Bob Dylan
Shadows in the Night
[Columbia]
Anyone who’s dug on late-era Bob knows that as far back as, say, Po’ Boy on “Love and Theft” or maybe even Standing In The Doorway from 1997’s Time Out Of Mind, he’s dealt in the kind of delicately performed, jazz-chorded vignettes found throughout Shadows in the Night. And more recently Bob has honed this particular seam of 1950s Americana on ballads like When The Deal Goes Down and even on more uptempo jives like Duquesne Whistle.
This woebegone collection of past-midnight excerpts from the Sinatra songbook takes that theme to extremes. Whereas in recent times he’s borrowed lyrical phrases from the American songbook and from Harry Smith’s Folk Anthology, this time he’s outright covering – or ‘uncovering’ as the man himself puts it – old songs. And singing fantastically, it should be added, with a voice far clearer than it has been for years. In preparation for tribute to the pipes of Old Blue Eyes, Dylan apparently even let up on the smokes, such is his reverence for this classy, old world material. Let’s just hope he’s not really as heartbroken as he sounds, poor fella.
Words: Ian Lamont
Like this? Try these:
Frank Sinatra – In The Wee Small Hours
Jacques Brel – La Valse A Mille Temps
