Bob Dylan – The Drifting Cowboy Band Review

Bob Dylan is no stranger to the cowboy life – and not just because he seems to spend much of his time on the road. His brushes with Sam Peckinpah for Pat Garrett and Billy the Kidd, the Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door track which spawned from it and his love for the American songbook paint Dylan as a man tied to the Old West. His works across a sixty-year career have flashes of the country aesthetic which would be dominated more by Glen Campbell and Johnny Cash during this period. The Drifting Cowboy Band, an exceptional compilation proving those keen links between Dylan and the spurs of the past lives on as a wonderful collection of performances from 1997 and 1998. 

Love for Dylan had boomed following the release of Time Out of Mind. A refreshed and revitalised Dylan… you have heard it all before. Everyone has accepted Time Out of Mind as the turning point for the Dylan we have now – endless cover albums and all. The Drifting Cowboy Band serves as an essential collection of covers from this post-release high and does well to document how Dylan dealt with the profound new interest in his work. Opener Shake Sugaree has a Desolation Row swing to it. A couple of Dylan originals make it through and the refinement of Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door opens some heartbreaking realities. Reflective and opportune moments dragged from the summer of ‘98. We sit and churn over thoughts on a period often referred to as a reawakening of interest in Dylan but this collection is much more than a signal of this rise in popularity – it is the man giving himself the once-over and being proud of a catalogue of work which still, partly, goes unheard.  

Bringing out Friend of the Devil, one of the many Grateful Dead covers littering the Dylan live performances is a real treat. He adds much to this with his acoustic trembling and the backing vocals just in earshot as the percussion drives it back again. This back-and-forth sounds closer to warfare than anything comfortable. But in these performances is a relaxed appeal from a musician enjoying his rightful return to the spotlight. I’ll Not Be a Stranger sounds rightfully triumphant. Dylan is no longer a stranger to the sold-out shows, those in attendance sound moved by this collection of acoustic wonders. They all have the same feel, captured brightly and brilliantly by Ballad of a Thin Man. Dylan is not in his muttering, stagnant phase any longer – Supper Club highlights the strokes of fatigue on the head of an artist working away, trying to find another hit.  

Dylan had, at this point, found his strike at notoriety again and deservedly so. The Drifting Cowboy Band serves as an exceptional collection of live pieces from this time. There is a shift in the air, the crowd is aware of it and so too is Dylan. Experience takes to the stage and is galvanized by successful recordings trickling out in the interim between shows. Time Out of Mind would serve as a permanent shift for Dylan – whose period in the recording wilderness was up. The Drifting Cowboy Band is a neat blur of established classics and a few heartfelt cover pieces. Closing track Restless Farewell serves as an exceptional explainer for this piece. Dylan was not ready to head off into the sunset with his back catalogue, the restless appeal of the stage still pulled him in and his recording studio efforts were back on the table, ruminating and wonderful as ever.