At this point, Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series is the stuff of legend. After 13 volumes, we’ve enjoyed rarities and unreleased B-sides from just about every corner of the Dylan discography. When compared to their studio counterparts, Dylan’s Bootleg recordings are rawer, wilder, and rife with the kind of experimentation that makes him such a perennially mesmerizing artist.
Now, NPR Music is streaming a 10-song sampler from the latest installment of the archival project. More Blood, More Tracks is just that — more cuts from the Blood on the Tracks sessions across New York and Minnesota, and more reasons to return to one of Dylan’s most enduring albums. Blood on the Tracks has a lot to do with heartbreak, and despite radically different arrangements of classics like “Idiot Wind” and “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go,” there’s a lovelorn sadness palpable in almost all of it. The harmonica solo at the start of the gorgeous “Shelter From The Storm (Take 1)” adds a new melodic dimension to another old favorite, and makes for a real highlight among these 10 new versions.
In other Blood on the Tracks news, Suspiria director Luca Guadagnino is reportedly adapting the original album into a movie. The full, six-disc version of More Blood, More Tracks: The Bootleg Series Vol. 14 is out next Friday. Listen to the 10 new songs over at NPR.
