I can’t let the year past by without a shout out for Lost on the River – The New Basement Tapes.
Released at the same time this autumn as the ‘Complete Basement Tapes’ the legendary recordings in the Big Pink by Bob Dylan and the Band in 1967. The release of these recordings long sought after, often bootlegged and semi officially released was an actual historical musical milestone this year.
So while all the attention was on the official Bob release, The Lost on the River album almost shuffled itself on to the racks unnoticed. I picked it up more out of interest, expecting another half-hearted all-star bash album. How wrong I was. There is nothing half-hearted about the effort put into the songs on this album.
What this release actually does is follows the same timeline as the music from the Big Pink. These are for the most part original Bob Dylan lyrics form 1967 but lyrics never put to music.
The lyrics were left in the trusty hands of T Bone Burnett, and Lost On The River was written and performed in a “creative collaboration” by Elvis Costello, Rhiannon Giddens (Carolina Chocolate Drops), Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Jim James (My Morning Jacket) and Marcus Mumford (Mumford & Sons).
The end result is nothing short of superb. There seems no egos here, each song so well constructed, interesting and beautifully performed.
Kansas City seems a theme throughout and the songs are nicely varied in style mainly because the lyrics were handed out by T Bone Burnett to the artists to create the songs individually and then bring them into the studio to record as a group.
You can’t really pick out one contribution over the other but Rhiannon Giddens really shines throughout the record and her lead vocal on Duncan and Jimmy is nothing short of tremendous.
Is there a Volume Two I wonder?
Pete
11/11
