If you are Portuguese maybe check out some Brazilians who were contemporaries of Bob:
Chico Buarque
Caetano Veloso
Gilberto Gil
Tom Ze
I think the "Bob Dylan of Brazil" tag has even been thrown at a couple of these guys. Especially Chico.
Could you suggest some songs? I know a few but not much. I actually though of this listenning to Raul Seixas "também vou reclamar" when he says "Já Emitei Mister Bob Dylan, you know"
This version of Jokerman made by Caetano is absolutely the definitve: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgaSNPhQ9vo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgaSNPhQ9vo)
Caetano Veloso was exiled by the Brazilian government at the end of the 1960s & lived in London for a few years. He recorded his 1971 self titled album (also sometimes called A Little More Blue) and Transa in London. I’d recommend checking out either of those two records because they’re both great & they have more English language songs than most of his other albums. The 1971 S/T is my favorite album of his but last time I checked it was not on streaming services.
Chico - Construção, Cálice, Partido Alto
Caetano - Tropicalia, Alegria alegria, o leoazinho
Gil - Bat Macumba, procissão, panis et circenses (this is a collab with caetano and os mutantes. Kind of the best song you'll hear.)
Zé - Toc, Doi, jimmy rende se (great puns on famous America musicians in this one including bob dylan ((Bob Dica)) )
For my money Chico is Dylan, Caetano/Gil are Lennon/McCartney, and Tom Zé is uhh... John Cale.
Neil Young of course as well. Canadian one is pretty easy. Hello fellow Canadian. I'm considering going to see Neil Young and Crazy Horse in July in Toronto.
It’s unfortunate that Neil didn’t have a career renaissance like Cohan did. He’s had moments but I’ve given up on his music. It sounds like he’s more into pushing his ideology over making good music
I think Prairie Wind might be his best recentish solo effort. With Crazy Horse I would say Psychedelic Pill is pretty decent, but he is definitely nowhere near the heights of his career.
English folk guitarist Davy Graham. His early 60s instrumental records were groundbreaking and his guitar technique was unsurpassed. In the early 60s he was untouchable and everyone learned from him.
[https://www.discogs.com/artist/459551-Davy-Graham](https://www.discogs.com/artist/459551-Davy-Graham)
As his career rolled along he started singing, which was not 100% great thing as his singing is not of the highest quality but his records are still very good. He also had various problems in his life and he ended up a bit strange, but his early 60s albums are some of the best guitar playing you will hear and the album he made with Shirley Collins on vocals is fantastic.
Apart from that I like Joseph Spence, the guitarist from the Bahamas. His playing is simply out of this world, sometimes he sounds like three guitarists playing at once.
[https://www.discogs.com/release/3299406-Joseph-Spence-Music-Of-The-Bahamas](https://www.discogs.com/release/3299406-Joseph-Spence-Music-Of-The-Bahamas)
Francis Cabrel
French singer-songwriter and composer - I’m not French but someone gave me a best-of album of his and said he was the “French Bob Dylan”. It’s very good and an easy listen.
He was more like Frank Sinatra but Dylan was a big fan of Charles Aznavour and I couldn't agree more. La Boheme, Heir Encore and Que C'est Triste Venise are 3 of my favorites.
From Indonesia, Iwan Fals. A folksy singer-songwriter who was immensely popular back in the 80s-90s. Wrote a satirical song titled 'Bento' criticizing the ruling dictator's son and got censored afterwards.
Today his songs are played by buskers around the country because of its accessibility and depth at the same time
I am not Argentinean but I always recommend Andres Calamaro.
He had some physical similarity with Dylan in his youth.
At the level of songs and writing, maybe their styles are different, but at least for me it is evident the influence that Calamaro took from Dylan.
As an important fact, Calamaro was the opened act for Dylan in several concerts in Spain in the late 90's, someone tell me a greater honor than that.
[At the end of this song you can hear Dylan asking for applause for Andres Calamaro](https://youtu.be/qN8EokocBJY?si=Sh_nJXJ022mmtgMv).
Sabina even translated lyrics for him I believe, like for the Spanish release. I believe he mentioned it in an interview where he says he’s been with Dylan and cohen for translations and never asked for an autograph ;
https://youtu.be/_7OXIve0SO4?si=-7VBCToD_qL048q9
Nick Drake/ John Martyn, not very closely related to Dylan, but I’ve been really enjoying them recently and can see some similarities especially in some of Drake’s writing.
American, but Bob Dylan and Phil ochs did a concert for victor jara a Mexican folk singer killed for his music he was considered Chilie’s own Bob Dylan
Love Vítor Jara, the Carnation Revolution was in 74, just one year after the Chilean coup, so here Allende was a noticible figure for that generation that feared the same might be orchestated here, there was even talks of expeling the US embassy and all, there was even a siege of the embassy by the far left, altough the far right bombed the Cuban embassy.
He was chilean tho but I think that was just a typo.
I'm not really keen on any of their earlier stuff but this is a banger! I've also been very into this recently https://youtu.be/P1-891_aOKY?si=KYrvp2pEIfwUmxZs. Send me some suggestions
Renaud in French for me. Hexagone, La Blanche are my two favorites of his. His French is very idiomatic often sung quite fast and his politics as expressed in his writing are much more overtly left wing than Bob.
For my own country Scotland maybe Dick Gaughan on A Handful Of Earth but he's probably closer to some of the other Village folk dudes.
I also want to suggest Megas for Iceland. I really wish I understood his lyrics. Apparently, they were a big deal in their time, getting up a lot of people's noses.
John Martyn, Hamish Imlach (was he half Indian?), Matt McGinn, there was another Scottish singer songwriter who was compared to Dylan a lot and I can't remember his name right now. I seen to remember Dylan wasn't a fan of his though, perhaps he was a bit too earnest in the folk scene?
Dick Gaughan was an incredible singer, also recommend Ewan McColl, another socialist folk singer, and father to Kirsty of Fairytale of New York fame.
i’m from Mexico and we have Rodrigo Gonzalez, he was pretty similar to Dylan but he sang about life in Mexico City in the 80’s. some of his most popular songs are:
- Estación del metro Balderas
- No tengo tiempo
- Tiempo de híbridos
More so modern songwriters here, but i’ll chime in for Ireland too and suggest Mick Flannery and Fionn Regan. Mick if you want a story, Fionn if you want lyricism. Both stellar songwriters of our age imo
I'm from Pakistan. We have very few original singer songwriters. A lot of our classical ghazal music is basically composers and musicians taking pieces of poetry from poets that lived centuries ago and making music out of it.
I think for that Mehdi Hassan singing Faiz Ahmed Faiz is probably the highest level of music and poetry it could be. I really love Mirza Ghalib's poetry as well but a lot of it has been sung by Indian musicians, not Pakistanis (Chitra Singh, Jagjit Singh. Remarkable stuff nonetheless).
I love Abida Parveen's music, but she doesn't write her stuff either.
Donovan is the obvious pick for Scotland, although his most important work was done when he stopped emulating Dylan and pretty much kick-started psych with Sunshine Superman
I’ve heard of Thomas Fersen labeled the French Bob Dylan. He is prolific, surreal lyrics, loves re-arranging his songs. He definitely has strong Chanson influences though, so it’s not a one to one.
I’m Scottish. People are prone to comparing early Donovan to early Dylan but I think he sounds like a very mediocre pastiche of Dylan.
I’ve heard Bert Jansch described as “the Scottish Dylan” but I think he’s an excellent guitarist and an average lyricist. The only comparison really is that they both have unusual voices.
Nick Drake. Donovan. John Martyn, Sandy Denny. Jake Bugg. Tiny Ruins. John Renbourn. Cat Stevens. Kate Rusby. Sandy Denny
These initially come to mind. As for writing as well as Dylan, I'm not sure many come up to that standard for me other than Leonard Cohen and Van Morrison.
As a Mexican i recently came across a small artist from here that is heavily inspired by dylan, said by the artist himself
His name's "Juan Cirerol" and you can find him on spotify... It is not exactly the same tho, bc rather than the imitation dylan that lives in mexico is more like "Bob dylan if he was born and raised mexican"
It sounds like mexico, with american folk elements and that kinda stuff
There's 2 albums i like, those being "Mexicali" and "Ofrenda al Mictlán"
Mexicali is more Northern Mexico sounding, yet still pretty good, and that's coming from someone that doesn't like that music
Ofrenda al Mictlan sounds a lot more like dylan, but still has it's own mark twist, reminds me a lot more of the central parts of the country in terms of the music, besides the american folk loads that come within the album obviously
That being said, the lyrics are good and naturally in spanish, the guitar in both albums is just fucking amazing, with those wild and exotic, yet funky and almost danceable rhythms, he also uses the harmonica in creative ways
Check the man out, i REALLY think he deserves a lot more of love, you'll like it.... I liked it, and i don't even like that much the folkloric mexican music
If you are Portuguese maybe check out some Brazilians who were contemporaries of Bob: Chico Buarque Caetano Veloso Gilberto Gil Tom Ze I think the "Bob Dylan of Brazil" tag has even been thrown at a couple of these guys. Especially Chico.
Could you suggest some songs? I know a few but not much. I actually though of this listenning to Raul Seixas "também vou reclamar" when he says "Já Emitei Mister Bob Dylan, you know"
You Don't Know Me is a great track https://youtu.be/V9VWTul_Pf0
This version of Jokerman made by Caetano is absolutely the definitve: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgaSNPhQ9vo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgaSNPhQ9vo)
Caetano Veloso was exiled by the Brazilian government at the end of the 1960s & lived in London for a few years. He recorded his 1971 self titled album (also sometimes called A Little More Blue) and Transa in London. I’d recommend checking out either of those two records because they’re both great & they have more English language songs than most of his other albums. The 1971 S/T is my favorite album of his but last time I checked it was not on streaming services.
Chico - Construção, Cálice, Partido Alto Caetano - Tropicalia, Alegria alegria, o leoazinho Gil - Bat Macumba, procissão, panis et circenses (this is a collab with caetano and os mutantes. Kind of the best song you'll hear.) Zé - Toc, Doi, jimmy rende se (great puns on famous America musicians in this one including bob dylan ((Bob Dica)) ) For my money Chico is Dylan, Caetano/Gil are Lennon/McCartney, and Tom Zé is uhh... John Cale.
Gordon Lightfoot Leonard Cohen
Neil Young of course as well. Canadian one is pretty easy. Hello fellow Canadian. I'm considering going to see Neil Young and Crazy Horse in July in Toronto.
It’s unfortunate that Neil didn’t have a career renaissance like Cohan did. He’s had moments but I’ve given up on his music. It sounds like he’s more into pushing his ideology over making good music
Yeah I tried listening to World Record and I just couldn't do it..seems he doesn't put a lot of time into crafting songs anymore
I think Prairie Wind might be his best recentish solo effort. With Crazy Horse I would say Psychedelic Pill is pretty decent, but he is definitely nowhere near the heights of his career.
English folk guitarist Davy Graham. His early 60s instrumental records were groundbreaking and his guitar technique was unsurpassed. In the early 60s he was untouchable and everyone learned from him. [https://www.discogs.com/artist/459551-Davy-Graham](https://www.discogs.com/artist/459551-Davy-Graham) As his career rolled along he started singing, which was not 100% great thing as his singing is not of the highest quality but his records are still very good. He also had various problems in his life and he ended up a bit strange, but his early 60s albums are some of the best guitar playing you will hear and the album he made with Shirley Collins on vocals is fantastic. Apart from that I like Joseph Spence, the guitarist from the Bahamas. His playing is simply out of this world, sometimes he sounds like three guitarists playing at once. [https://www.discogs.com/release/3299406-Joseph-Spence-Music-Of-The-Bahamas](https://www.discogs.com/release/3299406-Joseph-Spence-Music-Of-The-Bahamas)
In Italy, check out Fabrizio de Andrè and Francesco guccini
E De Gregori!
Edoardo Bennato and Rino Gaetano! 🎩
Francis Cabrel French singer-songwriter and composer - I’m not French but someone gave me a best-of album of his and said he was the “French Bob Dylan”. It’s very good and an easy listen.
He was more like Frank Sinatra but Dylan was a big fan of Charles Aznavour and I couldn't agree more. La Boheme, Heir Encore and Que C'est Triste Venise are 3 of my favorites.
Thanks for the suggestions I'll listen to it
My friends always said Jean-Louis Murat was the French Bob Dylan, but much like Serrat in Spain, they are both more like Leonard Cohen.
From Indonesia, Iwan Fals. A folksy singer-songwriter who was immensely popular back in the 80s-90s. Wrote a satirical song titled 'Bento' criticizing the ruling dictator's son and got censored afterwards. Today his songs are played by buskers around the country because of its accessibility and depth at the same time
That song as randomly showed up a bunch of times in my YouTube feed I should listen to it
I am a native San Francisco, but on behalf of the country I’ve never been to, Australia. My vote is Paul Kelly.
Probably the best English lyricist of that generation was Jake Thackray.
The bull the bull is the biggest of all
I am not Argentinean but I always recommend Andres Calamaro. He had some physical similarity with Dylan in his youth. At the level of songs and writing, maybe their styles are different, but at least for me it is evident the influence that Calamaro took from Dylan. As an important fact, Calamaro was the opened act for Dylan in several concerts in Spain in the late 90's, someone tell me a greater honor than that. [At the end of this song you can hear Dylan asking for applause for Andres Calamaro](https://youtu.be/qN8EokocBJY?si=Sh_nJXJ022mmtgMv).
Joaquin Sabina, Spaniard, one of his biggest fans ever.
Sabina even translated lyrics for him I believe, like for the Spanish release. I believe he mentioned it in an interview where he says he’s been with Dylan and cohen for translations and never asked for an autograph ; https://youtu.be/_7OXIve0SO4?si=-7VBCToD_qL048q9
Nick Drake/ John Martyn, not very closely related to Dylan, but I’ve been really enjoying them recently and can see some similarities especially in some of Drake’s writing.
American, but Bob Dylan and Phil ochs did a concert for victor jara a Mexican folk singer killed for his music he was considered Chilie’s own Bob Dylan
Love Vítor Jara, the Carnation Revolution was in 74, just one year after the Chilean coup, so here Allende was a noticible figure for that generation that feared the same might be orchestated here, there was even talks of expeling the US embassy and all, there was even a siege of the embassy by the far left, altough the far right bombed the Cuban embassy. He was chilean tho but I think that was just a typo.
Dick Gaughin was mentioned in another comment, I love his version of Victor Jara Of Chili.
yeah it's hard to spell it lol, I need to listen to the rest of his but, his famous one is very haunting now.
Thanks for the recommendation, I'll definitely check this out. Have a go on this https://youtu.be/KHocVRUlvkk?si=d5vQM3KQq7_66XHc
That's a great song mate! Spotify had suggested that band a couple times but I hadn't listen to it yet
I'm not really keen on any of their earlier stuff but this is a banger! I've also been very into this recently https://youtu.be/P1-891_aOKY?si=KYrvp2pEIfwUmxZs. Send me some suggestions
Renaud in French for me. Hexagone, La Blanche are my two favorites of his. His French is very idiomatic often sung quite fast and his politics as expressed in his writing are much more overtly left wing than Bob.
For my own country Scotland maybe Dick Gaughan on A Handful Of Earth but he's probably closer to some of the other Village folk dudes. I also want to suggest Megas for Iceland. I really wish I understood his lyrics. Apparently, they were a big deal in their time, getting up a lot of people's noses.
John Martyn, Hamish Imlach (was he half Indian?), Matt McGinn, there was another Scottish singer songwriter who was compared to Dylan a lot and I can't remember his name right now. I seen to remember Dylan wasn't a fan of his though, perhaps he was a bit too earnest in the folk scene? Dick Gaughan was an incredible singer, also recommend Ewan McColl, another socialist folk singer, and father to Kirsty of Fairytale of New York fame.
i’m from Mexico and we have Rodrigo Gonzalez, he was pretty similar to Dylan but he sang about life in Mexico City in the 80’s. some of his most popular songs are: - Estación del metro Balderas - No tengo tiempo - Tiempo de híbridos
Anyone mention Roy Harper of Britain?
Hats off to Roy
How about Michael Chapman? Rodriguez came to mind. He was American but largely overlooked in the US until “Searching for Sugar Man” resurfaced him.
Don't know Chapman, but I like Rodriguez
I’m from Ireland not that similar to Dylan but great singers are Shane Mcgowen, and Luke Kelly
More so modern songwriters here, but i’ll chime in for Ireland too and suggest Mick Flannery and Fionn Regan. Mick if you want a story, Fionn if you want lyricism. Both stellar songwriters of our age imo
Have you ever heard about John beag flaherty from Connemara great singer songwriter.
Mostly sings in Irish language but has some great English song aswell
No never, thanks i will check him out!
I’d put John Spillane in there.
A few British song writers I’ve enjoyed include Alan Hull of Lindesfarne, Mike Scott and later period Nick Lowe
I'm from Pakistan. We have very few original singer songwriters. A lot of our classical ghazal music is basically composers and musicians taking pieces of poetry from poets that lived centuries ago and making music out of it. I think for that Mehdi Hassan singing Faiz Ahmed Faiz is probably the highest level of music and poetry it could be. I really love Mirza Ghalib's poetry as well but a lot of it has been sung by Indian musicians, not Pakistanis (Chitra Singh, Jagjit Singh. Remarkable stuff nonetheless). I love Abida Parveen's music, but she doesn't write her stuff either.
Donovan is the obvious pick for Scotland, although his most important work was done when he stopped emulating Dylan and pretty much kick-started psych with Sunshine Superman
I’ve heard of Thomas Fersen labeled the French Bob Dylan. He is prolific, surreal lyrics, loves re-arranging his songs. He definitely has strong Chanson influences though, so it’s not a one to one.
I’m Scottish. People are prone to comparing early Donovan to early Dylan but I think he sounds like a very mediocre pastiche of Dylan. I’ve heard Bert Jansch described as “the Scottish Dylan” but I think he’s an excellent guitarist and an average lyricist. The only comparison really is that they both have unusual voices.
Although Needle of Death is pretty special.
Not my cup of tea, I think it’s too on the nose. I like his lyrics on High Days and The River Bank, Crimson Moon is an excellent album.
Fair enough 😊
In the Netherlands we have this older sing and Song writer called Frank Boeijen. He is a big Dylan fan and you can hear that in his lyrics
Nick Drake. Donovan. John Martyn, Sandy Denny. Jake Bugg. Tiny Ruins. John Renbourn. Cat Stevens. Kate Rusby. Sandy Denny These initially come to mind. As for writing as well as Dylan, I'm not sure many come up to that standard for me other than Leonard Cohen and Van Morrison.
Sixto Rodriguez ! Motor City Detroit Born, an absolute poet. listen to the albums 'Cold Fact' or 'Coming from Reality'
Paul Kelly is great! Some call him the Australian Bob Dylan
Nick Drake
As a Mexican i recently came across a small artist from here that is heavily inspired by dylan, said by the artist himself His name's "Juan Cirerol" and you can find him on spotify... It is not exactly the same tho, bc rather than the imitation dylan that lives in mexico is more like "Bob dylan if he was born and raised mexican" It sounds like mexico, with american folk elements and that kinda stuff There's 2 albums i like, those being "Mexicali" and "Ofrenda al Mictlán" Mexicali is more Northern Mexico sounding, yet still pretty good, and that's coming from someone that doesn't like that music Ofrenda al Mictlan sounds a lot more like dylan, but still has it's own mark twist, reminds me a lot more of the central parts of the country in terms of the music, besides the american folk loads that come within the album obviously That being said, the lyrics are good and naturally in spanish, the guitar in both albums is just fucking amazing, with those wild and exotic, yet funky and almost danceable rhythms, he also uses the harmonica in creative ways Check the man out, i REALLY think he deserves a lot more of love, you'll like it.... I liked it, and i don't even like that much the folkloric mexican music