Bob Dylan: Together Through Life
Review of Album From One of the World’s Great Songwriters
May 3, 2009
There are few people who would argue when someone says that Bob Dylan is the world’s greatest songwriter. After forty years of producing album after album of stellar work and changing the face of music, listeners can forgive him a few missteps.
Dylan’s latest album, Together Through Life, is not exactly a misstep. The album is passable, and has an inventive, Chess Records type sound. But Together Through Life does not live up to his recent work, and will most likely become a forgotten album in his vast catalog.
Together Through Life’s Delta Sound is Change from Recent Dylan Albums
Three years later, Dylan’s follow up to the universally praised album, Modern Times, sinks deep into the swamps of the Delta, then heads west through the border towns along the Rio Grande. Dylan’s raggedy snarl is a perfect voice for this bluesy sound, and conveys his work’s emotions well.
The sonic changes are a pleasant expansion for Dylan. If this was anyone other than Bob Dylan, the listener would find it in the Blues section rather than Folk. Dylan proves once again that the Blues are just another kind of Folk music.
While Bob Dylan has often embraced the Blues, the western swing found on many of these songs challenges what listeners expect from him, and it is rare that an album dares to challenge its listeners.
Unfortunately, the lyrics seem much less inspired than on Modern Times. It is not that there are not some great lyrics here-- even average work from Dylan surpasses most others, but there seems to be something missing on Together Through Life, a spark that sets his best work apart.
Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo Adds Spice to Together Through Life
The most striking aspect of this album is the dominance of accordion on Together Through Life. We have the album’s producer, “Jack Frost” (actually an alias Dylan uses) for the accordion’s presence, the musician was no session player, but David Hidalgo, of Los Lobos fame.
The use of an accordion on a Folk album is not unheard of. The great Folk-Blues singer Lead Belly often accompanied himself on accordion when not using his 12-string guitar. But accordion is uncommon enough that Hidalgo instantly attracts the ear and sets the tone for Together Through Life.
In reality, it is David Hidalgo who is the star on Together Through Life. The tone Hidalgo creates is the feeling of a border town bar, with Dylan growling into the microphone like a man ready to drop dead of a ‘bad liver and a broken heart’ (to quote Tom Waits, another competitor for world‘s greatest songwriter).
Together Through Life Disappoints, Lacks Expected Dylan Brilliance
Although there are several good songs on Together Through Life, such as the opening track, “Beyond Here Lies Nothing,” most of the songs are nothing special. The album is best illustrated with the closing song, “It’s All Good.” Hearing Bob Dylan growl the words “it’s all good” just does not seem right. There is something off in that, and something off in this album too.
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