The other night (8/26) in Cincinnati, Bob Dylan was joined for his encore by the McCrary Sisters—Regina, Ann, Deborah and Alfreda—who supplied backing vocals for “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
Regina McCrary has a long history with Dylan, as a backing singer in his shows and on his records during the 1979 to 1981 period.
She is also featured on the 2003 CD and DVD called Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs Bob Dylan
, where a variety of gospel performers do cover versions of Bob Dylan’s songs. On the album she is the lead vocalist with the Chicago Mass Choir.
On the website dedicated to that project, Regina is quoted thusly:
When I got with Bob Dylan, I began to study his music before, to see who this man was. And I came to a realization that this man has been feeding people wisdom and words of encouragement.
And God has been using his hand and his heart and his mind to write music, to write lyrics, to keep people encouraged and keep them uplifted and keep them in the fight and keep them like soldiers, you know. Don’t sit down, don’t lay down. You gotta stand up, you gotta fight, you gotta believe!
And, since I’m not on Facebook, thanks to a friend for forwarding the text of Regina McCrary’s enthusiastic post there after going on stage with her sisters and Dylan the other night. It includes this:
I TRULY THANK GOD,FOR HIS FAVOR AND TRUST IN ME… AND BOB, I THANK YOU FOR HAVING THE KIND OF HEART TO KNOW HOW TO VALUE TRUE FRIENDSHIP… OVER 30YRS., OF FRIENDSHIP…TRUE LOVE FRIENDSHIP WEATHERS ALL KINDS OF STORMS… WE LOVE, FUSS, LAUGH, CRY, PRAY, FORGIVE, AND ASK TO BE FORGIVEN… BUT WE NEVER COUNT EACH OTHER OUT…I THANK GOD FOR LOVE AND FRIENDSHIPS IN MY LIFE LIKE THIS…
Now if that doesn’t warm your heart you’d better take a trip to the cardiologist.
Below via YouTube are the McCrary Sisters (Regina third from the left) doing their own version of “Blowin’ in the Wind.”