KU Presents! Brings Jakob Dylan and The Wallflowers to Kick Off its 2023-24 Season
by Susan Peña
KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Kutztown University’s KU Presents! series is excited to bring singer/songwriter Jakob Dylan and his band, The Wallflowers, to Schaeffer Auditorium 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 27, as the first concert of its 2023-24 season.
The son of Bob Dylan and model Sara Lownds, Jakob Dylan has forged his own path as a gifted musician, not only as the lead singer and primary songwriter for the band he founded in 1989, but as a solo performer and recording artist. The Wallflowers’ breakthrough 1996 album, “Bring Down the Horse,” produced the number-one single, “One Headlight,” which won two Grammy Awards in 1998. Rolling Stone selected the song as “one of the greatest pop songs of all time.”
The Wallflowers went on to release a total of nine albums, most recently “Exit Wounds” (2021). Through the years, Dylan has periodically left the band to pursue his solo career, during which he has released two solo albums: “Seeing Things” (2008) and “Women + Country” (2010), both on Columbia Records.
More recently, in addition to his composing and performing career, Dylan collaborated with film director Andrew Slater to create the documentary film “Echo in the Canyon,” which premiered at the L.A. Film Festival in 2018 and was released to theaters in 2019. Dylan hosted the documentary, which explores the Los Angeles community of Laurel Canyon during the 1960s and 1970s, when it was home to many of the most creative musical artists of the time. It focuses on how these artists constantly interacted, sharing new work informally at each other’s houses, having deep discussions about music and life, and partying hard.
In addition to many rare clips of groups like The Mamas and The Papas, The Byrds, The Beach Boys and others sharing ideas and performing, the film also includes performances in which Dylan collaborates with Norah Jones, Fiona Apple, Beck and others to re-interpret those iconic songs, along with a band formed for the film. Dylan leads all the songs and provides vocals. In 2019, the soundtrack to “Echo in the Canyon” was released on the BMG label.
Dylan was born in 1969, the youngest of five children, and was raised in Greenwich Village, New York City, and in Los Angeles from the age of three. He was inspired by English rock, especially The Clash, and played guitar in bands and wrote songs while in high school. He also studied art for a semester at the Parsons School of Design in New York. He and his wife Paige live in Los Angeles. They have four children.
When asked by an interviewer for Soundwaves TV what he loves about music, Dylan replied: “People come and go in your life, but music is always there. . .it has a unique place in your life.”
Tickets for The Wallflowers are $46; $41 for students and seniors and can be purchased by calling the KU Presents! Box Office 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday, at 610-683-4092. Established to be the center of cultural life at Kutztown University, KU Presents! serves the campus and community by bringing world-class live arts that entertain, educate and enrich.
A free Season Opening Celebration on the lawn of Schaeffer Auditorium will begin at 6 p.m. just before the performance.