I’m Not There Original Soundtrack

Columbia

Though Todd Haynes’ his-name’s-not-Bob avant-biopic, I’m Not There, might appeal only to a certain type of Dylan fanatic, its accompanying A-list soundtrack should rope boomers and hipsters alike. Representing a third of the 34 cuts are two house bands, southernwestern collective Calexico and a superdoopergroup, The Million Dollar Bashers, featuring Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, Beck/Tom Waits sideman Smokey Hormel, organist John Medeski, and current Dylan bandleader/bassist Tony Garnier.

With the exception of Sufjan Stevens (who translates “Ring Them Bells” into pastel impressionism) and Sonic Youth (who convert the titular obscurity into a detuned throb), nearly all submit reverent telescopings of the originals. If Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Calexico-backed “Just Like A Woman” is almost too lovely, then Stephen Malkmus and Lee Ranaldo’s “Can’t Leave Her Behind”—performed by Dylan only on a mumbled ‘66 hotel room bootleg—is exacting nonchalance.

Like Haynes’ film, which features only some of these tracks, the narrative is mostly what the listener decides. Not surprisingly, great vocal performances dominate. Willie Nelson channels Dylan’s desiccated warscapes on “Señor (Tales of Yankee Power),” marred only by Calexico collaborator Salvador Duran’s melodramatic Spanish bellow. Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy borrows a Rolling Thunder arrangement (and alternate verses) for “Simple Twist of Fate.” Eddie Vedder even saves “All Along the Watchtower” from decades of blues-rock insults, the Bashers caricaturing Al Kooper/Mike Bloomfield-era Dylan to maximum effect. Some readings are entirely redundant, but many more justify their own existences, a mighty feat for nearly three-dozen Dylan covers.

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