| Product Summary | | Label: Cbs/epic/wtg Records | | UPC: 00886975169726 | | Release Date: 4/28/2009 | | Buy.com Sku: 210882521 | | Item#: M4LXL2 | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 25050 | Format:  CD |
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Song Listing
| Disc 1 | | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Beyond Here Lies Nothin | ------ | | 2. Life Is Hard | ------ | | 3. My Wife's Hometown | ------ | | 4. If You Ever Go To Houston | ------ | | 5. Forgetful Heart | ------ | | 6. Jolene | ------ | | 7. This Dream Of You | ------ | | 8. Shake Shake Mama | ------ | | 9. I Feel A Change Comin' On | ------ | | 10. It's All Good | ------ | | Disc 2 | | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Roy Silver: The Lost Interview | ------ |
| 10 new songs including "Beyond Here Lies Nothing," "Life is Hard," and "It's All Good." Deluxe Edition includes a bonus CD of Bob Dylan's "Theme Time Radio Hour," ("Friends & Neighbors" episode), a DVD of "Roy Silver: The Lost Interview," and a Together Through Life collectible poster and sticker.
"...there's a ragged edge to things that wasn't apparent on Modern Times, a rawness - emotional and musical - that separates it from that album..." Allan Jones, Uncut
"...a powerful personal work by a man who still thinks for himself...That it rocks mightily makes the message even more compelling." Michael Simmons, Mojo
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | After two decades of outsourcing the producing and arranging of his records to everyone from Mark Knopfler to Daniel Lanois, Bob Dylan stopped phoning it in in the '00s and began directly shaping their sound and feel. As producer of TOGETHER THROUGH LIFE, he elevates the near-cliche material with a beautifully crafted latticework of breathy border-town accordion and smoky guitar riffs (courtesy of Los Lobos's David Hidalgo and Heartbreaker Mike Campbell respectively), steel guitar, mandolin, and brushed drums. Initially intended as a soundtrack of an Olivier Drahan movie, the album finds a pleasantly off-hand bard building on the wistful romanticism of recent ballads (like MODERN TIMES's "Beyond the Horizon") with a cycle of songs (nine of them co-written with legendary Dead lyricist Robert Hunter) about dreaming, hoping, and good love. Indeed, the change in "I Feel A Change Comin' On" is not of the apocalyptic hard rain variety, but portends a potential tryst as Dylan chimes "life is for love" with uncharacteristic sweetness. Via languid slow burns ("Forgetful Heart"), sensual grooves ("If You Ever Go To Houston"), and loping blues walkarounds ("Jolene"), TOGETHER THROUGH LIFE plays like a great date night in a Texas dancehall--perfect for lovers tired of talking, who just want to grab hold and sway. | | By all accounts, Together Through Life arrived quickly, cut swiftly by Bob Dylan and his touring band in the fall of 2008, surprising the label upon its delivery a couple months later, then rushed into stores in April 2009, just half a year after the release of the monumental archive project Tell Tale Signs. Given the speed of its creation, it fits that the album has a spontaneous, kinetic kick, feeling so alive that it's a little messy, teeming with contradictions, crossed signals, and frayed ends. That liveliness turns Together Through Life into a much lighter affair than its weighty predecessor, Modern Times, which was tinged with doom and had thematic unity, two things missing from this comparatively breezy affair. If Together Through Life is about any one thing, it is -- as its title and cover photo elliptically suggest -- the enduring power of romance, how it provides sustenance and how its absence can make life hard. But all this suggests that Dylan has turned in a meditation on the meaning of life and love here, when its core charm is its very modesty. It's an old-fashioned ten tracks, clocking in at 45 minutes, a simple set of songs co-written with Robert Hunter -- Jerry Garcia's lyricist and previous Dylan collaborator, co-writing the irresistibly jaunty "Silvio" in 1988 -- and delivered without adornment, its clean yet earthy production slyly emphasizing the musical variety here. Sonically, this is right in line with Dylan's 2000s albums, the sound of a well-lubricated traveling band easing into the same chords it plays every night, but this isn't strictly roadhouse rock & roll: Dylan remains fixated on pre-rock & roll American music, emphasizing the blues but eager to croon love-struck ballads. In this context, David Hidalgo's accordion -- which appears so often it soon ceases to be noteworthy -- can suggest a romantic stroll down Parisian streets or a steamy sojourn with Doug Sahm in a Tex-Mex border town, but everything here is recognizably, thoroughly Dylan's mythic picturesque America that stretches from the hazy past to the barbed present. While the music is proudly, almost defiantly, rooted in the past, with Dylan borrowing Willie Dixon's "I Just Want to Make Love to You" wholesale for the riotous "My Wife's Home Town," there's no avoidance of the present here, with Bob even going so far as to turn the omnipresent catch phrase "It's All Good" into a mordantly funny rocker. Dylan's not just aware of the modern-day vernacular, he's wound up with an album that fits the spirit of 2009: it's troubled but hopeful, firmly in favor of love and romance, but if that fails there are always romantic dreams and sardonic jokes to get you through life. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Associated Artists and Works | | Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert... ~ Artists, Various | | Artists, Various | | The String Quartet Tribute To R.E.M. ~ Artists, Various | | Artists, Various | | Artists, Various | | A Nod To Bob ~ Artists, Various | | Artists, Various | | Artists, Various | | Artists, Various | | Positively 12 Stiff Dylans ~ Dylan, Nob | | Four Seasons (The) | | Garcia Plays Dylan ~ Garcia, Jerry | | Positively 12th & K: A Bob Dylan Tribute ~ Greene, Jackie | | Highway 61 (Bob Dylan Tribute B | | Highway 61 Revisited | | Hitchcock, Robyn | | Hitchcock, Robyn | | Howe, Steve | | Howe, Steve | | Positively 12 Stiff Dylans! ~ Nob Dylan & His Nobsoletes | | Red On Blonde ~ O'Brien, Tim | | Pickin' on Dylan: A Tribute ~ On, Pickin' | | On, Pickin' | | Original Soundtrack | | Original Soundtrack | | Original Soundtrack | | Original Soundtrack | | The Bootleg Series, Vol. 7: No Direction Home - Th ~ Original Soundtrack | | Original Soundtrack | | Original Soundtrack | | Original Soundtrack | | Original Soundtrack | | Original Soundtrack | | Original Soundtrack | | Original Soundtrack | | Original Soundtrack | | Pickin' On Dylan ~ Pickin' On | | Positively 12th and K: A Bob Dylan Tribute ~ Valentino, Sal | | The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration ~ Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | A Nod to Bob: An Artists' Tribute to Bob Dylan on ~ Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | The String Quartet Tribute To Bob Dylan ~ Various Artists | | Is It Rolling Bob? A Reggae Tribute to Bob Dylan ~ Various Artists | | Is It Rolling Bob? A Reggae Tribute to Bob Dylan ~ Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Listen to Bob Dylan: A Tribute Album ~ Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Unplugged Tribute To Bob Dylan ~ Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Best of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour [PA] ~ Various Artists | | Various Artists | | Various Artists | | The String Quartet Tribute to Bob Dylan ~ Vitamin String Quartet |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 04/28/2009 | | Original Release Date : 2009 | | Catalog ID : 88697516972 | | Label : Columbia (USA) | | Number of Discs : 2 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00886975169726 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Spin (p.88)
- "TOGETHER THROUGH LIFE resides in that sepia-toned world; the biggest flourish is the omnipresent accordion, courtesy of Los Lobos' David Hidalgo, which only adds to the air of dusty antiquity."Q (Magazine)
(p.116)
- 3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]ts musical touchstone is his radio programme, 'Theme Time Radio Hour.' As on the show, here he's reconnecting with the uncluttered blues-based music he grew up with, the music he loves." Blender (Magazine)
- 5 stars out of 5 -- "[A] strikingly simple -- and strikingly excellent new album....He revels in how banged-up and gruff his voice is with a lifetime of road dust corroding his lungs." Record Collector (magazine)
(p.83)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "Rather than the sophisticated country-jazz of MODERN TIMES, here's a raw rock'n'roll cacophany with a Cajun twist, Los Lobos' David Higaldo driving virtually every song with his accordion." The New Yorker 9 of 10
Bob Dylan has given an interview about his forthcoming album, Together Through Life, and, in a typically playful, oblique way, he addresses questions of periodization and musical meaning: "Some people preferred my first-period songs. Some, the second. Some, the Christian period. Some, the post-Columbian. Some, the Pre-Raphaelite. Some people prefer my songs from the nineties. I see that my audience now doesn't particularly care what period the songs are from. They feel style and substance in a more visceral way and let it go at that. Images don't hang anybody up. Like if there's an astrologer with a criminal record in one of my songs it's not going to make anybody wonder if the human race is doomed... If there are shadows and flowers and swampy ledges in a composition, that's what they are in their essence. There's no mystification. That's one way I can explain it."...I'm reluctant to say much after a single audition, but to my ears it was no letdown after Dylan's recent trilogy of new material -- Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft, and Modern Times...The version I heard ended with the double whammy of "I Feel a Change Coming On" and "It's All Good" -- a pair that may cause listeners to detect a political undertow in this seemingly intimate, out-of-time affair. The chorus of the gorgeously lilting, almost Motown-like "I Feel a Change" could be heard as Obamaesque...On the grimly boogeying "It's All Good," the singer dons a mask of lethal irony, surveying a ransacked social landscape and then adding, after each exhibition of desperation and decay, "It's all good." That smug little phrase has now been destroyed. Dylan's protestations in the latest interview notwithstanding, some people may indeed come away thinking that the human race is doomed, although at least we go out with a crooked smile. - Alex Ross
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