The Americana and roots music authority

no apologies

I was not trying to be apologetic. The last time i saw Dylan, over ten years ago, the cd, Time Out of Mind had not been made and he ran up a long list of faux pas' on stage...playing too loud and too long, pounding on some "hits" and reworking some material into indecipherable rock messes. So, when i heard Time Out of Mind I was blown away by his understanding and his ability to make manifest codependent and failed love relationships. The next cd caught me off guard with its "country stylings" and the last one, Modern Times, seemed nicely patterened and easy. The most recent, the live renderings of some trad folk songs and live plays of some of the tunes off the aforementioned cds. made me realize, once again, his real genius. So, I wandered out into the abyss of a new experience by writing about it here without knowing anyone etc.etc.

It might be mentioned here that I think when we think of rock music we tend to think of youth. And while this is apparently not rock music, it is nice to see a 67 year old man formerly associated with rock and folk, making timeless, popular americana. And rather than dwell too much on a man that others have already mined as the mother lode, I might also mention the unique and timeless quality of these last cds. I find him a perfect fit here in this style of music.

Tags: alt-country, americana, blog, bob, depression, dylan, jack, music, no, roots, More…wallingford

Comment by Kim Ruehl on March 24, 2009 at 7:19pm: Can't agree more. Thanks for blogging, Jack!

Comment by Angel Fernandez on March 24, 2009 at 8:00pm: It´s funny, the 1st time i saw Dylan was after releasing "time out of mind", i went in thinking he was boring and i came out thinking he was a true genius

Comment by Jack Wallingford on March 25, 2009 at 7:04am: i was a dylan fan, but not a great one. i had highway 61 and nashville skyline and the masterpiece, blood on the tracks, some others and i was still wallowing in the great rock landslide of the 70's. occasionally i would dip into dylan, finding an insight that was sadly lacking from rock lyrics and even the music occasionally. but this new music he is making is formidable. I think it is easily as good as blood on the tracks or some of the others. time out of mind was the other masterpiece and that convinced me of his true genius. what happened to the musicians on that cd? the organ player is tremendous and the rest of the band, after earlier appearing on wait's mule variations, suddenly departed.

Comment by echt99 on March 25, 2009 at 8:12am: The band on Time Out Of Mind wasn't really a band, but a collection of various musicians, some brought in by Dylan and some brought in by Daniel Lanois.

I know some of Dylan's touring band at the time were on some tracks including Bucky Baxter (who also played with Steve Earle) and Tony Garnier (who still plays with Dylan). Jim Dickinson and Augie Meyers played keyboards. Duke Robillard played some guitar and Cindy Cashdollar played some steel. Jim Keltner and Brian Blade were among the drummers. Lanois played quite a bit too.

Quite a collection of talent really.

Also, I think it is a certified masterpiece too...

Comment by Jack Wallingford on March 27, 2009 at 9:25am: Augie Meyers and , bass player from Canned Heat, and those guys (harp player was white blues man? ) had just come off a great cd, john hammond does the songs of tom waits, with waits orchestrating the whole thing and actually appearing on some numbers. Waits is a wicked guitar player. Of course, with Hammond on vocals and songs like Black Mariah and Mule Variations, it was very much a blues cd. then, most of that same talent picked up and went right to the Time Out of Mind Sessions. What a great group of musicians. that made for several years of great listening.

Comment by Jack Wallingford on March 27, 2009 at 9:29am: I would like to see John Hammond doing some other blues material as well. he has minded the grandfathers long enough. that cd of wait's material really showed his vocal capabilites and his style. his solo cds, certainly in this vein of Americana and blues are not always as powerful as his capabilities.

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