Q & A With Dylan Days' Aaron Brown
Dylan Days begain informally in 1991 at Zimmy’s Bar and Restaurant in Hibbing, Minnesota (Bob Dylan’s hometown). The Dylan-themed establishment hosted a small birthday gathering in Bob’s honor that included some impromptu musical performances. In the years since, more and more people have poured into the Iron Range town of Hibbing every May to celebrate the birthday of one of America’s greatest musicians and poets. Today, Dylan Days is a growing regional event that brings both professional and amateur musicians, poets, writers, artists, and performers together for a celebration of the arts, and of Bob Dylan.
Aaron Brown is the spokesman and cocoordinator of Hibbing’s Dylan Days. He is also the public face of the (kind of) schmaltzy “Come Home Bob” campaign by the Iron Range Tourism Bureau that hit the social media sites of YouTube, facebook, and Twitter like a tornado this spring, and garnered a lot of attention in traditional media outlets as well.
A pretty busy guy, he found time to answer some burning questions about the annual birthday bash for Bob. He is a faculty member of Hibbing Community College, a blogger at www. minnesotabrown.com, and the author of Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range, (worth a read!).
Jean: Aaron, tell me your favorite Dylan Days anecdote, if you would.
Aaron: There are a lot of similar stories about people from England, New York or other far-away places coming to Hibbing and being shocked and excited by what they saw. Iron Rangers don’t often look at their own towns for the interesting details that make them what they are. Outsiders, especially when they’re visiting on what amounts to a pilgrimage, usually do notice things. Many stories like this blend together.
I guess because I’m specifi cally in charge of the literary event I recall at one reading one of our poetry honorees showed up fairly drunk. He had this great poem and was trying to read it but couldn’t quite make out the print in his condition. It was pretty obvious, but he tried to blame it on his “bad glasses.” Well, this nice lady in the back shouted, “You can borrow mine!” So there was this long drawnout human drama where the lady slowly walked up from the back of the room to hand over her old-fashioned winged reading classes to this guy when everyone else pretty much knew they weren’t going to help. Not a very lovely story, but it was raw and I still laugh about that guy in those glasses.
Jean: Do you care if Bob Dylan ever returns to Hibbing for his birthday, or not?
Aaron: Yes, I care. I don’t know that it will happen quite like that. Dylan is a private guy and an announced return to his hometown would be a spectacle he may wish to avoid. I think if he does come back and play a song or two or speak to the people in public it will be quiet, unannounced, spontaneous and an absolute thrill to those who are there for it. We hope he can make Dylan Days some year, but he’s welcome any time.
Jean: Hibbing’s Dylan Days is really about support and promotion for the creative arts in our communities. How successful do you feel the organization has been in that regard? How do you measure it?
Aaron: I think our success is hard to measure because for every one of the hundred or so long distance travelers we get each year there are dozens who read about the event and our mission and think it’s cool but can’t make it to Hibbing at that particular time. We know that thousands visit Hibbing each year to learn more about Dylan and then become interested in the other aspects of the Range story and arts community they might not have expected. To the degree the Iron Range becomes known for more than mining and as a place where people go and aren’t just from, well that’s the degree to which we are successful. We have more work to do.
Jean: How did you get such broad national and international participation in Dylan Days’ literary and music competitions?
Aaron: Dylan is an international figure. Many people in our area don’t fully understand how far his influence reaches. We didn’t either, until we started getting involved in all this. The event started locally with people playing music informally on Dylan’s birthday. Our writing contest started here at Hibbing Community College in the English Department. To be honest, there was interest but when we opened the doors to the world we were swamped by the response from people who wanted to write, sing and make art in Bob Dylan’s hometown. We pride ourselves on being a genuine, organic grassroots organization. That’s just what happened.
Jean: Are you a personal fan of Bob Dylan? What is your favorite Bob Dylan song?
Aaron: I am a fan of Bob Dylan and have been since high school (I just turned 30 this year). I don’t get into the “voice of a generation” business because the 1960s are a history lesson to me, not my personal past. Rather, “Blood on the Tracks” was what I turned to during a bad romantic spell my junior year. I then grew interested in Dylan’s other work. To be honest, my iPod play count now favors Johnny Cash by a slim margin, but there are some situations where only a Dylan song will do.
Jean: For you, what has been the most gratifying aspect of working on Dylan Days?
Aaron: The most gratifying aspect of my Dylan Days work has been watching it grow from nothing into a stable, independent organization, watching the attitudes from Range people about Bob Dylan literally reverse in the course of nine years, meeting the people from all over the world, and the way the Dylan story inspired me to dig deeper into Range history - something that’s become a big part of my career and identity.
Jean: What else would you like to say about Dylan Days?
Aaron: Dylan Days is not just about Bob Dylan, it’s about the Iron Range. Bob Dylan knows and has recently acknowledged the influence of the Iron Range on his past. I think the Iron Range would do well to realize the influence of Bob Dylan and the power of the arts on its future.
Jean: I see that Duluth is celebrating their 4th Annual Bob Dylan Way. Is there a friendly competition between the two cities? Are they trying to steal Hibbing’s thunder?
Aaron: Actually, not much news here. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how well our Hibbing efforts have synced with Duluth’s. We’ve met with their Dylan Way group and the folks have been more than kind and accommodating. This year’s efforts, if you notice, include no competing events and provide several days of Dylan tourism in northern Minnesota for anyone interested in participating.
In fact, with Bob Dylan turning 70 next year, Duluth and Hibbing are working to collaborate on celebrating our shared connection to Bob Dylan and a shared destiny regarding the arts in northern Minnesota. As with mining, northern Minnesota’s arts community requires a Duluth and a Hibbing.
Fundamentally, certain large events are better suited for Duluth’s increased hotel and venue capabilities and certain intimate experiences are better suited for Hibbing. There’s no reason for those two truths to be mutually exclusive.
Jean: Tell me about the “Come Home Bob” campaign. Who dreamt this up?
Aaron: The general idea for “Come Home Bob” emerged from the Iron Range Tourism Burea and its public relations agency W.A. Fisher. It was based on the popular Lorne Michaels sketch on Saturday Night Live in the late ‘70s where Lorne offered $3,000 to woo the Beatles to appear on SNL. I was approached for advice and participation and the result was what you saw. What’s unsaid in all of this so far is that Michael’s comical attempt to get the Beatles on SNL almost succeeded in attracting John Lennon and Paul McCartney to the show. The idea for our modern version of this was that goodnatured, self-deprecating humor would do more than outright begging.
Jean: How did it get such great/widespread coverage in the mainstream media?
Aaron: Well, I wish I could take credit for how well it spread initially. The project merely reinforced concepts I’ve learned in several years of being involved with Dylan Days. Anything with a Bob Dylan reference has the potential to go worldwide immediately. We live in a culture obsessed with fame and pop culture. Dylan, to some extent, defined a whole generation. That gives anything related to him a chance to catch headlines. When this campaign was unveiled even I was shocked with how quickly, and with how little vetting the tongue-in-cheek concept was adopted by northern Minnesota and even national media.
Jean: Please discuss the use of social media for promotional campaigns like this.
Aaron: We’re in the wild west for this sort of thing. All I’ve learned is that in an environment where the mainstream media is struggling with changes in its industry, local media professionals are very willing to let a cleverly disguised media campaign substitute for actual news and feature writing. Did I just say that? I guess I did.
That said, social media is rightfully going to be a part of all campaigns - political, advertising and cultural - from now on. This is how people in our current generation communicate, or at least most do, and the degree to which you understand the behaviors of social media audiences will determine the degree to which you succeed in any given effort.
