Various Artists – Duluth Does Dylan
Duluth is a cold place, an industrial port city in decline out on Highway 61, hard on the shore of Lake Superior. It’s not difficult to see why a young coffeehouse performer and college dropout named Bob Zimmerman felt he had to get the hell out of there.
The artist who would be Bob Dylan was born here, raised up the road in Hibbing, and haunted Duluth’s collegiate scene before hitting the road to New York, a new persona and a career. Four decades later, fifteen Duluth bands have given the native son a tribute. Despite a heavy dose of indie cred — having only one band that most folks outside of Duluth may have heard of (Low) and participants recording while “holed up in aging brick buildings, basements and warehouses” — Duluth Does Dylan has decent production values, and most of the interpretations are faithful.
All of the songs are from Dylan’s first decade, roughly 1962-72, and range from the obscure (“Father Of Night”, a jaunty “Country Pie”) to the inevitable (a beery, off-key “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”). Ballyhoo does a Deadhead cover of “When I Paint My Masterpiece;” the rest of the bands range from roots-rock (Father Hennepin, Jamie Ness) to very indie, with quavering or muffled vocals (Mayfly, Black Eyed Snakes).
Some curveballs keep it challenging for the purists, particularly Crazy Betty’s hip-hop/R&B “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”. Low, true to form, closes the set with “Blowin’ In The Wind” as a slow, minimal dirge. As a whole, Duluth Does Dylan is true to the spirit of the writer’s songs and the town’s indie scene.