This year, the World of Bob Dylan again brings together some of our leading critics, scholars, journalists, and musicians to explore the Nobel-winning artist’s life, work, and legacy. Over the next two weeks, we will announce our keynote speakers and performers as well as the full schedule of events. Today, we kick things off by announcing that Greil Marcus will return to deliver a keynote address titled “The Only Thing Missing Was Gloria Grahame: Noir Tones in 21st-Century Dylan.” This original work promises to offer new insight into Dylan’s extraordinary recent work and the surprising cinematic turns it takes in “The Night We Called It a Day,” Triplicate, Shadow Kingdom, “Murder Most Foul,” and other spots on the Dylan map.
For nearly five decades, Marcus has one of our most innovative commentators on Dylan’s work has unearthed again and again its often secreted yet always surprising connections to American history and popular popular culture. In addition to operating both his Substack newsletter [greilmarcus.substack.com] and his eclectic website,both of which collect his new and past writing in an ever-expanding cyber universe, he has written extensively on Dylan, from Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music (1975), through the landmark Old Weird America: The World of Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes(1997), to the celebrated 2022 Folk Music: A Bob Dylan Biography in Seven Songs.
Register now to join us for this talk as well as dozens of other sessions featuring keynotes, artist conversations, roundtable discussions, musical performances, and much more. Conference events will be held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Tulsa, which has made a special rate available for conference attendees.