Bonus Track: Emma Swift on How "I Contain Multitudes" Unlocked Singing Dylan

"I'm very comfortable wearing the Bob Dylan cloak"

Emma Swift at the ‘Going Electric’ concert. Courtesy American Song Archives

Emma Swift’s name is well-known to many Dylan fans at this point through her wonderful 2020 covers album Blonde on the Tracks. Today, she releases the follow-up, her debut album of original material, The Resurrection Game. I haven’t heard the whole thing yet, but the advance singles have been excellent. So, in honor of the new album, I’m sharing my full conversation with her from backstage at Cain’s Ballroom this summer. She teases her eventual second album of Dylan covers, but, before that, another album of covers she’s recorded of a different cranky genius.

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All of these casual Bonus Track conversations backstage at the Bob Dylan Center’s “Going Electric” shows are archived here—and here’s the main piece I did from the shows

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You’ve sung many Dylan songs, but you've got a limited list to choose from for this. How did you pick the songs you’re doing tonight?

"Queen Jane Approximately" is very much in the Dylan-going-electric period, and that's a song that I recorded on my Blonde on the Tracks album. So that was an easy choice.

Lee Ranaldo, our fabulous band leader, wanted to get the moment just before Dylan went electric, so my job is actually part of the set that's the folk side of Bob Dylan. I'm doing "The Times They Are a-Changin'," which feels like an enormous responsibility. It's such a special song and it's so important, I think, in the current era. This fascinating and confusing and potentially destructive, but hopefully ultimately hopeful time that we're living through right now. I feel like it's a really poignant song to be singing. It makes me feel quite emotional.

When Bob Dylan performed this particular song, he sort of barrels through it in a really righteous [way.] It feels optimistic when Bob's singing it. My twist on “The Times They Are a-Changin’” for tonight's show is that it's a little bit mournful, to reflect where we're at in the culture.

That's what I like to do with Bob Dylan's songs. They're so potent and rich and open to interpretation. And it'll be nice to try this one on for size.

Emma Swift singing “The Times They Are a-Changin’” at the Going Electric concert:

How many do you have in your repertoire now?

I don't know exactly. I've been singing "Visions of Johanna" a lot, which means an enormous amount to me. It's my favorite Bob Dylan song, and I sung that the last time that I was at Cain's back in January for Blood on the Tracks. The format of that show was we played the album, and then the second half of the show was just playing particular Bob Dylan songs that we enjoyed. So I did "Visions of Johanna" for that.

I have ones that I'm kind of secretly working away on for my eventual Bob Dylan follow-up. I'd like to make another record of Dylan's songs at some point down the line. I have no idea when that will actually happen, but I've been doing "Sweetheart Like You." I've also performed "Not Dark Yet" before.

I only heard a little bit of "Queen Jane" in rehearsal, but it sounded more faithful to the Dylan version than the one on your album.

Yeah. On my record, the version of "Queen Jane" has got quite a spring in its step. That's largely due to Patrick Sansone, the record producer.

Another Wilco guy.

Yeah, these Wilco cats are everywhere. He plays a really beautiful twelve-string electric guitar on that. That was a production choice that was made in homage to the Byrds. They were one of the first groups to cover Bob Dylan.

This time around it's a more loyal approach. I didn't necessarily make that decision. Lee's our band leader, and I'm happy for him to lead the way.

Emma Swift singing “Queen Jane Approximately” at the Going Electric concert: