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| 2009 | SOFT POP ROCK | ACOUSTIC |
Track Listing
1. Forever Young
2. One Too Many Mornings ✔
3. The Times They A Changin'
4. Like A Rolling Stone
5. You're Going To Make Me Lonesome When You Go
6. Mr. Tambourine Man ✔
7. Two Steps Back
8. Boots Of Spanish Leather ✔
9. My Back Pages
10. Flirting With Disaster
11. Rainy Day Women
12. Tomorrow Is A Long Time
11. Rainy Day Women
12. Tomorrow Is A Long Time
✔ indicates track pick
Rating
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Review
Cover albums are always a difficult thing. It's a fine line to tread; to bring a personal touch to the music, however without altering the original artist's vision. It's the same principle as with the remakes of movies; the last thing anybody wants to see is a scene by scene remake. And to pick Bob Dylan of all artists to cover, meant the bar was set high from the start. It was ambitious project that the two musicians set out to undertake, but the result is something truly magical.
Cover albums are always a difficult thing. It's a fine line to tread; to bring a personal touch to the music, however without altering the original artist's vision. It's the same principle as with the remakes of movies; the last thing anybody wants to see is a scene by scene remake. And to pick Bob Dylan of all artists to cover, meant the bar was set high from the start. It was ambitious project that the two musicians set out to undertake, but the result is something truly magical.
It was an interesting but inspired choice to have Tim Hockenberry take the role of lead vocals; his voice is a far cry from Dylan's. I first came across him through his work with The Trans-Siberian Orchestra, where his mesmerizing voice just matched so well with the piano driven ballads the Orchestra are fond of. His sound is certainly unique. Picture if you will the low gravely tones of Louis Armstrong crossed with soft crooning of Rod Stewart and you'd have a fair idea of Hockenberry's voice. It's his voice that drives this album, however the production value is also particularly good, with laid back, minimalistic drums, gentle bells, pianos and dreamy guitars. It all blends into one warm sound, that's gentle on ears and soothing for the mind.
Many of Dylan's classics are here, and it's Hockenberry and Corwin's treatment of Dylan's signature songs that make for a real treat. Such an example is found in Dylan's definitive anthem 'Like A Rolling Stone'; it's been stripped right back and slowed down to a cruisy, mellow rock ballad. While there's so much going on in the original version, here everything's been simplified; with the guitar playing basic chords and the focus being very much on the vocals. However it's on the real slow songs where this laid back approach works best. 'Boots Of Spanish Leather' conjures up images of slow dancing under a starlit sky, with echoing guitars and drawn out vocal lines. It's at times like this where Hockenberry's in his element, working every drop of emotion out of Dylan's lyrics and exploring a wide and diverse vocal range.
This is an album for drifting into sleep, discovering first love and watching the sun set over the hill on long summer evenings. What a true Dylan fan would think of these interpretations of Dylan's works is unsure, however since I'm not a die-hard Dylan fan myself, when I listened to this I was judging it as a creation of it's own, and not comparing to how well it interpreted the originals. The matter of fact is that it's a brilliantly soothing album, and one that I'm going to still be enjoying for many months from now.
The Musicians Are...
Tim Hockenberry - Vocals
Tom Corwin - Instruments
(A wide variety of musicians were
featured on this album, too
many to list here)
Tom Corwin - Instruments
(A wide variety of musicians were
featured on this album, too
many to list here)
Listen
Track 2. One Too Many Mornings
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