In the 21st Century, Dylan had created a new way of looking at and making albums that was really working for him. Instead of trying to crank out a new record every year, he would wait 3 – 5 years until he had enough originals ready and wouldn’t have to rely on covers or co-writers. Instead of dealing a bunch of guest stars he would just use his semi-anonymous touring band. And instead of butting heads with hotshot record producers, he would just record the albums himself (albeit under the unnecessary pseudonym Jack Frost). There was no point in trying to chase trends or score another big hit. No matter how good his records were, they were only going to sell so many. And no matter how bad they were, the faithful were still going to buy them anyway. So he might as well make the records he wants in the way he wants to make them.

The first of these albums, Love & Theft, had the dubious distinction of being released on September 11th, 2001. It was a modest album and a moderate success compared to the previous record, Time Out Of Mind, but it sounded like Dylan was having fun again. Given the gap between albums and Bob’s recent health scare, critics were loathe to be too harsh on any of these records, for fear that he would die and it would be his last.

This was followed in 2006 by Modern Times, a truly ironic title as the album seemed to completely ignore the present in favor of the past… except for an odd shout-out to Alicia Keyes. The next album came out relatively quickly, just 3 years later. Together Through Life was not as well received as it felt like Bob was trodding a well-worn path by this point. Plus, the use of Robert Hunter as a a co-writer, and adding Tom Petty’s Mike Campbell and Los Lobos’s David Hidalgo to the usual musicians on the record started to smack of his Down In The Groove days. In fact, the most distinctive thing about Together Through Life (which came into being as an extension of the soundtrack to the otherwise forgettable Renee Zellweger film, My Own Love Song) was the prominence of Hidalgo’s accordion. It is utterly ubiquitous on that album.

Bob’s last album of original material appeared in 2012. It was received much more warmly than it’s predecessor, if only because there was a Xmas album that came out in-between, making everyone grateful that Bob was writing his own tunes again. However, the fact that the title of this album, Tempest, mirrors that of Shakespeare’s last play had led many to speculate (or worry) that this would be his final album of new material.

It was not his final album period, as Bob still had one more curve ball up his sleeve as we will see next week.