Expecting Rain

Quote from Isis: "Then, in March, David Hidalgo revealed to The Aspen Times that he had been involved with the recording of a New Dylan album and that whilst he had been brought in primarily to play accordion and guitar, he ended up adding Mexican instruments, including tres, to some tracks."

Seems Dylan will be playing songs more in the vein of Together Through Life than Love and Theft. The Tex-Mex sound of If You Ever Go to Houston.

Dylan's music is often categorized in Trilogies. Slow Train, Shot of Love, and Saved. Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft, and Modern Times.

Perhaps the newest album will be the third of a trilogy spanning from 1967 to present, from an album featuring Texas outlaw John Wesley Harding to Together Through Life and then to September 2012.

Thoughts? Is more of Together Through Life what we should expect?

Hidalgo also said each of the 3 projects he has worked on with Dylan have been completely different.

I don't know that there's anything to the trilogy idea, but if there is I'd see LAT, MT and TTL as the trilogy. Rumors of Scott Litt being involved, possibly as producer, also suggest we may get a different sound this time out.

I think this "Mexican" thing has been blown out of all proportion. Even though Hidalgo is of Mexican descent and has apparently played Mexican instruments on the album this does not mean that it's going to be a Tejano or "Tex-Mex" album. "Together Through Life" wasn't a Tejano album either. If anything it was one of the greatest Chicago blues albums recorded outside of 1950s/1960s Chicago.

Dylan currently plays a Japanese KORG keyboard, but this does not turn his music into Japanese electronica experimentation, either.



In an interview Dylan EXPRESSLY stated that "Time Out Of Mind", "'Love And Theft'" and "Modern Times" should NOT be regarded as a trilogy. At the time (ca. 2007) he said that LAT and MT might be part of a trilogy that he hoped to finish at a one point (which he did with TTL, I think).

very true, besides los lobos play all different styles of latin music, on top of the fact that they are a blues band.

I don't think that Bob considers the xmas album to be cannon. It counts, but as a separate entity...like a live album or something.

I considered the Together Through Life album to be very Tex-Mex, but I see the Chicago Blues comparison's too, particularly on a song like "My Wife's Home Town"...but the Tex-Mex rhythms are definitely there on songs like "Beyond Here Lies Nothin' " and "If I Ever Go To Houston" and stuff like that.

Hoping for minimal repetitive accordion. Been there, done that.

Re: Trilogies. "Never trust the teller, trust the tale" ~ DH Lawrence. Dylan may have said L&T, MT & TTL were a trilogy but he also claimed TTL was a departure from them when he said of L&T/MT, "we milked that particular cow dry".. He says contrary things..

Exactly. If there's anything to the trilogy idea then it's the three self produced albums released in the last decade. Lanois's involvement gave TOOM a very different feel.

To really stretch the idea you could see Good As I've Been To You, World Gone Wrong and TOOM as a sort of 90's trilogy, as I don't think he could have made as archaic and as good an album as TOOM if he hadn't made those two folk albums first to clear the decks after the horrors of the 80s.

Back to the coming album, the info we're getting is too small to determine what sound or style it's going to be yet.

My guess is that news on the level of Scott Litt's involvement may be the next bit of meaningful info to come out. If Dylan has had complete control of the producton again then I see no reason to expect anything different from the last three albums, which would also mess up the trilogy idea above!

If Litt has been involved then I'm surprised more hasn't already come out as so many people would have been aware if he spent weeks/months working on a Dylan album. Unless he is good at keeping secrets, or has no friends.

I'm open to the accordian and the so-called Mexican influence in the new album... I continue to wonder if this isn't the path by which Dylan will travel to get to polka and thereby grab the Grammy for Best Polka Album of the Year... its alluded him for 50 years... perhaps he's finally zeroing in on it!

As Must Be Santa attests, he has it in him and I assure you that I'd buy it.

There hasn't been a polka Grammy for years now; the Recording Academy dropped it back in 2009. Dylan's version of "Must Be Santa" is based on the arrangement by Brave Combo. From The New York Times back in 2009: "'It’s devastating,' said Carl Finch of Brave Combo, a band from Denton, Tex., that has won the Grammy twice. 'Polka is so misunderstood, you know, the butt of jokes. Having a polka category was the most important step to legitimacy that we could ever hope to achieve. To have that taken away, it’s like it was all for nothing.'" http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/arts/ ... 5polk.html

I worked alongside polka star and disc jockey Teresa Zaploska at WUSB for years. Teresa, a member of the International Polka Music Hall of Fame, passed away a few weeks ago. There wasn't a DJ at the station who had a more loyal and devoted audience and I learned a lot from listening to her.

I had heard it was being dropped (or considered for being dropped). If Bob does a polka album, the category will be restored to its rightful, legitimate status. They can't deny Bob that! If they do, it will only continue to confirm that the Grammys as a whole are utterly ridiculous and completely without meaning.

In 1958 Bob (with his band The Golden Chords) appeared on the "Polka Hour" television show on local Duluth TV channel WDSM-TV Channel 6. The shows were produced by Florian W. Chmielewski, Sr. According to Chmielewski the shows [which started in 1955] were "in black and white no taping nothing else, no re runs it was all done live" – http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/new ... 68403.html
With many families in the Duluth area originating from Eastern Europe, Polka was (is?) quite popular there and a Dylan polka album would make sense. "Must Be Santa" and the short polka piece played on the "Dharma & Greg" show in 1999 will probably be the closest we'll ever get, though.

dont know if its true, but ive heard that bob was a big fan of Li'l Wally Jagiello. they both played for the same pope.

Hey Desire's got an accordion on it.... and a song called Romance In Durango... and he does the Mexican quaver a few times...and about three lines of Spanish... ergo it's D's first Mexican album. I predict the new album will be about as Mexican as Desire.

I can't reveal my sources, but I'm told they did order out for Mexican food from the recording studio. Bob tried it again right before he hit the White House ceremony and got a little bit of salsa on his coat.

Well UP - where were the Grammy awards when Bob was making his classic albums in the 60's? Oh! That's right they were giving them to the likes of "The Sound of Music". Say no more! Anyway, getting a Grammy doesn't polish a turd now does it?

Do they have Mexican Grammys arthur?

On this I would have to agree with the Grammys... Bob received them when his work was truly better than others, as evidenced by Slow Train Coming and Time Out of Mind. And when it wasn't, for example, in the '60s, the Grammys went to others. That's just how it works.

A Grammy wouldn't have made his '60s work sound any better... it was the NET that did that.

cabbage rolls and coffee- mmm, mmm, good!