As Willie Nelson has famously written and sung, “Miracles occur in the strangest of places.” I found these words ringing true at last month’s 33rd Annual DylanFest in Torrance, California. It was held at the Torrance Cultural Art Center, just five miles from Manhattan Beach where I grew up in a transplanted family of West Texan musicians, carpenters, and coming-of-age teenage siblings. Our Saturday night parties back then included my step-pop, L.W. Hutson, who would pull out his fiddle to jam with my lanky Uncle Ed Blackwell on guitar. They would make homemade recordings of down-home country songs like, “Turkey and the Straw.” It was there my older brothers and sisters introduced me to Elvis, Buddy Holly, and teen idols like Paul Anka and Bobby Vee.

This personal history happened a far-flung stone’s throw from the Torrance Cultural Art Center. It was there, in my childhood home on 3rd street between Peck and Howell, a short walk to Pacific Coast Highway, where I witnessed my late brother, Ken Roland, evolve from picking up acoustic guitar from Pop Hutson and Uncle Ed which led him to form a few chords in 1961 as he learned to play Kingston Trio songs. Then he went electric with a surf guitar as he learned a new style from Dick Dale records. It was only a few years later he would embrace Beatlemania with that same electric guitar.

It was there in a 3-bedroom beach bungalow, where I would first hear The Doors and Bob Dylan, very much of my own accord and in my own way. A best friend loaned me his big sister’s album of Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits. Life would change completely as I leaned into the songs on that album, “Everybody Must Get Stoned!” he sang in a goofy, drunken drawl. I hung on every word of “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Just Like a Woman.” After hearing that album it was like the earth-shifted for this seasoned Southern Baptist 12-year-old veteran of Sunday School and memorized Bible verses.

So, Saturday, May 27th in Torrance, California, seemed like another tug of my personal muse’s sonic thread that seamlessly found me at Andy & Renee’s 33-year everlasting Dylan party. It evolved from a casual get-together to a full-blown celebration of the music of Bob Dylan.

As I sat at the table in the corner of the cultural town center it occurred to me more than once that I was there to sell books for Dylan’s oldest and closest friend in life, Louis Kemp. His book, Dylan & Me chronicles his friendship with Dylan that goes back to when they met as kids in a Midwestern summer camp. The story takes the reader with Louie as he visits the set of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, through Tour 74 where he sat on a rocking chair next to The Band’s Levon Helm. It also details his days producing The Rolling Thunder Revue which found Dylan recruiting Roger McGuinn, Joan Baez, Mick Ronson, Scarlet Rivera, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, and Joni Mitchell for a nationwide tour of obscure towns and venues.

The concert is a cascade of continuously flowing live music, electric and acoustic, that began at 12:30 pm and carried on without a break until the closing set around 9:00 pm by the Hard Rain band, fronted by Andy & Renee. The music and song selection were remarkably well-informed and dynamic. From the opening power chords of “Things Have Changed,” to an unsuspecting electric rock version of Empire Burlesque’s chamber like, “Dark Eyes,” beautifully transformed into an anthem; the performances were worthy of loud and uninhibited sing-alongs and generated tribal-danceable with electric rock n roll.  There were solo acoustic performances performed to near perfection by the likes of Joel Rafael, and a band of ‘acoustic warriors,’ in true folk community fashion.

All eight hours were entirely ecstatically euphoric and earned my highest Grateful Dead-influenced praise, ‘better than acid!’

As I sat at the vendor’s table I realized I was located along the red-carpet path for performers to check in to get ready for their set on stage.The artists who strolled up to perform were a personal all-star list of collaborators and friends including Manda Mosher, Paul Zollo, Susie Glaze, and John Hoke of Hard Rain and the John Stewart Band. It was beyond nostalgic. In fact, it was more than a little inspiring. The featured performers included Alias Means, Thomas Newbold, Patti Orbeck, Dave Crossland, Fuzzy Thurston, and Jay Constable. Every song performed by the multitude of artists brought with them the sheer joy of the music of Bob Dylan.

The day and the location also brought home the universality of music that travels beyond the passage of time. I kept recalling the days of my childhood, first discovering Dylan and the popular music of the last half of the 20th century. My earliest memories, thanks to my brothers and sisters, are of Buddy Holly and his song, “Peggy Sue.” I also remember battling with my sister over having to watch the teen idol-driven hit parade on American Bandstand where so many post-Buddy Holly singers turned up.

One of the singers consigned to the teen idol labe in particular, Bobby Vee has been locked in my memory banks as one of the lightweights of his time along with Bobby Rydell, Bobby Vinton, and Frankie Avalon. But, there’s more to the story than I ever suspected. And Bobby Vee has a much more significant place in American music by virtue of his recorded legacy and his story.

An important prelude to Bobby Vee’s story is reported by Louis Kemp in Dylan & Me. Bob Dylan aka Robert Zimmerman and Bobby Vee aka Robert Velline, grew up in the same part of the country, in Hibbing, Minnesota and Fargo, North Dakota, respectively. On January 31st, young Bobby Zimmerman and his friend, Louie Kemp went to the Duluth Armory for the Winter Dance Party. Dylan later recalled in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech the impressions of his encounter with one of rock’s great founders.

“Something about him seemed permanent and he filled me with conviction. Then out of the blue, the most uncanny thing happened, he looked at me right straight there in the eye and he transmitted something, something I didn’t know what. It gave me the chills.”

A few days later, on February 3rd, 1959, Bobby Vee was home from school for lunch in Fargo, North Dakota. He was 15 years old. He heard the radio announcement that his rock n roll hero, Buddy Holly had been killed in a plane crash near his home early that morning along with JP Richardson, Richie Valens, and the young pilot, Roger Peterson. The Winter Dance Party was scheduled to play Moorhead, Minnesota that night. Then there was the announcement asking for a local act to volunteer to fill Buddy Holly’s place on the bill. Bobby Vee, his brother, Bill, and some friends quickly formed a band he thoughtfully named, The Shadows. The show went so well, Vee wrote and recorded a Holly-inspired song, “Suzie Baby,” in honor of the late, great rock n roller.

Later, in 1959, the song became a local hit and made the national charts at #77. Soon, Liberty Records bought the recording and gave Bobby Vee a contract. His vocal style was clearly influenced by Buddy Holly, but he came into his own from 1959 to 1960. He gained a reputation as the go-to singer for the Brill Building songwriters. He became one of the best-selling young artists of his time with such classics as Carol King/Gerry Coffin’s “Take Good Care of My Baby,” “Devil or Angel,” “Rubber Ball,” and “Come Back When You Grow Up Girl.”

In the summer of 1959, Vee was becoming a local pop star and The Shadows needed a piano player for their tour. Vee met an eccentric young guy in a local Fargo record store who boasted that he had just finished a tour with Conway Twitty. He introduced himself as Elston Gunnn. That’s right, it’s not a typo. He spelled it with three n’s. According to Vee, he could only play in the key of C. As fate would have it, The Shadows were just starting out, and including a piano player who could only play in the key of C was not sustainable. Gunnn, whose real name was Robert Zimmerman, would soon move to New York City and re-invent himself as Bob Dylan.

But, Bob Dylan and Bobby Vee never lost their regional and historical connection. In his book, Chronicles, Dylan wrote,

“I wouldn’t see Bobby Vee again for another thirty years, and though things would be a lot different, I’d always thought of him as a brother. Every time I’d see his name somewhere, it was like he was in the room.”

That connection remained deeply rooted in Bob Dylan’s spirit. In fact, Bobby Vee was present with his son, Robert, at a Bob Dylan concert in St. Paul, Minnesota on July 10, 2013. It was the year after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. In an act of gratitude and grace, Dylan acknowledged Bobby Vee as ‘the most beautiful person I’ve ever been on stage with.” It is a moment that has been captured on video thanks to the following YouTube uploaded and produced by Vee’s son-in-law, Barron Whittet.

That day in Torrance and the story of Bobby Vee has become an arch and a kind of rainbow moment in my life today. It goes to show how deep our connections to the experiences and music of our time run through our lives. For me, the music that day at the DylanFest lights up everything that came before in eternal rays. And I am grateful for Renee & Andy, Louie Kemp, Bob Dylan, and most especially for Bobby Vee and his family for life and his legacy.