Sound and the Fury (Sylvain Sylvain only)
    12:30 a.m. — Showcase at Smokin' Music, 504 Trinity Street

Saturday, March 21
    2:40 p.m. — Rose's Mojito and Rachael Ray's Feedback: The B-side party at Maggie Mae's, 323 E. 6th St.


Here's a track listing for 'Cause I Sez So:
1. 'Cause I Sez So
2. Muddy Bones
3. Better Than
4. Lonely So Long
5. My World
6. Ridiculous
7. Temptation To Exist
8. Making Rain
9. Drowning
10. Nobody Got No Bizness
11. Trash
12. Exorcism Of Despair