November 13, 2017

Fresh Finds From Bob Dylan’s Oddest Musical Chapter

“Trouble No More” offers a new look at the religious period that produced the albums “Slow Train Coming” and “Shot of Love.”

Bob Dylan

Trouble No More—The Bootleg Series Vol. 13 / 1979-1981

Columbia Records/Legacy Recordings

Bob Dylan’s Christian phase of the late-’70s and early ’80s remains one of the odder chapters in a career marked by numerous unexpected twists and turns. The massive eight-CD, one-DVD package Trouble No More offers a fresh look at the period that produced the albums Slow Train Coming, Saved, and Shot of Love, compiling 100 previously unreleased live and studio tracks, including 14 new songs. While an uncharacteristic heavy-handedness here and there will still turn some fans off, it’s now easier to hear these songs of faith as being of a piece with Dylan’s more-celebrated work, since big concepts, including a search for meaning, were always central to his work.

In purely musical terms, this set often sounds great. The vocal interplay between Dylan and his female gospel-soul backing chorus is thrilling, and the band cooks with ease, blending blues, soul and even funk in sizzling fashion. And some of the new material makes a worthy addition to the canon. Check out “Ain’t No Man Righteous, No Not One” or “Making a Liar Out of Me” for proof that Dylan was still firing on all creative cylinders, however perverse his instincts seemed at the time.

Various Artists

Woody Guthrie: The Tribute Concerts

Bear Family

Dylan buffs can also check out the three-CD Woody Guthrie: The Tribute Concerts, combining two all-star events celebrating the folk icon that were held at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1968 and the Hollywood Bowl in 1970. Given the enormous influence Guthrie had on the young Dylan in his earliest incarnation, Bob was a logical participant, but his three-song ’68 segment signified more than that: It was his first public appearance since a 1966 motorcycle accident and he was backed by The Band, still to release their debut.

Interspersing readings of Guthrie’s words by the likes of Peter Fonda and Robert Ryan with spirited musical performances from the usual suspects—Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, et al.—The Tribute Concerts is more a valuable reference work than a smooth-flowing program, though there is much fine listening to be had. Among the standouts are the impish Country Joe McDonald, the elegant and commanding Richie Havens and Odetta, whose grace and power resonate long after the show has ended.

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate