"Just Like A Woman" was one of Bob Dylan's acidic, vindictive, finger-pointing songs. That's what I thought until I heard Eric Bibb's brilliant version on this album, bringing out a tenderness and compassion I'd never noticed before. Tracks like this, where artists have the confidence to reinvent songs as if they were new, make albums like these worthwhile. Similarly Clarence Bucaro reworks "One Of Us Must Know" engagingly in a Leon Redbone fashion with Ted Witt's clarinet prominent and even the rhythms of the lyrics rearranged, and C. J. Chenier's accordion brings something fresh to "Absolutely Sweet Marie" which amazingly sounds as if it belongs there.
Other tracks differ less radically from the originals. I suspect Joe Louis Walker's excellent "Stuck Inside Of Mobile" would have sounded the same whether or not he had heard Dylan doing it, and "Obviously 5 Believers" by Sean Costello and "I Want You" by Cyril Neville (of the Neville Brothers) are more than acceptable without shaking your windows or rattling your doors. I expect quality from Deborah Coleman and her "Temporary Like Achilles" doesn't disappoint, while the raucous feel of "Most Likely You Go Your Way" fits the raw voice and raunchy guitar of Sue Foley exactly.
A couple of the songs used twelve bars already. "Pledging My Time", played here by Duke Robillard, is Elmore James' "It Hurts Me Too" revisited, while Walter Trout contributes some interesting guitar to "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat", but both of them sound like bandleaders looking for singers.
On the "Tangled Up In Blues" and "This Ain't No Tribute" albums blues performers tackled Dylan songs but this is the first rehash of a specific album of his, the classic and highly influential "Blonde On Blonde" from 1966. Blues versions of "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands" or "4th Time Around" are difficult to imagine and those songs are thankfully left uncovered.
This is almost a Double-Trouble-and-guests project. The Tommy Shannon-Chris Layton rhythm section is on nine of the twelve tracks. As well as his feature, a pedestrian "Rainy Day Women" (a curious choice as opener), Brian Stoltz plays guitar on seven.
The Telarc website has a page dedicated to the album on http://www.telarc.com/Blues/title.asp?sku=CD%2D83567 with samples of each track.
If you're prepared to accept the inevitable unevenness of an album like this there are enough high points to carry you through the occasional trough.
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