A group of musicians will bring it all back home and revisit “Highway 61 Revisited” as they celebrate Bob Dylan’s 73rd birthday with a tribute show in Prospect Heights on May 30.
A veritable Traveling Wilburys of Brooklyn rockers called the the Zimmymen and the Wimmymen, after Dylan’s birth name Robert Zimmerman, will perform at the “Doctor Who”-themed bar the Way Station for the occasion. As if there were not enough pop culture references already at work in this scenario, an organizer invoked Ernest Hemingway when describing how awesome of a performance it will be.
“I would call it a moveable feast of Dylan-tologists,” said Richard Bryant, who is heading up the Zimmymen and the Wimmymen.
The bash will include the group playing its version of all of the songs on the 1965 album “Bringing It All Back Home.” The players will fill out the show with songs pulled from the rest of Dylan’s 52-year recording career.
A revolving group of diehard Dylan fans has hosted this marathon birthday tribute for several years. In the past the strummers have performed the albums “John Wesley Harding,” “Highway 61 Revisited,” “Blood on the Tracks,” and “Nashville Skyline,” all in their entireties. Why?
“He is the bard. He is the guy. He is the greatest writer of songs of the past 50 years,” said Bryant. “He has written so much important music that it is always great fun to say, ‘Let’s play wall-to-wall Bob Dylan.’ ”
The Way Station has been building up serious tribute-band cred as of late. The watering hole hosted a Lou Reed birthday tribute show in March and has a Byrds tribute show on the calendar for August.
“A Bob Dylan Birthday Tribute” at the Way Station [683 Washington Ave. between Prospect Place and Saint Marks Avenue in Prospect Heights, (347) 627–4949, www.waystationbk.blogspot.com]. May 30 at 8 pm. $5 suggested donation.
