There's no real incentive to treat Bob Dylan's catalog with much reverence. After all, he doesn't.
To hear Dylan's songs twisted and turned into unrecognizable shapes, just catch him on a night when he's of a mind to do so.
So most of the artists recording Dylan tunes for this album, the soundtrack to the film of the same name, take their share of liberties but often wind up sounding more like the originals than Dylan might on any given night. And that's not a bad thing at all.
But "I'm Not There" isn't just a collection of good to really good Dylan covers. With two bands - Calexico and the Million Dollar Bashers, featuring John Medeski and Tom Verlaine - anchoring a good chunk of the tracks, the disc feels loose but cohesive, like Dylan at his best.
And like a good Dylan set, it's a mix of the familiar and the obscure.
Stephen Malkmus and Jeff Tweedy sound as if they're trying to walk in dad's boots on "Ballad of a Thin Man" and "Simple Twist of Fate," respectively. But Sufjan Stevens suffers from no such inhibitions. His epic production of "Ring Them Bells" could have been dropped onto one of Stevens' own albums with no one the wiser.
Willie Nelson sings "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)" as if the song is a secret he can hardly bear to tell. Cat Power takes "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again" to Elvis Country, specifically Memphis circa 1969. Later, The Hold Steady take "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" to Asbury Park, N.J., circa 1973.
"I'm Not There" is a tribute to the timelessness - and malleability - of Dylan's songs.
Download this: "Ring Them Bells"
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