From Another World: A Tribute to Bob Dylan

Nigel Wood

Album
From Another World: A Tribute to Bob Dylan

Artist
Various

Label
Buda Musique

Genre
World Music

This unusual “tribute” takes a selection of Bob Dylan songs as jumping-off points into a variety of other cultures. Project instigator Alain Weber finds resonances and connections a-plenty with Dylan’s oeuvre, and musicians from such widely flung countries as Cuba, Macedonia, Bhutan and Australia perform versions that take the originals into different languages – and, sometimes, into entirely new territory. Some are performed straight (Buena Vista’s Eliades Ochoa gives a powerfully sinuous take on All Along the Watchtower), while Iranian singer Salah Aghili incorporates a Rumi poem into Every Grain of Sand. The Bauls of Bengal, with their mystic minstrel tradition, are a fine choice for Mr Tambourine Man, and the sprightly fiddle-and-drum Tangled Up in Blue (by Musicians of the Nile) is a hoot.