Gravel-voiced Dylan cryptic as ever

By D.S. Martin and ChristianWeek | July 3, 2009

Together Through Life is the surprise project that came out of nowhere. No one knew Bob Dylan was anywhere close to releasing it. Even Columbia Records wasn't expecting anything so hot on the heels of his outstanding "rare and unreleased" package, Tell Tale Signs (2008).

It's essentially a band recording, like his recent albums, although this time there's a particular sound that sets it apart. That sound is centred around the sometimes-subtle presence of accordion-player David Hildago of Los Lobos. The brilliance is that this doesn't sound like Los Lobos or even Hildago's playing on Paul Simon's Graceland. And other than "This Dream of You"—which has a mariachi band sound similar to "Romance in Durango" from the album Desire (1975)—it doesn't even really have a Mexican flavour, but makes it seem as if accordion has always been a major instrument for electrified blues.

Most lyrics were co-written with Robert Hunter—who is a long-time collaborator with Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead—which may explain why the songs seem more traditionally focussed as songs of lost love, than much of Dylan's recent writing. Gone is the technique of bringing interesting, unconnected lines together as he masterfully did on his most recent studio albums.

His three most recent CDs (excluding instalments to his ongoing Bootleg Series) Modern Times (2006), Love And Theft (2001) and Time Out Of Mind(1997) form something of a trilogy in their exceptional quality and depth. Although Together Through Life has a more casually-thrown-together air to it than its predecessors, it is still a worthy collection. The band includes Donnie Herron from his Modern Times sessions, long-time Dylan bassist Tony Garnier, and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers.

Whose perspective these songs are from is an on-going question within his work. This 68 year-old rock star who's been married twice could never say from his own perspective, "You're the only love I've ever known" as he sings on the opening track. Likewise the wise-cracking line, "I just want to say that hell's my wife's hometown" just sounds too comedic to be taken seriously. To make things more obvious, I'm sure neither Dylan nor his co-writer were ever nearly killed in Houston during the Mexican War.

Dylan's familiar technique of stealing lines from the best, is illustrated well in "If You Ever Go To Houston" which borrows from the old Leadbelly song "Midnight Special," made famous by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Their version warns against gambling and fighting. Similarly, Dylan advises, "better walk right." The instructions continue for various Texas cities, including Dallas: "Tell her other sister Betsy to pray the sinner's prayer."

I wouldn't say Together Through Life is a Christian album, as Slow Train Coming (1979) is, but Dylan writes from within a vaguely-Christian worldview. In "Forgetful Heart," one of the strongest songs on the CD, he sings that part of himself still risks love despite previous hurt: "When you were there / You were the answer to my prayer." In our world many people only pray in times of desperation.

In the final song he sings about various examples of corruption, trouble, decay and misery—to a rockin' zydeco beat—and sarcastically makes his pronouncement in "It's All Good":

"Brick by brick they tear you down
A teacup of water is enough to drown
You oughta know, if they could they would
Whatever goin' down, it's all good."

Dylan points out how we're blind to all the evil around us and how we foolishly ignore it in hope that it will go away. He really would change everything that's wrong with our society if he could. Even so, as some have told him, Dylan's got the blood of the land in his voice.