FARMINGTON – Bob Dylan turned 80 last month. Some would say there’s a fitting Dylan line for pretty much every occasion in life.
“…and it’s not ‘I wanna hold your hand’,” Jim Logan said.
Logan is one of the founding members of the Bob Katz- a local group of dedicated Dylan fans who have been gathering weekly for a quarter of the singer-songwriter’s life.
“He makes you think and feel, even when you know the song so well it seems part of your DNA,” Logan said.
Up until the pandemic, the Katz met regularly at Java Joes on Main Street. Claiming an entire corner of the tiny cafe, the regularly four (sometimes five or six) person group would launch into lively conversation, often gaining sideways glances from the tired college kid at the next table over. From a three-minute walk, to a two-hour drive, members of the group never hesitated about the commitment.
“I don’t know anyone in the Farmington area who knows more about Dylan and rock ‘n roll than these guys, and I crave good discussions about rock music,” Lu Yetter said.
Yetter craves rock music conversation so much that she has annually taught a class on the subject the University of Maine at Farmington.
“This is so predictable, but my favorite song is “Like a Rolling Stone.” I have often used Dylan’s work as a theme for my first-year writing classes, and I love teaching that song. The lyrics seem to be critical and accusatory, but ultimately the celebratory delivery and music make us come to the realization that having nothing to lose is a good thing,” Yetter said.
While the conversation was always rooted in Dylan, subjects almost always evolved from that point to include a broad range of topics. From graduating children and moving across the country, to politics and philosophy, Yetter said the conversations were always “grounded in…history and culture”. Not long after forming, the Katz realized the group offered something equally as valuable as unpacking a Dylan song- connection.
“I found a tribe…a community…that nurtures me in my own pursuit of understanding the world and my/our place in it. The more deeply you experience Dylan and his work the more deeply it helps to have people you can process and sort out things with,” Jim Mello said.
Mello has made the weekly trek from Bangor to Farmington to join the Katz discussions for the better part of the last 20 years, and even though there may be even more physical distance between group members now, Yetter said it’s anything but over. The group still plans to meet at least once this summer while everyone is in Maine, and they email regularly to discuss Dylan. For Ernie Gurney, the group has offered a sense of stability, and habit, to everyday life, despite the widespread conversation.
“Going astray was part of the joy. Dylan starts one line here and ends up over there. Sometimes you have to let the line run out to see where it takes you,” he said.
