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