VARIOUS ARTISTS
''I'M NOT THERE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK, DISC TWO''
OCTOBER 30 2007
158:57
DISC ONE
1. Eddie Vedder & The Million Dollar Bashers/All Along The Watchtower/4:30
2. Sonic Youth/I'm Not There/4:53
3. Jim James & Calexico/Goin' To Acapulco/4:59
4. Richie Havens/Tombstone Blues/5:29
5. Stephen Malkmus & The Million Dollar Bashers/Ballad Of A Thin Man/6:50
6. Cat Power/Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again/6:53
7. John Doe/Pressing On/5:54
8. Yo La Tengo/Fourth Time Around/5:10
9. Iron And Wine & Calexico/Dark Eyes/4:30
10. Karen O & The Million Dollar Bashers/Highway 61 Revisited/3:56
11. Roger McGuinn & Calexico/One More Cup Of Coffee/4:33
12. Mason Jennings/The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll/5:14
13. Los Lobos/Billy 1/4:03
14. Jeff Tweedy/Simple Twist Of Fate/3:43
15. Mark Lanegan/Man In The Long Black Coat/3:33
16. Willie Nelson & Calexico/Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)/5:19
DISC TWO
1. Mira Billotte/As I Went Out One Morning/2:55
2. Stephen Malkmus and Lee Ranaldo/Can't Leave Her Behind/1:55
3. Sufjan Stevens/Ring Them Bells/6:21
4. Charlotte Gainsbourg & Calexico/Just Like A Woman/4:15
5. Jack Johnson/Mama You've Been On My Mind / A Fraction of Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie/4:22
6. Yo La Tengo/I Wanna Be Your Lover/3:58
7. Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova/You Ain't Goin' Nowhere/3:06
8. The Hold Steady/Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?/3:50
9. Ramblin Jack Elliot/Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues/6:54
10. The Black Keys/The Wicked Messenger/4:00
11. Tom Verlaine & The Million Dollar Bashers/Cold Irons Bound/7:34
12. Mason Jennings/The Times They Are A Changin'/3:36
13. Stephen Malkmus & The Million Dollar Bashers/Maggie's Farm/5:28
14. Marcus Carl Franklin/When The Ship Comes In/3:30
15. Bob Forrest/Moonshiner/4:57
16. John Doe/I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine/3:13
17. Antony & The Johnsons/Knockin' On Heaven's Door/4:13
18. Bob Dylan with The Band/I'm Not There/5:15
Terry Adams /Piano
Tim Albright /Trombone
Antony and the Johnsons
Hideaki Aomori /Saxophone
Dan Auerbach /Bass, Guitar, Vocals
Carla Azar /Drums, Percussion
The Band
Kevin Barker /Guitar (Acoustic)
Sam Beam /Guitar, Piano, Vocals
Jay Bellerose /Drums, Percussion
Steve Berlin /Keyboards
Mira Billotte /Vocals
Rob Bochnik /Bass
Doyle Bramhall II /Guitar (Electric)
Chris Bruce /Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Vocals (Background)
Jebin Bruni /Organ (Hammond)
Paul Bryan /Bass
Joey Burns /Accordion, Bass (Upright), Bowed Banjo, Cello, Glockenspiel, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitar (Nylon String), Piano, Vocals (Background)
C.J. Camerieri /Trumpet
Patrick Carney /Drums
Cat Power
Nels Cline /Guitar, Guitar (Electric)
Greg Cohen /Bass
John Convertino /Drums, Drums (Bass), Percussion
Brian Deck /Bongos, Marimba, Piano
Bryce Dessner /Guitar (Electric)
George Drakoulias /Percussion, Producer
Stanley Dural /Organ
Salvador Duran /Vocals
Bob Dylan /Vocals, Guitar
Doug Easley /Guitar
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Cougar Estrada /Drums, Percussion
Craig Finn /Guitar, Vocals
Bob Forrest /Vocals
Casey Foubert /Bass, Guitar, Lap Steel Guitar, Vocals (Background)
Marcus Franklin
Charlotte Gainsbourg /Vocals
Salvador Gallegos III /Vihuela
Tony Garnier /Bass
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
Kim Gordon /Guitar
Portia Griffin /Vocals (Background)
Glen Hansard /Guitar, Harmonica
Marla Hansen /Viola, Vocals (Background)
Richie Havens /Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Eric Heywood /Pedal Steel
David Hidalgo /Accordion, Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
Mabon "Teenie" Hodges /Guitar
Kelly Hogan /Vocals (Background)
Smokey Hormel /Guitar
Georgia Hubley /Drums, Vocals
Markéta Irglová /Banjo, Vocals
Jim James /Vocals
Vincent Jones /Keyboards
Ira Kaplan /Guitar, Vocals
Glenn Kotche /Drums
Tad Kubler /Guitar
Mark Lanegan /Vocals
Ben Lanz /Trombone
Greg Leisz /Dobro, Guitar, Mandolin
Conrad Lozano /Bass
Tim Luntzel /Bass
Stephen Malkmus /Vocals
David Mansfield /Fiddle
Chan Marshall /Vocals
James McAlister /Drums, Electronic Drums, Percussion, Producer, Vocals (Background)
Jean McClain /Vocals (Background)
Roger McGuinn /Guitar (12 String Electric), Vocals
James McNew /Bass
John Medeski /Organ (Hammond), Piano, Wurlitzer
Thurston Moore /Bass, Vocals
Willie Nelson /Guitar, Vocals
Franz Nicolay /Keyboards
Paul Niehaus /Pedal Steel
Walter Parks /Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals (Background)
Louie Pérez /Jarana
Peter Phillips /Guitar
David Piltch /Bass (Upright)
Galen Polivka /Bass
David Ralicke /Horn
Lee Ranaldo /Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Rhythm), Mixing, Piano, Siren, Tambourine
Mickey Raphael /Echo Harp, Harmonica
Kyle B. Resnick /Trumpet
Marco Rosano /Sax (Baritone), Sax (Tenor)
Cesar Rosas /Bajo Sexto, Vocals (Background)
Josh Schwartz /Guitar
John Sebastian /Harmonica
Doug Shaw /Guitar
Steve Shelley /Drums
Dave Smith /Bass
Rick Steff /Organ (Hammond), Piano
Stephen Malkmus & the Million Dollar
Sufjan Stevens /Fender Rhodes, Guitar (Acoustic), Percussion, Piano, Voices
Hubert Sumlin /Vocals (Background)
Jeff Tweedy /Bass, Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals
Fernando Valencia /String Arrangements, Violin
Jacob Valenzuela /Trumpet
Eddie Vedder /Vocals
Tom Verlaine /Guitar, Slide Guitar, Vocals
Loudon Wainwright III /Guitar
Martin Wenk /Trumpet
Volker Zander /Bass (Upright)
REVIEW
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
For his impressionistic 2007 Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There, director Todd Haynes hired an army of six actors to portray the singer/songwriter, each thespian representing a different phase or public persona of Dylan's career. The accompanying double-disc soundtrack -- not all of its 34 songs are used in the film -- employs a similar conceit, as Haynes and his music supervisors, Randall Poster and Jim Dunbar, rounded up rockers and folksingers of all stripes to reinterpret and re-create portions of Dylan's immense catalog. Taken as a whole, neither the singers nor the selections are too conventional, as the album alternates between standards and obscurities, old cohorts and new blood, faithful renditions and original interpretations, never tipping too far in either direction or staying in one place too long. Despite that shifting mood, I'm Not There gels as an album, partially because a good portion of the soundtrack is recorded with one of two different house bands: the dusty, cinematic Arizona outfit Calexico and the Million Dollar Bashers, a supergroup assembled for this gig featuring guitarist Lee Ranaldo and drummer Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth, Tom Verlaine, Dylan's regular bassist Tony Garnier, Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, guitarist Smokey Hormel, and organist John Medeski.
Haynes also used a similar house band on his previous rock & roll film, the glam rock fantasia Velvet Goldmine and, as a soundtrack, I'm Not There is equally as good, if not quite as risky or flashy as that 1998 gem. That's partly due to the inspiration, of course: on Velvet Goldmine he got to play with the history of a lot of groups, all known for their extravagant flamboyance, but here he only has one artist, but if any musician has a history as rich as a battalion of bands, it's Bob Dylan. Haynes, Poster, Dunbar and crew concentrate heavily on the '60s -- the film, after all, is grounded in the '60s, pulling in elements of Dylan's life in the '70s and beyond, including his born-again Christianity and Rolling Thunder outlaw stance, but never quite straying from that foundation -- and the soundtrack touches upon all of Bob's '60s incarnations, including the folk troubadour, thin wild mercury music, the ragged Americana of The Basement Tapes, and the reflective country-folk of John Wesley Harding. Familiar sounds may be here, but not necessarily familiar songs -- Haynes, Poster and Dunbar deliberately sidestep standards like "Blowin' in the Wind," "Masters of War," "Subterranean Homesick Blues," and "Like a Rolling Stone," choosing instead to build this soundtrack around songs that weren't widely released during the '60s, later to surface on The Basement Tapes, Biograph, The Bootleg Series, during the film of No Direction Home, or, in the case of the heavily bootlegged title song, released here for the first time. Some could carp that this doesn't quite make for an accurate picture of Bob -- it ever so slightly continually circles back to the stark, spooky melancholy of Dylan and the Band's "I'm Not There," which ends the album -- but it's not inaccurate, either. Rather, it's an interpretation of Dylan's music, emphasizing certain elements and blurring others to paint a portrait where the traditional bleeds into the contemporary and vice versa.
Any Dylanologist could spend hours deconstructing the soundtrack to I'm Not There -- what is selected and why, why certain songs are reinterpreted while others are left alone -- but that's a side benefit to an album that should be enjoyed first as simply an absorbing, entertaining listen. Poster and Dunbar have paired performers with the songs almost perfectly, alternating between subtle surprises and sure picks. No other band could duplicate the haunted quality of Dylan's "I'm Not There," but Sonic Youth is the ideal match, as they give the song a hazy beauty and a warmth lacking in the original. Sonic Youth's masterful reading is less of a surprise than how Roger McGuinn and Willie Nelson effortlessly blend in with Calexico on "One More Cup of Coffee" and "Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)," respectively, giving these songs arrangements that expand on the originals, just like how Ramblin' Jack Elliott's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" takes the Highway 61 Revisited standard and stripes it down to its essence. John Doe gives "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" a subdued, soulful passion that contrasts with both Sufjan Stevens' twee-ed-up "Ring Them Bells" and Mark Lanegan's gothic "The Man in the Long Black Coat," yet all speak vividly to the spiritual undercurrents in these songs. Despite their gentle version of "Just Like a Woman" with Charlotte Gainsbourg, Calexico's cuts come the closest to reinventing the song, particularly on an excellent "Dark Eyes" with Iron & Wine and a good, weary "Goin' to Acapulco" sung by Jim James of My Morning Jacket. Mason Jennings is responsible for good, straight-ahead versions of the earliest folk songs ("The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," "The Times They Are a Changin'"), acquitting himself well, while Once stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova do a joyous "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere."
All this soft, dreamy folky material helps the harder cuts here -- including Cat Power's bluesy "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" -- leap out all the more. Usually, this is the province of the Million Dollar Bashers, who when fronted by Stephen Malkmus on "Ballad of a Thin Man" and "Maggie's Farm" manage to re-create the snide, hipster spirit of 1965 Dylan. They pull off the same trick with Karen O on a rollicking and faithful "Highway 61 Revisited," while Tom Verlaine steps out to the front for a dark, epic "Cold Irons Bound," but this house band isn't the only band that rocks hard, either: the Hold Steady blow through "Can You Please Crawl out Your Window?" and the Black Keys have an heavy, ominous "Wicked Messenger" (not all that dissimilar to the Faces' version, but decidedly less fun). But no band truly gets to speak to the two extremes of Dylan's work (at least as pictured here) as Yo La Tengo, who have a delicate, beautiful "Fourth Time Around" and positively nail the wild, careening sound of 1965 on "I Wanna be Your Lover." They, alone among any of the artists here, get the opportunity to do these two sides of Dylan, but as I'm Not There definitively proves, there were not just two or even ten sides to Dylan: he contains multitudes. That much is evident on his own recordings, which still have power, but sometimes it takes a fresh perspective to hear what's already there, and the soundtrack to I'm Not There provides that perspective in way few other albums do.
DoWnLoAd
''I'M NOT THERE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK, DISC TWO''
OCTOBER 30 2007
158:57
DISC ONE
1. Eddie Vedder & The Million Dollar Bashers/All Along The Watchtower/4:30
2. Sonic Youth/I'm Not There/4:53
3. Jim James & Calexico/Goin' To Acapulco/4:59
4. Richie Havens/Tombstone Blues/5:29
5. Stephen Malkmus & The Million Dollar Bashers/Ballad Of A Thin Man/6:50
6. Cat Power/Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again/6:53
7. John Doe/Pressing On/5:54
8. Yo La Tengo/Fourth Time Around/5:10
9. Iron And Wine & Calexico/Dark Eyes/4:30
10. Karen O & The Million Dollar Bashers/Highway 61 Revisited/3:56
11. Roger McGuinn & Calexico/One More Cup Of Coffee/4:33
12. Mason Jennings/The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll/5:14
13. Los Lobos/Billy 1/4:03
14. Jeff Tweedy/Simple Twist Of Fate/3:43
15. Mark Lanegan/Man In The Long Black Coat/3:33
16. Willie Nelson & Calexico/Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)/5:19
DISC TWO
1. Mira Billotte/As I Went Out One Morning/2:55
2. Stephen Malkmus and Lee Ranaldo/Can't Leave Her Behind/1:55
3. Sufjan Stevens/Ring Them Bells/6:21
4. Charlotte Gainsbourg & Calexico/Just Like A Woman/4:15
5. Jack Johnson/Mama You've Been On My Mind / A Fraction of Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie/4:22
6. Yo La Tengo/I Wanna Be Your Lover/3:58
7. Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova/You Ain't Goin' Nowhere/3:06
8. The Hold Steady/Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?/3:50
9. Ramblin Jack Elliot/Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues/6:54
10. The Black Keys/The Wicked Messenger/4:00
11. Tom Verlaine & The Million Dollar Bashers/Cold Irons Bound/7:34
12. Mason Jennings/The Times They Are A Changin'/3:36
13. Stephen Malkmus & The Million Dollar Bashers/Maggie's Farm/5:28
14. Marcus Carl Franklin/When The Ship Comes In/3:30
15. Bob Forrest/Moonshiner/4:57
16. John Doe/I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine/3:13
17. Antony & The Johnsons/Knockin' On Heaven's Door/4:13
18. Bob Dylan with The Band/I'm Not There/5:15
Terry Adams /Piano
Tim Albright /Trombone
Antony and the Johnsons
Hideaki Aomori /Saxophone
Dan Auerbach /Bass, Guitar, Vocals
Carla Azar /Drums, Percussion
The Band
Kevin Barker /Guitar (Acoustic)
Sam Beam /Guitar, Piano, Vocals
Jay Bellerose /Drums, Percussion
Steve Berlin /Keyboards
Mira Billotte /Vocals
Rob Bochnik /Bass
Doyle Bramhall II /Guitar (Electric)
Chris Bruce /Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Vocals (Background)
Jebin Bruni /Organ (Hammond)
Paul Bryan /Bass
Joey Burns /Accordion, Bass (Upright), Bowed Banjo, Cello, Glockenspiel, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitar (Nylon String), Piano, Vocals (Background)
C.J. Camerieri /Trumpet
Patrick Carney /Drums
Cat Power
Nels Cline /Guitar, Guitar (Electric)
Greg Cohen /Bass
John Convertino /Drums, Drums (Bass), Percussion
Brian Deck /Bongos, Marimba, Piano
Bryce Dessner /Guitar (Electric)
George Drakoulias /Percussion, Producer
Stanley Dural /Organ
Salvador Duran /Vocals
Bob Dylan /Vocals, Guitar
Doug Easley /Guitar
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Cougar Estrada /Drums, Percussion
Craig Finn /Guitar, Vocals
Bob Forrest /Vocals
Casey Foubert /Bass, Guitar, Lap Steel Guitar, Vocals (Background)
Marcus Franklin
Charlotte Gainsbourg /Vocals
Salvador Gallegos III /Vihuela
Tony Garnier /Bass
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
Kim Gordon /Guitar
Portia Griffin /Vocals (Background)
Glen Hansard /Guitar, Harmonica
Marla Hansen /Viola, Vocals (Background)
Richie Havens /Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Eric Heywood /Pedal Steel
David Hidalgo /Accordion, Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
Mabon "Teenie" Hodges /Guitar
Kelly Hogan /Vocals (Background)
Smokey Hormel /Guitar
Georgia Hubley /Drums, Vocals
Markéta Irglová /Banjo, Vocals
Jim James /Vocals
Vincent Jones /Keyboards
Ira Kaplan /Guitar, Vocals
Glenn Kotche /Drums
Tad Kubler /Guitar
Mark Lanegan /Vocals
Ben Lanz /Trombone
Greg Leisz /Dobro, Guitar, Mandolin
Conrad Lozano /Bass
Tim Luntzel /Bass
Stephen Malkmus /Vocals
David Mansfield /Fiddle
Chan Marshall /Vocals
James McAlister /Drums, Electronic Drums, Percussion, Producer, Vocals (Background)
Jean McClain /Vocals (Background)
Roger McGuinn /Guitar (12 String Electric), Vocals
James McNew /Bass
John Medeski /Organ (Hammond), Piano, Wurlitzer
Thurston Moore /Bass, Vocals
Willie Nelson /Guitar, Vocals
Franz Nicolay /Keyboards
Paul Niehaus /Pedal Steel
Walter Parks /Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals (Background)
Louie Pérez /Jarana
Peter Phillips /Guitar
David Piltch /Bass (Upright)
Galen Polivka /Bass
David Ralicke /Horn
Lee Ranaldo /Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Rhythm), Mixing, Piano, Siren, Tambourine
Mickey Raphael /Echo Harp, Harmonica
Kyle B. Resnick /Trumpet
Marco Rosano /Sax (Baritone), Sax (Tenor)
Cesar Rosas /Bajo Sexto, Vocals (Background)
Josh Schwartz /Guitar
John Sebastian /Harmonica
Doug Shaw /Guitar
Steve Shelley /Drums
Dave Smith /Bass
Rick Steff /Organ (Hammond), Piano
Stephen Malkmus & the Million Dollar
Sufjan Stevens /Fender Rhodes, Guitar (Acoustic), Percussion, Piano, Voices
Hubert Sumlin /Vocals (Background)
Jeff Tweedy /Bass, Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals
Fernando Valencia /String Arrangements, Violin
Jacob Valenzuela /Trumpet
Eddie Vedder /Vocals
Tom Verlaine /Guitar, Slide Guitar, Vocals
Loudon Wainwright III /Guitar
Martin Wenk /Trumpet
Volker Zander /Bass (Upright)
REVIEW
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
For his impressionistic 2007 Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There, director Todd Haynes hired an army of six actors to portray the singer/songwriter, each thespian representing a different phase or public persona of Dylan's career. The accompanying double-disc soundtrack -- not all of its 34 songs are used in the film -- employs a similar conceit, as Haynes and his music supervisors, Randall Poster and Jim Dunbar, rounded up rockers and folksingers of all stripes to reinterpret and re-create portions of Dylan's immense catalog. Taken as a whole, neither the singers nor the selections are too conventional, as the album alternates between standards and obscurities, old cohorts and new blood, faithful renditions and original interpretations, never tipping too far in either direction or staying in one place too long. Despite that shifting mood, I'm Not There gels as an album, partially because a good portion of the soundtrack is recorded with one of two different house bands: the dusty, cinematic Arizona outfit Calexico and the Million Dollar Bashers, a supergroup assembled for this gig featuring guitarist Lee Ranaldo and drummer Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth, Tom Verlaine, Dylan's regular bassist Tony Garnier, Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, guitarist Smokey Hormel, and organist John Medeski.
Haynes also used a similar house band on his previous rock & roll film, the glam rock fantasia Velvet Goldmine and, as a soundtrack, I'm Not There is equally as good, if not quite as risky or flashy as that 1998 gem. That's partly due to the inspiration, of course: on Velvet Goldmine he got to play with the history of a lot of groups, all known for their extravagant flamboyance, but here he only has one artist, but if any musician has a history as rich as a battalion of bands, it's Bob Dylan. Haynes, Poster, Dunbar and crew concentrate heavily on the '60s -- the film, after all, is grounded in the '60s, pulling in elements of Dylan's life in the '70s and beyond, including his born-again Christianity and Rolling Thunder outlaw stance, but never quite straying from that foundation -- and the soundtrack touches upon all of Bob's '60s incarnations, including the folk troubadour, thin wild mercury music, the ragged Americana of The Basement Tapes, and the reflective country-folk of John Wesley Harding. Familiar sounds may be here, but not necessarily familiar songs -- Haynes, Poster and Dunbar deliberately sidestep standards like "Blowin' in the Wind," "Masters of War," "Subterranean Homesick Blues," and "Like a Rolling Stone," choosing instead to build this soundtrack around songs that weren't widely released during the '60s, later to surface on The Basement Tapes, Biograph, The Bootleg Series, during the film of No Direction Home, or, in the case of the heavily bootlegged title song, released here for the first time. Some could carp that this doesn't quite make for an accurate picture of Bob -- it ever so slightly continually circles back to the stark, spooky melancholy of Dylan and the Band's "I'm Not There," which ends the album -- but it's not inaccurate, either. Rather, it's an interpretation of Dylan's music, emphasizing certain elements and blurring others to paint a portrait where the traditional bleeds into the contemporary and vice versa.
Any Dylanologist could spend hours deconstructing the soundtrack to I'm Not There -- what is selected and why, why certain songs are reinterpreted while others are left alone -- but that's a side benefit to an album that should be enjoyed first as simply an absorbing, entertaining listen. Poster and Dunbar have paired performers with the songs almost perfectly, alternating between subtle surprises and sure picks. No other band could duplicate the haunted quality of Dylan's "I'm Not There," but Sonic Youth is the ideal match, as they give the song a hazy beauty and a warmth lacking in the original. Sonic Youth's masterful reading is less of a surprise than how Roger McGuinn and Willie Nelson effortlessly blend in with Calexico on "One More Cup of Coffee" and "Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)," respectively, giving these songs arrangements that expand on the originals, just like how Ramblin' Jack Elliott's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" takes the Highway 61 Revisited standard and stripes it down to its essence. John Doe gives "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" a subdued, soulful passion that contrasts with both Sufjan Stevens' twee-ed-up "Ring Them Bells" and Mark Lanegan's gothic "The Man in the Long Black Coat," yet all speak vividly to the spiritual undercurrents in these songs. Despite their gentle version of "Just Like a Woman" with Charlotte Gainsbourg, Calexico's cuts come the closest to reinventing the song, particularly on an excellent "Dark Eyes" with Iron & Wine and a good, weary "Goin' to Acapulco" sung by Jim James of My Morning Jacket. Mason Jennings is responsible for good, straight-ahead versions of the earliest folk songs ("The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," "The Times They Are a Changin'"), acquitting himself well, while Once stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova do a joyous "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere."
All this soft, dreamy folky material helps the harder cuts here -- including Cat Power's bluesy "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" -- leap out all the more. Usually, this is the province of the Million Dollar Bashers, who when fronted by Stephen Malkmus on "Ballad of a Thin Man" and "Maggie's Farm" manage to re-create the snide, hipster spirit of 1965 Dylan. They pull off the same trick with Karen O on a rollicking and faithful "Highway 61 Revisited," while Tom Verlaine steps out to the front for a dark, epic "Cold Irons Bound," but this house band isn't the only band that rocks hard, either: the Hold Steady blow through "Can You Please Crawl out Your Window?" and the Black Keys have an heavy, ominous "Wicked Messenger" (not all that dissimilar to the Faces' version, but decidedly less fun). But no band truly gets to speak to the two extremes of Dylan's work (at least as pictured here) as Yo La Tengo, who have a delicate, beautiful "Fourth Time Around" and positively nail the wild, careening sound of 1965 on "I Wanna be Your Lover." They, alone among any of the artists here, get the opportunity to do these two sides of Dylan, but as I'm Not There definitively proves, there were not just two or even ten sides to Dylan: he contains multitudes. That much is evident on his own recordings, which still have power, but sometimes it takes a fresh perspective to hear what's already there, and the soundtrack to I'm Not There provides that perspective in way few other albums do.
DoWnLoAd
