The Basement Tapes

I love the basement tapes, that rogue collection of bootlegs by Bob Dylan & The Band. There are a pair of great books out there, the best being Greil Marcus's The Old Weird America, which explores the connection between the basement tapes and The Anthology of American Folk Music compiled by Harry Smith. More than anything, I think that the basement tapes provides a method for creating new material by a process of sitting around messing with some great old tunes, just playing the music that you like in the hopes that it will inspire you to make something of your own that is just as much fun. That's pretty much what I've tried to do. I also really dug what Howard Fishman was able to do by exploring these underplayed tunes, so I thought I'd give it a try myself.

1. Please, Mrs. Henry

2. Odds & Ends

3. Down In The Flood (Crash On The Levee)

4. Yea! Heavy & A Bottle Of Bread

5. Goin' To Acapulco

6. Million Dollar Bash

7. I Shall Be Released

8. Santa Fe

9. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere

10. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

All songs are by Bob Dylan except #10 which is by Blind Lemon Jefferson.

I realize the sound quality is lousy...