From Another World: a tribute to Bob Dylan
Various Artists

We say: World musicians pay their respects to the Dylan back catalog, with mixed results.

This wide-ranging collection of Dylan covers kicks off with an offering from Cuba: Eliades Ochoa's take on "All Along the Watchtower." Not that you'd really know it, as the tune has morphed into a bolero, and the wordy Dylan lyric, translated into even wordier Spanish, makes for an awkward scan with the melody. Much as I like Ochoa's work with Cuarteto Patria and, of course, Buena Vista Social Club, I have to confess that this version doesn't really work for me. What of even more obscure pairings then: Dylan covers by Bengali Baul singers, Burmese musicians, and Balkan brass bands?

It's a pretty odd collection. For a start, there are two instrumental versions of "I Want You": the former by Burmese musicians is delightful — all wooden percussion and trilling flutes, like music for a cartoon animation; the latter, by a Korean trio, mysterious and inscrutably Far Eastern. The other instrumental, "Rainy Day Woman #12&35" by the Kocani Orkestar from Macedonia, works well too, but then it is perhaps not too much a stretch when you consider that the original Blonde on Blonde version made use of a New Orleans marching band. Of the vocal tracks, "Mr Tambourine Man" performed by Purna Das Baul and Bapi Das Baul from Bengal, is actually quite charming with its riffing banjo and light-hearted vocal, and there's even a hint of the original tune too (not something that could always be said of Dylan himself in some of his live performances). In contrast, Taraf de Haidouks race thru "Corrina Corrina" with barely a hint of the earlier version recorded by His Bobness.

From Romania we go to Egypt, where the Musicians of the Nile take on "Tangled Up In Blue." It sounds passionate and driven, albeit a very distant (and unrecognizable) relative of the original. No doubt most of the original is somewhat lost unless you speak Hungarian. Oddly, this version of the time-worn anthem speeds up quite dramatically half-way thru before ending up as a sort of bar-room sing-along — very strange. One artist who does stick closely to the script is Lhamo Dukpa from Bhutan, but her nine-minute-long acapella rendition of "With God on Our Side" is probably too much unaccompanied foreign language singing for most of us to take in one sitting. 02/13/14 >> go there