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Listen to Demos From the Bob Dylan Musical Girl From the North Country

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 06: Honoree Bob Dylan speaks onstage at the 25th anniversary MusiCares 2015 Person Of The Year Gala honoring Bob Dylan at the Los Angeles Convention Center on February 6, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. The annual benefit raises critical funds for MusiCares' Emergency Financial Assistance and Addiction Recovery programs. For more information visit musicares.org. (Photo by Michael Kovac/WireImage)

Girl From the North Country, a new musical featuring songs written by Bob Dylan, is set to open at The Old Vic Theater in London in early July. The theater has just released some demo recordings of the songs, as performed at a recent workshop of the production. Named for Dylan’s English-ballad-inspired tune of the same name, the play was written and directed by Conor McPherson, and takes place in Depression-era Minnesota, in Dylan’s hometown of Duluth.

You can now hear a run throughs of a spirited, country-fied medley of “Sweetheart Like You” from Infidels, recast as a duet, into Street Legal‘s “True Love Tends to Forget.” There’s also an ensemble version of “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” of The Basement Tapes (The Byrds also recorded the song for Sweetheart of the Rodeo, and the musical’s arrangement seems to borrow more from that recording than Dylan and The Band’s version.)

The stage production will star a few familiar faces–Shirley Henderson (Bridget Jones, Happy Valley) and Ciaran Hinds (Mance Rayder in Game of Thrones, among many other things), among others. Last week, MacPherson told The Daily Mail that he had Dylan’s blessing for the project: “I got a message back [from his manager] saying: ‘Bob loves this, and you can use whatever you want, however you want. You can do whatever you like.'”

Listen to the demos below.

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/319710078&color=ff5500

[Stereogum]