A Nod to Bob is subtitled "An artists' tribute to Bob Dylan on his sixtieth birthday"! Whew! Bob Dylan is sixty! I just celebrated my fiftieth birthday last night! My friends paid tribute by presenting me with a collection of humourous cards all alluding to the incontinence and alzheimer's which would be setting in any day now. And here's Mr. Zimmerman ten years older, being celebrated by 14 musicians and not a mention of age or decay.
The tribute is really paid to his songs. They are what has lasted. They spoke for a generation when they were presented by a fresh-faced lad wearing a po'boy cap and today they carry a resonance which is incontestable. The artists who have been gathered together by Red House Records are not the usual suspects who fill every tribute album that comes down the line. Rather we are presented with a cross-generational selection of folk and blues musicians who are united in their affection for Dylan, and in their own experience in the folk tradition which spawned Bob.
The album kicks off with a lazy rolling version of "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" by Eliza Gilykson. Matt Andes provides subtle slide guitar highlights and Ms. Gilykson sings Bob's lyrics beautifully. In her contribution to the liner notes Eliza states that "Bob Dylan didn't grab [her] until he evolved beyond the Guthrie-influenced sound that shaped his early work ... when he found his own voice." She then assumes ownership of the Dylan tune by performing it in her own voice. A masterful beginning.
"Sweetheart Like You" is a lesser known song which first appeared on the Infidels album. Guy Davis & the High Flying Rockets (featuring Levon Helm on drums) do a bluesy take which sounds like an out-take from Time Out Of Mind. Davis simulates Dylan's new wheezy rasp perfectly. The Roches follow with their tight but weird harmonies on "Clothes Line Saga" which manages to wring the humor out of Dylans words. John Gorka's version of "Girl of the North Country" slows it down to a dirge and is one of a couple of major disappointments on the album. Spider John Koerner & Dave Ray do a rendition of "Delia" that could have fallen off the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack. Cliff Eberhardt plays "I Want You" at a funereal pace. This trend of s-l-o-w-i-n-g the songs down almost stops the album dead. The instrumentation is almost faultless throughout but there is a sameness to the tempos which makes one wonder if they all define interpretation as "decelerate."
"All Along the Watchtower" receives better treatment. It is now probably best known in Jimi Hendrix's arrangement, in fact Dylan himself has been doing it that way for years! Tom Landa & the Paperboys give us a new version. Based on jigs and reels they provide flute and tin whistle parts, fiddle bits and an amazing Hendrix-inspired banjo solo! They claim to play this for 18 minutes when doing it live. That must be something to hear!
Hart-Rouge do a French rendition of "With God On Our Side" which emphasizes Dylans universal qualities. He sounds just as good in another language! He did write amazing melodies! Martin Simpson shows his gifts as a guitar player in a fragile, lacey version of "Boots of Spanish Leather." Norman Blake and Peter Ostroushko's version of "Restless Farewell" harkens back to the mountains and wouldn't be out of place on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music.
Lucy Kaplansky sings a lovely folky "It Ain't Me Babe," and Greg Brown gets the blues with "Pledging My Time." The album concludes with two af America's folk singing treasures paying tribute to Dylan. Rosalie Sorrels and Ramblin' Jack Elliott have put a lifetime into travelin' around singin' these songs. The fact that they added Dylan tunes to their repertoires early in Bob's career is more impressive knowing that they still do them! Rosalie does a moving version of "Tomorrow is a Long Time" and then Ramblin' Jack possesses "Don't Think Twice It's All Right" after introducing it with a long story. You gotta love Ramblin' Jack!
The names may not be as familiar as you find on some tribute albums, but that helps make A Nod To Bob a solid listening experience. The songs will get you at first, and then as you listen to these new interpretations you begin to appreciate the craftsmanship of the songwriter ... and then the work of the interpreters. It's like sittin' on the back porch with yer ol' guitar, a jug an' the Bob Dylan Songbook ... everybody does it, and it's fun every time!
