Bob Dylan
Album: Folk Singer - Humdinger
Label: Smith & Co
Tracks: 45
Website: http://www.bobdylan.com

At first, I wasn't sure why this new Dutch compilation of (very) early recordings by Bob Dylan had been issued. Not that its quality is poor: far from it. And it has other positive attributes too: it contains a considerable proportion of not-otherwise-easily-available material, and it's really good value for money (two well-filled CDs, lasting a total of over 2½ hours and retailing at a budget-price).

On the (comparative) downside, no fewer than 13 of the 45 tracks are taken straight from Dylan's first (eponymous) Columbia LP, which most avid Dylan devotees (even many casual Dylan admirers) will already own. The rest are live recordings from an assortment of sources, variously dating from between July 1961 (Hootenanny Special) and October 1962 (Gaslight Café).

These performances are predominantly of traditional material interspersed with standards from the country-blues repertoire of the time (Leadbelly, Guthrie, Gary Davis, Howlin' Wolf, Big Joe Williams, Robert Johnson), and quality-wise they range from the way-better-than-respectable to the extremely-good-indeed. Recording quality is also pretty consistently good too, none of the tracks being at all unacceptable or unlistenable. Together these recordings paint a well-rounded picture of the first year or so of Dylan's career as a professional musician in the highly creative environment of New York City, wearing his influences prominently, sure, but none the worse for that - indeed, showing just how strong and passionate his performances were even at that stage, and how well he'd mastered interpreting his musical heritage, while also giving the listener substantial pointers to the salient inspirations, features, directions and high points of his own songwriting that were to follow. Almost by the way, the compilation includes Dylan's early renditions of some of his own compositions Ballad Of Hollis Brown, Don't Think Twice, The Death Of Emmett Till, Hard Times In New York Town, Man On The Street, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall and Rocks And Gravel - not all of which would make it onto official album releases, of course.

OK, so one track (Acne, a slice of throwaway you-had-to-be-there hilarity) finds Dylan joined by Ramblin' Jack Elliott, while another (Mean Old Southern Railroad) doesn't even feature a Dylan vocal (he plays a mean old harmonica while Danny Kalb sings) - but these recordings are all worth having, and even some fairly hardcore Dylan aficionados won't have heard all of them before. In fact, anyone who thought themselves allergic to Dylan might find a mind-change comin' on when they sample this set, for it proves just how potent a force Dylan was in his formative years, in which regard they'll find this splendid collection something of a revelation.

David Kidman