Not that it’s unusual to encounter Bob Dylan songs, but I still felt like the man’s songs were following me around on Friday night. Driving from Raleigh to Chapel Hill, I heard Peter Paul & Mary’s version of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” on WKIX-AM. After that signal faded out, I switched over to WXYC on the FM band just in time to hear Van Morrison’s rendition of “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.” Then I walked into Cat’s Cradle, where Old 97’s were playing, and they served up “Champaign, Illinois” – a rewrite of Dylan’s “Desolation Row.”

While it’s hard to argue with those other two covers, I think I dug the 97’s remake the most. There might not be a more purely likable act on the bar-band circuit nowadays, and they’ve gotten nothing but better since their mid-’90s breakthrough period.

Speaking of the mid-’90s, frontman Rhett Miller does not appear to have aged 15 minutes in the 17 years since the 97’s debuted with 1995’s “Wreck Your Life” (an album represented Friday night by a rollicking run-through of “Doreen”). Miller’s stage persona is the lovable loser who wishes he were cooler, but he’ll settle for knowing where you’ve been. And even if you’re not telling, well, he’ll still leave the back door open for ya.

The rest of the 97’s were all beyond solid, too, still rocking at the feverish pace of a runaway train (no, that name has never been an accident). They were great, and it was a surprisingly full house given that the 97’s are touring on an album that’s six months old. All in all, a real good night…

Here's another excellent little coup for Concord's Avett Brothers: They're playing Sunday night's Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, even though they're not nominated. But wait, it gets better: They're playing with Bob Dylan, as part of a three-song "special salute to acoustic music" that also includes Mumford & Sons (a.k.a. the British Avett Brothers) in addition to Dylan. That might be even cooler than the Johnny Cash star turn the Avetts did last year. "Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise" is on the set list.

The Grammys will be on CBS from 8 to 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

Mavis Staples has a great new album out, which she'll show off in Durham tonight. For verbiage past and present about music and family (plus an amazing and amusing tale about her near-marriage to another equally iconic musical figure), click on through.

Stan Ridgway's new album "Neon Mirage" is one that's very much under the shadow of recent passings, especially fiddle player Amy Farris -- a friend and collaborator of his who committed suicide last October. Early in the process, Ridgway recorded a couple of songs at her suggestion, including a cover of  Bob Dylan's "Lenny Bruce." The songs she suggested wound up being particularly key tracks on the album.

"I'm happy and grateful she's on the record, although some of it was hard to finish up after she left us," Ridgway said in a recent interview. "Mixing the voice and playing of somebody who's no longer there was just wrenching. So I kind of left that alone for a while. I really didn't know what to do with it, especially 'Lenny Bruce.' The sad irony of that song's subject matter was not lost on me. Dylan probably wrote that in 10 minutes or something, which I don't say to minimize it. I find him just amazing. Planet Bob is a place we all must visit. It's really delivered more as a celebration of a life somebody has sacrificed. And the great thing Bob did with that song was to make it not only about Lenny Bruce, but anybody who has laid his body on the barbed wire and taken the knock for it."

Ridgway plays Saturday night in Raleigh. For details, plus lots more talk about "Neon Mirage," see the interview in Friday's paper. And if you want to take a listen, "Neon Mirage" is streaming here.

So that Bob Dylan Christmas album you've been hearing about? Not only is it for real, what I've heard of it is a positively surreal listening experience. Enjoy (if that's the right verb).

(Found via Bull City.)

Here's one I'm late on, thanks to post-vacation catch-up, but I find this so jaw-dropping that I simply must share just in case you've missed it. In the universe of bad ideas, there are lots of whoppers. But few rise to the level of truly catastrophic, with as much epic-trainwreck potential, as the thought of Bob Dylan singing Christmas carols -- in just the crisp diction you'd expect, no doubt.

Then again, this is the man who gave us "Self Portrait."

ADDENDUM (8/27/09): If it's for real, the Bob Dylan GPS?!

There was a rock show at Durham Bulls Athletic Park Tuesday night, so click on through to see how it went.

Here's a show I wish I'd known about early enough to include in last week's outdoor music guide: Bob Dylan on another of his baseball-park tours, July 28 at Durham Bulls Athletic Park with fellow travelers John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson. Dylan and Nelson, you might recall, played a few years back at the Carolina Mudcats ballpark in Zebulon.

All tickets are general admission and priced at $67.50. They go on sale May 9. For details, check here.

Bob Dylan's latest rarities collection "Tell Tale Signs" won't be released until next Tuesday. But you can already take a pre-release listen right here. 

Happy Monday. Start your week off with a little poetry -- yes, poetry -- from The New Yorker, which has published two poems by Bob Dylan. They're called "21" and 17," and they're pretty much exactly what you'd expect (paranoid meditations on death and being chased by a mob, respectively).