This latest collection of informal recordings by Bob Dylan is a curiosity rather than a revelation, an audio catalog of his original songs recorded as transcriptions from 1962 through 1964. As such, it's surprising that Dylan treated many of the songs as performances, perhaps conscious that anything committed to tape would reflect his ability not just to write, but to sing and play. The "talking blues" numbers are a bit sedate compared to versions you can find elsewhere, but other than that, we are treated to mostly heartfelt renderings with some fragmentary takes, coughs, muffs, and other imperfections scattered here and there. Mostly, Dylan seemed to want to get the songs across meaningfully and he accomplishes this to a great degree, probably without the opportunity for second takes.
There is a broad range of styles represented here, even at this very early stage of Dylan's songwriting development. You may be startled at how adept he is at playing guitar in so many different ways. He's certainly not just strumming along. A few songs even have him at a piano, and although his chops are rudimentary on that particular instrument, the results are unique versions that you won't hear the likes of anywhere else.
This article appears in Nov 18-24, 2010.