Bob Dylan’s new collection of outtakes and rarities, “Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased, 1989-2006” (Sony), is an object lesson in the oddness of modern record distribution. In addition to the basic two-disk version, which has twenty-seven songs, there is a deluxe edition that includes an extra CD with twelve more songs and a hardcover book with photographs of Dylan singles. The week before the record’s official release, the two-disk version of the album was streamed in its entirety on NPR’s Web site. A record company that doesn’t know whether to charge extortionate prices or give music away? Telltale signs indeed.
However the pricing and distribution issues shake out, in the end, it’ll come down to the music, and there’s plenty of it here. This isn’t a comprehensive portrait of Dylan’s recent decades, but it is, like his eccentric memoir, “Chronicles,” a portrait nonetheless. The Dylan of “Tell Tale Signs” is rooted in the prewar blues and country of the Mississippi Delta, within spitting distance of Hinds County (the birthplace of Charley Patton, the inspiration for Dylan’s “High Water”) and Hazlehurst (the birthplace of Robert Johnson, whose “32-20 Blues” is represented here in a sprightly acoustic outtake). - complete article
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