The task at hand was enough to make even the most self-assured songwriter wither in excruciating insecurity: Set to music assorted lyrics and poetry by Bob Dylan from 1967 — a box of the music legend’s handwritten texts dating back to his infamous refuge with The Band in Saugerties, New York had at long last been unearthed — and record the songs for a new album. Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued tells the story. Directed by Sam Jones, the documentary (which premiered late last year on Showtime and is now available on DVD and Blu-ray from Eagle Rock Entertainment) chronicles and contextualizes the making of the 2014 LP, Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes, for which producer T-Bone Burnett recruited a select group of artists — Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Marcus Mumford (Mumford & Sons), Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Rhiannon Giddens, and Elvis Costello — to rise to the challenge.
The backstory of The Basement Tapes is adeptly underscored throughout, not least of all with new and incisive commentary from Bob Dylan himself, whose reflections overshadow the documentary’s narrative much like his songwriting overshadows the efforts these musicians are shown to make in composing music to his words. Indeed, what begins as a relatively informal songwriting workshop in due course evolves into an intense, often intimidating endeavor as everyone involved at some point finds their talents being tested beyond their comfort zones. The very idea of making an album that in any way shares some piece of history or perspective with one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most mythologized episodes had to have thrown them all for a mind-boggling loop on some level. Even Burnett, whose own storied career includes a stint as guitarist on Dylan’s 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue, acknowledges the surrealism at play. “The chance to collaborate with a 27-year-old Bob Dylan, now, with 50 years of hindsight,” he says with a modest, nervous grin, “was... interesting.” Whether the songs these artists brought to life compare to the insouciant, never-intended-for-release performances on The Basement Tapes is beside the point, really. The album has more than enough highlights — particularly from Giddens (“Lost on the River #20”) and James (“Down on the Bottom”) — to stand on its own. That, in the end, is what this film illustrates and affirms the most.
Downtime is hard to come by for a band as on the rise as Dawes. Since the release in June of their sophomore album, Nothing Is Wrong, the Southern California roots-rockers have maintained a relentless presence on the road, sharing bills with the likes of Alison Krauss & Union Station, Jackson Browne, and Bright Eyes, among others. The band is currently on a co-headlining tour with Blitzen Trapper, with upcoming dates scheduled through the end of the year.
The consistency with which they perform has not only helped the band to further hone its chops on the concert stage, but in the recording studio as well. In fact, Dawes had logged nearly two years of touring before recording Nothing Is Wrong, and as lead vocalist, guitarist, and principal songwriter Taylor Goldsmith recalls, the album couldn’t help but reflect that experience. “The songs were written based on our live shows, because we’d been playing so much when they were all written,” he says. “The whole thing was done right after a tour, right before another tour.”
With their earthy, laid-back mood and thoughtful lyrics, the songs have a homespun quality that harkens back to the early ‘70s singer/songwriter phenomenon concentrated in Laurel Canyon where, incidentally, the band — rounded out by Taylor’s brother Griffin Goldsmith (drums) along with Wylie Gelber (bass) and Tay Strathairn (keyboards) — today calls home.
Goldsmith writes the songs by himself on the acoustic guitar, including the harmony parts. “Then I bring it to the band,” he explains, “and we all kind of arrange, figure out the feel and the tempos and the dynamics, that sort of thing, all together.” From loose and jangly tracks like “Time Spent in Los Angeles” and “The Way You Laugh” to the brooding lament that is “So Well,” the collective effort paid off in a big way, culminating with one of the best albums of 2011. And so if Dawes has to yet to hit its stride, it’s certainly on the right path. “Our ambition is to develop a real catalog,” Goldsmith says, looking ahead, “to be the kind of band — even if it’s not huge, world stardom or anything like that — that just has a log of material; to be able to say we have 15 to 20 albums worth of songs. Those are always the bands I fall in love with the most.”
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