Maria Doyle Kennedy on Bob Dylan: "He is still writing in a way that is vital rather than nostalgic, which gives me enormous hope"

Bob Dylan songs thread their way through my life like buoys, markers of change. When my family finally got a record player (I was 14) I bought two albums: Bob Dylan’s Street Legal and Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark.

Street Legal was stolen from a house party the very next day but it still is part of marking the time for me when I “got” what music could do.... that it could express things you felt but didn’t yet have words for, that it could be your friend as you grew up.

His Desire album is part of the soundtrack to my falling in love with Kieran (Kennedy) and there are so many more songs of his that punctuate my timeline. He is still writing in a way that is vital rather than nostalgic, which gives me enormous hope. I have only seen him play live once and it made me kind of sad, as he seemed to resent the audience being there, but we will always have, and I am very grateful for, the many, many incredible songs. Thank you for them Bob, Breithlá shona dhuit.

Read the full Bob Dylan special feature in the current issue of Hot Press – out now: