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Willie Nile’s self-composed material hasn’t always measured up to his impassioned performances, so an album of cover material was probably inevitable. Still, he couldn’t have chosen a more fitting source of inspiration than he does on Positively Bob: Willie Nile Sings Bob Dylan.
That said, it’s more than a little brave of Nile to tackle such familiar numbers such as “The Times They Are A’Changin’” and “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall.” Willie’s voice, less rough and nasal than the author’s but suitably weathered nonetheless, is a stable point of reference, though, and with guitars like a clarion call on the refrain(s), hearing those numbers reminds how remarkably relevant they remain in this day and age of divisiveness. The same goes for “Blowin’ In The Wind:” its inclusion strongly suggests that, in co-producing with Stuart Lerman, Willie was purposeful in his choosing such socially-conscious numbers as a means to impress his own stamp, not just on individual numbers, but this collection as a whole.
Notwithstanding all the familiar tunes comprising Positively Bob, Nile certainly personalizes his choice of the comparatively obscure selections here. In its original recording from 1981’s Shot of Love, “Every Grain of Sand” is one of Bob’s most emotionally articulate composition. Nile renders it passionately here in a comparably simple arrangement, with acoustic guitar at the foundation. Recorded in 1975 but never released until the Biograph archive collection in 1985, the deceptively somber “Abandoned Love” is of a piece with that number, one of many hidden gems of Dylan’s that deserve wider attention, so for Willie to include it, in such a carefully-wrought rendition is a sign of admiration from one songwriter to another.
Willie Nile’s greatest homage on Positively Bob, however, may be in tribute to Dylan’s latter-day band(s), personnel of which ensembles has remained remarkably stable, especially these last two decades. Thus, it’s no coincidence that the unity of Nile’s own accompanists here lends authority and power to the imagery of songs like “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” (even if the tune’s tongue-in-cheek!). As guitarists Matt Hogan and James Maddock lead the charge on “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” the pleasure is almost equal in following them or the rhythm section of bassist Johnny Pisano and Aaron Comess. And it becomes readily apparent too that band members including Pisano andMaddock are hard-pressed not to sing along, as they do with full-throated gusto, especially when joined on “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” by, notably, one Leslie Mendelson.
That selection is such an astute move it more than makes up for relatively minor lapses like that which occurs on “Love Minus Zero/No Limit,” where Willie Nile’s voice falls into a mimicry of the famous vocal caricature of the man who wrote them. But even here, his engagement with the material, combined with empathetic musicianship, turns Positively Bob into an absolutely joyous exercise in the sensitive interpretation of truly great songs.
