Thirty songs on two discs, twelve of them Dylan covers. Trail is a raw career retrospective, collecting soundboard recordings, favorites from live shows and unreleased takes from who knows where over a span of about 20 years. There’s a cut-and-paste feel, with noticeable tape hiss throughout most of it, but when an artist as unpretentious as LaFave shares his behind-the-scenes takes, you accept it in the same spirit.
As Dave Marsh asserts in the liner notes, this is a brave document: When someone is so influenced by a single performer (in this case, Dylan), they often spend their later years covering their tracks, but not LaFave, who unabashedly hangs out his Dylan covers, as well as others by Springsteen, Woody Guthrie, Joe Ely and Buddy Miles, with his originals for all to freely compare. Backed by instrumentation that at times features keyboards, accordion, strings and harmonica, LaFave’s distinctively reedy, bluesy voice always is perfectly accompanied by his tasteful acoustic guitar playing.
Dylan’s “Positively Fourth Street”, “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” and “If Not For You” form the equation that adds up to originals such as the ripping “If You Want to See Me Rock”, “The Perfect Combination” and “Elle’s Song”. The second disc sags in the middle with mid- to no-tempo musings, but even those are ideal for a slow Sunday morning.
