His songwriting well had run dry, so Dylan recorded an unaccompanied voice-and-guitar album where he went back to his version of basics: the standards and folk tunes he'd internalized in his coffeehouse days, from the Mississippi Sheiks '"Sittin 'On Top of the World" to imperishable ballads from Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music.
This one surprised me. Not a throwaway album by any stretch.I particularly like his version of the Irish ballad Arthur McBride.
Half a century into his career, Bob Dylan's amassed a gigantic catalogue of original material. He's released a string of greatest-hits albums, and his touring repertoire is well over 100 songs. But he's also got some remarkable songs that have been overshadowed by their companions — songs that, in anyone else's career, would be high points. In honor of Dylan's 70th birthday, we invite you to listen to these overlooked gems in isolation, away from the… more »
Bob Dylan didn't get to be the greatest living songwriter by repeating himself. He's reinvented his style and technique with nearly every record he's made in the course of his half-century career; he's been the political spitfire of The Times They Are A-Changin', the mysterious joker of The Basement Tapes, the domestic ruminator of New Morning, the indignant holy roller of Slow Train Coming, the aging Romeo of Time Out of Mind. The only constants… more »