Bob Dylan Shadow Kingdom 2023

This new Bob Dylan record is an odd entry in the catalog, and a good one in most ways. The studio recording was used as the soundtrack to the "concert" film Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan by Alma Har'el. It was recorded in early 2021 with a drummer-less band featuring Don Was, T-Bone Burnett, Greg Leisz, Jeff Taylor, Doug Lacy, and Tim Pierce.The arrangements are acoustic, the songs are from Dylan's catalog, originally released between 1965 and 1989, with one new instrumental, the lovely Sierra's Theme that closes the album. 

The arrangements are all very different from their original versions, most of them strikingly so. Some of the songs fare better in these new arrangements than others, but the approach is admirable and certainly more interesting than a simple re-recording of past material. The arrangements are generally sparse, and feature accordion on almost all tracks. Dylan plays harmonica quite a bit, and the band is loose and casual sounding. Nothing is "thrown off", but some of it is meant to sound that way. Dylan's singing is quietly up front and very expressive, especially since he doesn't have to sing "over" the music. 

The set opens with When I Paint My Masterpiece, and it takes a while to realize it's the same song. That happens quite a few times on the earliest work such as Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I Go Mine), Queen Jane Approximately, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues, and Pledging My Time. There are versions of To Be Alone With You (Nashville Skyline), What Was It You Wanted (Oh Mercy), The Wicked Messenger and I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (John Wesley Harding), and an especially poignant Forever Young, one of several standouts.

Compared to most legacy artists, Dylan continues to find new approaches while refusing to do the same thing. During the eighties and most of the nineties, that produced mostly disappointing results, while more recently it has produced some great records. I don't know if this is essential Dylan, but if you think any of his work in the last twenty years is essential, then you should at least hear this one.