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Bob Dylan: Shadows in the Night
ByLeading up to its release, the album was broadly promoted as a Frank Sinatra "cover" albuma convenient, if imprecise, way to woo those unfamiliar with these songs. Still, it is true that all 10 tracks on this taut, 35- minute album of the dark, are, to greater or lesser extent, associated with Ol' Blue Eyes. Four of the songs, in fact, Sinatra included on his own haunting noir, Where Are You? (Capitol, 1957). And by rendering these tunes in a dark, country manner, fueled by Donny Herron's whining, whirring pedal steel, Charlie Sexton's crisply harmonic electric guitar, Stu Kimball's chugging acoustic guitar, Tony Garnier's grounding, often bowed, bass, and George G. Receli's light percussion (with a trio of mournful horns also blowing on a few tracks), Dylan perhaps realizes something of the aesthetic he had envisioned while trying to convince Sinatra, in his final years, to record an album of Hank Williams tunes.
Dylan's wonderfully weathered baritone is a perfect fit for this material, tracing the melodic linesfaithfully, for the most part, often with the careful articulation of one trying to maintain his composure, before wavering, stretching, leaping or plummeting into arrestingly vulnerable passageswith a full, resonant wisdom that can, without warning, turn wispy as smoke or brittle as autumn leaves.
"Stay With Me," "Full Moon and Empty Arms" and "What'll I Do" are particular standouts, aided, in part, by their relative obscuritytheir fresh canvases. But the entire album is charged by the authenticity that has always been the mark of Dylan's singing, here easily rekindling the listener's own longing and regret. Nevertheless, when "That Lucky Old Sun" rolls around, dumping us out into the waiting, laughing dawn, Dylan is able still to brush us off, get us on our feet and inspire us to take yet another, likely futile, stab at another day.
Track Listing
I’m a Fool To Want You; The Night We Called It a Day; Stay With Me; Autumn Leaves; Why Try To Change Me Now; Some Enchanted Evening; Full Moon and Empty Arms; Where Are You?; What’ll I Do; That Lucky Old Sun.
Personnel
Bob Dylan
guitar and vocalsBob Dylan: vocals; Tony Garnier: bass; Donny Herron: pedal steel guitar; Charlie Sexton: guitar; Stu Kimball: guitar; George C. Receli: percussion; Andrew Martin: trombone; Francisco Torres: trombone; Dylan Hart: French horn; Alan Kaplan: trombone; Joseph Meyer: French horn; Daniel Fornero: trumpet; Larry G. Hall: trumpet.
Album information
Title: Shadows in the Night | Year Released: 2015 | Record Label: Columbia Records
Comments
About Bob Dylan
Instrument: Guitar and vocals
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