January 1961: a 19 year-old Bob Dylan left his home state of Minnesota and headed for the Folk Mecca that was Greenwich Village New York City - the centre of the Folk Revival.
By the time of Dylan’s arrival, the resurgence in traditional American roots’ music had been gathering pace with focus on the careers of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.
The impact on Dylan was so great, that after being in New York for only two days he made the pilgrimage to Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital to see his idol Guthrie who was suffering from Huntington’s, the disease that would eventually kill him.
Dylan quickly began to make a name for himself in the Greenwich Village coffee houses and clubs. Many of these impromptu sessions featured cover songs of his early musical influences and displayed his love of Country music. This was to permeate throughout his career.
This brand new series looks at the roots and influences of major artists and how influences are taken and reworked into popular music and how early music forms drove themselves into the mainstream.
Each programme will feature original music by the pioneers of early blues, r 'n' b, archival interviews, brand new filmed interviews with artists and commentators of the times as well as archival film of each artist or band influenced.