Elvis Costello, Jim James, Marcus Mumford, and a couple of there lesser luminations are joining together to help T Bone Burnett add music to Bob Dylan lyrics from around the time of the Basement Tapes where Dylan must have been on speed because he seemed to be writing a masterpiece between waking and the morning cig and coffee to kick off with every day than nonstop till he went to sleep.
The concept is not a million miles away from the Dylan mentor Woody Guthrie’s Mermaid Avenue, where Wilco and Billy Bragg wrote music to great lost Woody Guthrie lyric. With one major difference. Woody was dead and the last time I looked Dylan is more than capable of writing his own music, thanks very much. I might add that in the year 20104, Dylan is much much better than any of the aforementioned songwriters so what the hell is the concept here?
Bloody Burnett. I am so tired of this guy, there isn’t a thing he does I approve of any more. That interminable Llewyn Davis gig at the Town Hall comes to mind for one thing. I blame the Coen Brothers, it all delves from the O Brother Where Art Thou, where he took Harry Smith’s work and put his name on it.
Here is the contactmusic.com story: “Elvis Costello and Marcus Mumford have signed up to help music producer T Bone Burnett turn lost Bob Dylan lyrics into songs for a new tribute album. My Morning Jacket star Jim James and Rhiannon Giddens of Carolina Chocolate Drops have also joined the project. Lost On The River: The New Basement Tapes is set for release this autumn (14) to coincide with a new documentary called Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued, directed by Sam Jones. The lyrics come from Dylan’s 1967 Basement Tapes sessions.“
