BURIED TREASURE
Another Country
This month’s rediscovered jewel: a honky-tonk hipster classic, now with a second life.
Honky-tonk man: Bob Neuwirth, “leaping in and out of things,” in the mid ’70s.
©2002
Bob Neuwirth
Bob Neuwirth
ASYLUM, 1974
IF THE AVERAGE music fan knows the name Bob Neuwirth, it’s as Bob Dylan’s sidekick and road manager in the documentary Dont Look Back about Dylan’s 1965 UK tour. But Neuwirth, who died in 2022, was so much more than a Dylantante.
In addition to releasing six of his own eclectic albums, he was a respected visual artist, filmmaker and music project producer who encouraged other top-rank artists like Patti Smith and Kris Kristofferson. He also possessed a slice-and-dice wit that he wielded like a machete. Pals with Janis Joplin, he co-wrote the satirical Mercedes Benz with Joplin and Beat poet Michael McClure, and turned her onto Kristofferson’s Me And Bobby McGee with which she had a Number 1 hit. “He wasn’t a careerist – he cared about making art,” says longtime partner and music industry vet Paula Batson. “That art could be a song or a painting or a film, but he certainly didn’t care about his so-called career.”