Director Olivier Dahan, who last received praise for the Edith Piaf biopic La Vie en Rose, premiered her latest film My Own Love Song at the Tribeca Film Festival in mid-April. My Own Love Song stars actress Renee Zellweger and sees her performing a batch of Bob Dylan tracks on the screen. Although Zellweger has showed off her vocals in films like Empire Records, Chicago and Down with Love, she told Rolling Stone that the experience was “terrifying, absolutely terrifying.” Dahan initially approached Bob Dylan to pen a track called “Life Is Hard” for Zellweger to sing in the climax of the film-and not only did the folk legend accept the offer, but he took it a step further!

After writing “Life Is Hard,” Dylan kept on writing and eventually wound up with enough songs for his album Together Through Life (half of the tracks off Together Through Life can be heard in My Own Love Song). Recalls Dahan to Rolling Stone, “He asked if we could use [the extra material], and I said, ‘Of course!'” The soundtrack for My Own Love Song thus features 16 previously-unreleased Bob Dylan songs, some of which are purely instrumental.

“Life Is Hard” is sung by Zellweger in the film’s climax and appears again during the end credits of My Own Love Song. “[My version] is a lot different [then Dylan’s]. It’s meant to be an apology, and it’s meant to be a lullaby, a song to a child,” the actress told Rolling Stone. Zellweger also sings Dylan’s “Precious Angel” during a touching moment in the film, while co-star Forest Whitaker tries his hand at another Dylan track, “What Good Am I?,” in the film. My Own Love Songs tells the story of a former country star (Zellweger) who is reunited with her son seven years after she abandoned him as a three-year-old, following the fatal car crash that killed his father and rendered her wheelchair-bound.

Although Bob Dylan’s songs appear in My Own Love Song, fans know that the best way to experience his folk-rock sound is by getting Bob Dylan tickets online today. Dylan has dates lined up abroad through early July but will hopefully have some dates in the States on the calendar after that.

Dylan will perform in Greece, Turkey, Romania, Macedonia, Croatia, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, Viagra Professional England and Ireland, but one country he won’t be performing in is China. The New York Daily News reports that Chinese officials have banned him from performing in Shanghai and Beijing because they disapprove of his counterculture anthems from the 1960s. According to E!, the decision was made by China’s ministry of culture.

Jeffrey Wu of the Taiwan-based promoters Brokers Brothers Herald told the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, “With Beijing and China ruled out, it was not possible for him just to play concerts in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. The chance to play in China was the main attraction for him. When that fell through everything else was called off.” Bob Dylan follows in the footsteps of artists like Harry Connick Jr., Elton John and the Rolling Stones in being banned from performing in China.

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Category: Music
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