Bob Dylan’s ‘Trouble No More – The Bootleg Series Vol. 13/1979-1981’ Covers Most Misunderstood Phase (ALBUM REVIEW)

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The overtly religious phase of Bob Dylan’s career may in fact be its most misunderstood phase and that’s saying something given the controversy this man’s stirred up over the years. Yet the period chronicled on Trouble No More – The Bootleg Series Vol. 13/1979-1981 contains some of the Nobel Laureate’s finest recordings and most enduring, heartfelt songs, dual realities somewhat hard to grasp at the time they happened.

There’s much to recommend a discriminating path through this material. Even in the form of the two-CD package (actually the first two discs of a larger box set including a book and a DVD documentary), the same preconceptions may dog the processing of the work(s) as originally issued. Still, hearing the most outstanding songs in their proper context, either in the form of live concert recordings or outtakes, makes a crucial difference: as with like “Covenant Woman,” it is nothing less than remarkable how different (and meaningful) so many of these songs now sound. In fact, some of the most notable but often overlooked numbers of Dylan’s–in the broadest possible sense, not just within this interval of his history– bring this second compact disc to a dramatic conclusion.

Originally only released as the b-side of a single, “The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar” is a rip-snorting blues shuffle underpinning an account of apocalypse personal and universal: guitarist Steve Ripley should receive enormous credit for the guitar work with which he leads the charge here. “Caribbean Wind” is one of Bob Dylan’s most vividly reflective pieces of writing and even in this rehearsal take with pedal steel, it’s arranged and played with all the lucid imagination of the composition itself (and its previously-released version on Biograph). And, in contrast to the dogmatic attitude that afflicted much of the Nobel Laureate’s writing during this period of his career (see “Ain’t No Man Righteous, No Not One”), the author sings “Every Grain of Sand” as it should be sung, simply and straightforwardly, thereby most effectively communicating the humility he intends.

It’s been said that Bob Dylan’s live performances in the 1979-1981 period are as fiery in their own way as those in that vaunted time during which he toured with the Hawks, née The Band, released as The 1966 Live Recordings. Comparing the concert recordings of Trouble No More with last year’s vault package(s), it’s well nigh impossible to argue that point. But the unrelenting stubbornness of Dylan’s mindset as he wrote, sang and sermonized via songs like the heretofore unreleased “Ain’t Gonna Go to Hell for Anybody,” finds an anchor in his band: including, at various points, drummer extraordinaire Jim Keltner and guitarist Fred Tackett (now of Little Feat), the measured elegance of the ensemble(s) contrast with their fiery leader and thus only compress and thereby heighten the overall intensity.

Perhaps that’s why these last two archive packages were scheduled in sequential order. The Bootleg Series Vol. 13/1979-1981 no doubt reminds what an acquired taste this chapter of Bob Dylan’s story may remain, but as a veritable treasure trove from his vault, this release may very well be the key to understanding and enjoying this particular fruit of his creativity on its own terms.