Update: December 2023

Hello friends!

Well, it's the last day of December 2023 and you may have noticed that there's no new CD published here yet. It's been one heck of a busy month, and I'm still hard at work on the blog. Consequently, the Thousand Highways Collection's 10th Anniversary Celebration will be continuing into early 2024. I hope you'll look forward to a handful of new compilations in coming year.

In the meantime, I hope your holiday season has been great and wish you all the best for 2024.

Cheers,

CS

Thousand Highways in 2023

Good news, folks! I've decided to celebrate the tenth anniversary of this website by publishing several new compilations throughout 2023. Among these will be revised versions of delisted collections that remove officially-published tracks and a few long-time requests; it's true, I'm finally producing sets dedicated to 1994 and 2006.

Looking forward to sharing these with you on a monthly basis as the year progresses. The first one, which covers unreleased recordings from 1980 to 1985, should be out within the coming week.

Thanks,

CS

State of A Thousand Highways in 2020

Hello folks,

I just logged back in for the first time in a while and discovered that people have been speculating on my whereabouts. Truth be told, I'm heavily occupied with other creative endeavors and political activism these days; I'd get more specific but believe that part of my role here is ensuring that I don't personally profit from content ultimately owned by Bob Dylan and Columbia Records. 

It's been a great time creating this collection, which represents my favorite unreleased recordings, but I don't think I have much else to add to it for now. I was planning to create a 2019 live album but found that I couldn't meaningfully improve on Looks Like I'm Moving: 2019, the record produced by Expecting Rain users BennyBoy and JudasPriest.

All of that said, you never know when inspiration might strike. I won't write off returning to create more content for you someday and will continue maintaining my MediaFire subscription to preserve access to the music currently available. Heaven knows you'd need a lot of time to work through it all.

Until next our paths cross, thanks for listening.

- CS

Upcoming Posts: DIY Playlists, 2017 Edition

Good news, folks: I have plans for a number of DIY playlists in 2017.

In particular, I know a few of you have been looking forward to me crafting a "Best of 1966" set, and I can tell you that it's currently in progress. I finally got myself a copy of that mammoth collection, and it's as good as I hoped! Unfortunately, this means that compiling it will take some time. I'm hoping for a release date of March 1, 2017, but you never know.

Additionally, I'm working on the following collections:

Studio Essentials, 1973 - 1978
Studio Essentials, 1989 - 2000
Studio Essentials, 2001 - 2012
Live Essentials, 1971 - 1981
Live Essentials, 1992 - 2002
Best of the Basement Tapes

Hopefully none of these take me too long! In any case, I thought it might be nice to have something pleasant to look forward to.

Cheers,
CS

Late Post: August 2016

Howdy folks,

Sorry to say, August's new CD will be late. I'm very proud of it, but won't have it up until August 2 at some point. I'm a bit sick and also trying to spend some time with my wife before she leaves on a lengthy research trip. Hope you all understand!

Thanks,
CS

Update On Upcoming Releases - Summer 2016

Happy Summer!

In rather weird news, I stumbled my way into working out a 1984 Tour Compilation as a request from another community member, so the miscellaneous cuts will be delayed as well. I have a couple other ideas, which may turn into full compilations, so I hesitate to say which month the miscellaneous CDs will be published. This has the lucky bonus of allowing me to integrate newly circulating tapes from 1985, so I hope nobody is disappointed with the delay. For now, look forward to A Thousand Highways finally addressing the 1984 Tour in July, 2016.

Thanks,
CS

June Update

So just to keep everyone in the loop: there will be a new compilation published in June, but it will not be the concluding chapter of A Thousand Highways. In fact, I was so inspired by the exciting new tapes from Japan that I collected the best performances into a 2-Disc set, which will be released on June 1, 2016. Apologies to anyone who was looking forward to my miscellaneous recordings compilation - you'll just have to wait until July. Everyone else, check back in on June 1 for some brilliant new tracks from Bob Dylan's 2016 Tour of Japan.

Thanks for listening,
CS

News Post: "Shades of Blue" To Be Discontinued Shortly

Good morning everyone,

Some good news and some bad news...

The good news is that Sony/Columbia are releasing the very exciting Bootleg Series Volume 12: The Cutting Edge on November 6, 2015. This will include three packages of outtakes from 1965 to 1966, including a 2 CD best-of, a 6 CD set of mostly complete takes, and an 18 CD collector's edition containing the entirety of the studio tape from this era. Pretty heady stuff. More details here.

The bad news, at least for you loyal readers/listeners, is that The Thousand Highways Collection will be one item shorter. My Shades of Blue compilation, found here, will be taken down from this website before November 6, 2015. I've been pretty clear in the past that I don't want any overlap between this website and material that can be purchased from Bob Dylan's record company, and am standing by that in this instance. I will maintain the tracklist for those of you who would like to purchase the 6 CDs and compile your own version of my set, but the links will be removed.

For the material not represented on The Bootleg Series Volume 11, I will probably publish a bonus CD in the month of November. This would be the live tracks and/or the hotel tapes. We'll see.

I hope all is well with you kind folks, and I'm looking forward to bringing you more unreleased music in the future.

XOXO,
CS

Non-Music Resource Post

Hello everyone!

Since there is no bonus disc for the month of July, I thought you might enjoy some kind of update. In this case, it will be a brief explanation of pleasant online resources available to the diehard Dylan fans of the world. This is in the spirit of my recommended reading, which you can find here. Be aware that the following resources are in no particular order:

(1) Oloj Bjorner

This website has virtually everything you might want to know. The Yearly Chronicles section is a thoughtful analysis of Bob Dylan's artistic output (music, movies, books) divided into pages centered on specific years. It offers a remarkably detailed breakdown of live songs played on a tour, recommended shows, and even an outline of unreleased content becoming available. The Still On The Road page is my favorite part of the site, though, and functions as the primary resource from which I pull my information. It is a text list of every show played by the artist, along with songs played, band information, notable firsts or last, transcribed banter, and more. You really couldn't ask for a more helpful resource than this, and I wish more musicians had such inspired fan projects!

(2) Lossless Bob

This one is comparatively new to me, though I have been aware of it for years. It is a catalog of Bob Dylan unreleased recordings, which is each assigned a number. An analysis of the recording is presented, along with resources like relevant text files and checksum data (for my fellow archival nerds out there). This person has essentially generated a cataloging standard for unreleased recordings, and it is very helpful when you hear a concert and wonder if an alternative tape exists.

(3) Electric Ladyland

Electric Ladyland is a top-notch website for finding unreleased music. Their search feature is significantly better than Dimeadozen, and the community is very responsive to requests for reseeding concerts. Much of the second round of the Thousand Highways collection was downloaded from fellow fans on this site.

(4) Bob Dylan Official Website

This official website may have seen its best days in the 1990s and 2000s, when its staff was publishing unreleased and rare content via downloadable files, but it's still one of the better artist pages out there. You will find a list of every Bob Dylan song, and a little exploring will take you to lyrics and a list of times the song was played live. It's updated pretty frequently, and features some cool multimedia content (music videos, articles, etc.).

(5) Searching For A Gem

Searching For A Gem is, like Lossless Bob, a wonderful resource for tracking official releases. In the case of my blog, this has sadly led to a handful of intended tracks not making it onto compilations, since they have been officially released in very obscure ways. The orchestral "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," for example, was released on a European version of the MTV Unplugged Dignity single. Happily, being aware of these releases keeps the material on this website from stepping on anyone's toes and making it fall into more problematic content. I am always impressed at the capacity for comprehensiveness of the contributors to Searching For A Gem.

I hope you enjoy these links. Let me know if I missed anything!

-CS

Addenda: 2015 Expansion

Hello Internet!

In 2015, I have been working on a handful of new releases based on some recommendations from a supportive fan, and will be publishing them monthly beginning on March 1. Currently, I am planning to release several live compilations:

March: The Ghost of Woody Guthrie - 1961
April: Rites Of Spring - Live - 1966 (2 Discs)
May: Unknown Country - Live - 1975
June: Raging Glory - Live - 1976
July: A Voice Without Restraint - Live - 1986
August: The Water Is Wide - Live - 1989 (2 Discs)
September: Undesirables - Live - Fall 1991
October: Storyteller - Live - 1992
November: TBA - Live - Supper Club 1993
December: Roadhouse Hymns - Live - 1996
January: From New Orleans To New Jerusalem - Live - 1997
February:  After Hours - Live - 1998
March: TBA - Live - 2001

The first is one that should have been released here a long time ago, though I was worried about copyright issues due to the flood of unauthorized music from that year. In fact, 1961 recordings have lapsed into a gray area as far as I can tell, and my compilation contains no officially released music anyway. It was a hit when originally published in 2011 on Expecting Rain, and I am planning to expand it slightly; the original was also not presented in lossless quality, but this re-release will be.

It is a mystery why I never published a set for 1989 in the original run, because it is one of my favorite touring years. It's very strange, dark music that I tried to include on the two Series of Dreams CDs and the One More Night series. I think it deserves a dedicated standalone compilation.

I hope you enjoy these. I am also planning an index page to make the blog easier to access, whether you are a frequent visitor or new to the site. I'm looking forward to publishing some new content in 2015. Until then, keep yourself healthy and listen to some good tunes.

-CS

March 1 Update: This post has been edited to reflect exciting news: I am planning to complete 5 additional compilations: 1966, 1975, 1976, 1993 (Supper Club) and 2001. While all of these years were covered partially by other releases, it seems an omission to have no dedicated representation of these excellent live performances. This website is designed to be a sort-of one-stop introduction to the unreleased recordings of Bob Dylan, and is incomplete without these additions.

March 18 Update: Two more exciting additions - live sets from 1986 and Fall 1991.

April 2 Update: One more exciting addition - 1992 is getting its own full CD. For those who care, a bunch of projected releases have titles.

Acknowledgments & Further Reading

Welcome one last time, friends.

Since the conclusion of this project some weeks ago, I wanted to provide some brief acknowledgments and recommendations for further listening and reading.

With regard to the former, I would like to first thank the tapers who have made this website possible. Many names have been lost to time, but some contributors to the taping community stand out. In no particular order, I thank Soomlos, Hide, Bach, Spot, Zimmy21, Les Kokay, LTD, and Hurricane62. Surely there are many others I am forgetting at this moment; feel free to note them in the comments below.

Perhaps as important as the tapers are the community's contributors who make the recordings available either in their pure form or as part of compilations. These include ExpectingRain's Lilraven, Nellie, StHelens, Daveskey, Smoke, 10haaf, Lee67, Ditch, and NotDarkYet. Though I am proud of the Thousand Highways Collection, these folks are the foundations on which it was based, and without whom it could not stand.

As for recommendations, I urge interested listeners to seek out the following books:

Paul Williams - Performing Artist, Volume One (1960 - 1973)
Paul Williams - Performing Artist, Volume Two (1974 - 1986)
Paul Williams - Performing Artist, Volume Three (1986 - 1990)

Andrew Muir - One More Night: Bob Dylan's Never-Ending Tour (1988 - 2011)

Clinton Heylin - Revolution In The Air, The Songs Of Bob Dylan (1956 - 1973)
Clinton Heylin - Still On The Road, The Songs Of Bob Dylan (1974 - 2006)

Derek Barker - The Songs He Didn't Write: Bob Dylan Under The Influence

Paul Williams' series is really the finest work around on Bob Dylan's performing career from 1960 to 1990, and Andrew Muir's One More Night is a worthy successor, picking up where Williams' work concluded. Clinton Heylin is often considered a divisive author, but his exhaustive look at Dylan's writing and recording career is unparalleled; each song written gets an entry. Derek Barker's book is the definitive look at this artist's work covering other musicians' material. None of these are particularly biographical in scope, but if you, like me, are interested in Dylan's music more than his personal life, you'll find that these are the only books you'd ever need on his work. It's worth noting that these links are to amazon.com, since that is the most reliably stable website for linking, but try to seek these out at local bookstores if you have the opportunity.

Finally, I would like to thank the listeners and the musicians. Without the listeners, this would be a largely unrewarding endeavor. Without the artists, we would live in a poorer culture. We should all be grateful that we live in a time when this kind of art can be performed, recorded, preserved, and enjoyed by generations to come.

Thank you,
CS

Non-Music Disclaimer Post

Hello everyone,

In light of the recent news stories about how Prince is handling distribution of his music online, I would like to say once again that if anyone finds this website to be aiding in the distribution of music that should not be accessible, please send me a message or post about it, and I will be happy to remove any or all of the links found here. This blog is not financially detrimental to any artist or record company, because none of this is available for purchase, and I am gaining no profit or recognition from the posts, as there are no ads and my name is not associated with the site. I claim no ownership of any kind over the music presented here, and am only presenting a coherent exhibition of music that is available elsewhere on the internet. As stated above, if this is problematic, or offends any party responsible for this music, I will remove it as soon as I am notified.

Thanks,
CS

Non-Music Technical Post, Part Two: Artwork

Hello again! This is a mid-week update, courtesy of blog reader Marcus. He noted a problem facing those of us who would like to add artwork to iTunes to accompany these volumes, but find that the artwork does not remain displayed after adding it. Apparently, this is due to restrictions on what data is associated with .WAV files (artwork is not among this associated data). Here is how to fix it, in the words of Marcus:

I actually surprised myself by figuring out a (ham-fisted) work around to the problem.

wav files dont allow you to add artwork, but if you duplicate one song from the album in the Apple Lossless format (iTunes/File/Create New Version)and then add the artwork to that file, then the artwork attaches itself to the whole album on iTunes.
Apparently, the artwork is still not really added to the wav files, but it adds it to the album - which was what I wanted.

I duplicate the last file on each album,so that it doesnt disrupt my listening.

Sometimes I surprise myself !
Hope that helps someone else.

Thank you very much, Marcus. If you've got a particular era you'd like me to look into for a new compilation, hit me up and I'll see what I can do :)

Non-Music Technical Post

Hi again,

It has come to my attention that I should devote some small amount of time to the file types used on this blog. This really should have been in my introductory post, but was not. Ah well.

In any case, the files as downloaded are .RAR, which means you will need a program called winRAR to open them. You can obtain this program for free here: http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm

The .RAR files are a compressed format, which allows me to upload them as three links for an entire lossless-quality CD. Speaking of lossless quality, the tracks are uncompressed .WAV files. These have typically been downloaded as FLAC, converted to WAV, edited using the Audacity program, then output again as WAVs. This preserves the high quality of the audio. If there is significant demand for mp3 versions, I can facilitate mp3 links, though they probably will not be available simultaneous to the WAV format.

I find WAV to be the best option, as it eschews the challenges associated with FLAC by the average user (specific software needed to convert so that it can be listened to or loaded onto an audio device), but manages to retain the very high quality sound. These releases are not directed at the collectors, as they will almost certainly have these tracks without my edits (splicing, fades, etc.) in a "purer" version. Instead, these CDs are aimed at folks like myself who want a pleasant listening experience on a single volume that spans a particular series of sessions, concerts, tours, etc. And of those, there is much to come.

Hopefully that clears things up. If anyone has any other questions about technical issues, please feel free to post them below and I'll respond as time allows.

Thanks!

Introduction

Hello internet,

I hope all is well out there in cyberspace.

For some time, I have been "publishing" compilations of Bob Dylan field recordings and outtakes on expectingrain.com. That has been rewarding, and seems to have brought some small amount of joy to the world.

The two years or so that this project has taken have been fruitful, and I'd like to share the compilations with a wider group of people. That, of course, is where this blog comes in.

Over the next several months, I hope to post the full collection of tapes, which span the years 1965 - 2013. I will also do my best to link to retailers so that you might purchase the official Columbia releases which relate to these posts.

I can't say strongly enough that I disagree with piracy, and encourage listeners to purchase available recordings through legitimate stores. All recordings found here are unreleased, and no money should be paid to anyone but the artist/record company for these songs. If the links found herein contain anything which could be purchased elsewhere, or otherwise cause offense, please send me a message and they will be removed ASAP. I claim no rights to these recordings, or my edits of them.

Please post comments as you see fit, and most of all: enjoy! There is a wonderful appreciation of truth and beauty to found in the art etched upon these ones and zeroes.