Rough and Rowdy Ways – Bob Dylan
****
Rough and Rowdy Ways is 79-year-old Bob Dylan’s 39th studio album, and his first of original material since 2012’s Tempest. The title of the album comes from the 1929 song “My Rough and Rowdy Ways” by Jimmie Rodgers. Between Tempest and the new album, Dylan released three albums (one of them being a triple album), of traditional pop standards covers, many of which had been recorded by Frank Sinatra, as well as seven volumes in his ongoing Bootleg Series. The ten new songs here, which cover nearly 71 minutes, have themes of love, mortality, menace, and doom, and make allusions to many historical figures and works of art. Dylan is backed by his touring band, he wrote all songs, and it is assumed that it was self-produced, though there are no producer credits given.
The album, his first album of new material since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, is one of my favorite releases of 2020 thus far. Below are a few comments about each song:
I Contain Multitudes – This was the second song released prior to album’s release. The title comes from Song of Myself, 51 from Walt Whitman. Dylan sings the song beautifully in a low register over an acoustic guitar and cello. He’s a man of contradictions, a man of many moods, he contains multitudes
Key lyric:
I’m just like Anne Frank, like Indiana Jones
And them British bad boys, the Rolling Stones
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- More of this review and a review of Blues with Friends by Dion
- Music News
- Song of the Week Lyrics
Go – John Schlitt
Hymns in the Round – Shane and Shane
Resurrection – Sing! The Life of Christ Quintology – Keith and Kristyn Getty and Friends
Illumination – Phil Keaggy and Rex Paul
American Standard – James Taylor
Alive & Breathing, Vol. 1 – Matt Maher
United – Newsboys (Deluxe Edition)
As we settle into 2020, there are a number of new and upcoming albums, in a variety of genres, that I’m excited about, and you may be as well. Let’s get started….
