A Complete Unknown--Bob Dylan
Hello Everyone, yesterday, Mrs. Harpsmith and I had the pleasure of attending the premiere of "A Complete Unknown" with Ross Garren and his family. This highly anticipated film delves into the most impactful and contentious moments of Bob Dylan's illustrious musical career.
The film features Timothee Chalamet, a rising star in Hollywood, who convincingly portrays Bob Dylan in terms of appearance, singing, and guitar playing. However, Chalamet's harmonica skills were not sufficient for the film, leading the studio to enlist Ross Garren to provide harmonica coaching (along with Rob Paparozzi) and to overdub the majority of the Bob Dylan and Sonny Terry harmonica parts. Well done Ross! We are proud of you.
Notably, all the harmonicas that Ross played for the film were HARPSMITH Marine Band DeLuxe 2005 and Crossover models.
As for Timothee's harmonicas, the studio hired me to make his authentic Hohner Marine Band 1896 harmonicas unplayable. I removed all the reeds to prevent the harmonicas from being played ;o)
You must see this movie!
Your HARPSMITH, Kinya
HA! That would be waay cool to find and view that vintage footage.
Before this film, like you, I would always tease Bobby's harmonica playing. After discussing the difficulty of mimicking Dylan's playing with both Ross Garren and Buddy Greene, I take back everything I said about Bob Dylan's harmonica playing.
it turns out, Dylan's note selection and rhythmic playing styling is extremely difficult to copy.
Enjoy the movie Rob
Your HARPSMITH, Kinya
Kinya:
I'd heard about Ross doing harp work for the movie, but didn't know that you'd also been involved. Very cool. Can't wait to see the movie
I met Ross at Harmonica Northwest in October 2023. He's amazing, and I hope to cross paths again with him sometime.
And finally, while this may not be the nicest thing to say, is it possible that by removing all of the reeds from a Marine Band, one can actually sound better than the early Bob Dylan? (Somewhere out there is an 8 mm movie of me doing my best Bob Dylan impression, performing "It Ain't Me Babe" at a high school talent show in 1966. Playing a big Gibson guitar, and wearing what was my then impression of "beat" clothing. Mercifully it probably does not have sound, but if it ever surfaces publicly ... my chances of Senate confirmation to the US Supreme Court go "poof.")