2/5
Women + Country
On his second solo album since the Wallflowers began living up to their name, Jakob Dylan re-enlists producer T-Bone Burnett, whose work on 1996’s Bringing Down the Horse helped make the brooding rockers a commercially dominant act in the late ’90s. Dylan has ditched the Tom Petty-isms that defined those days and now casts himself as some sort of agrarian folk poet.
On the new record’s cover, he sits astride a horse, wearing a straw hat. There’s nothing wrong with that, or the broad strokes he uses to paint a moody mosaic of a troubled, post-industrial South still dripping with Spanish moss mystique. What’s wrong is that the effort never transcends the affectations. Burnett’s hauled in some ace ringers (guitarists Marc Ribot and Buddy Miller), set up moonlighting ex-Chicagoans Kelly Hogan and Neko Case on backup vocals, and conjured spellbinding, atmospheric backdrops for the beige gravitas of Dylan’s voice. The textured scenarios, laced with drizzly pedal steel, banjo twang, a little Mardi Gras brass and percussive clatter from Tom Waits’ sock hamper, unfold at stately tempos to which the singer brings little contrast.
The lead track, ‘Nothing But the Whole Wide World’, is the catchiest; a simple lullaby made cosy with those splendid Case-Hogan harmonies, but the verdict remains clear: we’ll take the women, but you can keep the country.
Steve Dollar
In stores now.
