Today’s Random Weekend selection is appropriate for Father’s Day, given the lineage of the featured artist. Happy Father’s Day to my own dad, as well as all of the other fathers out there.
Jakob Dylan put out two solo albums in 2008 and 2010 while The Wallflowers were on hiatus. Both were quiet, largely acoustic folk albums, more like something from Jakob’s dad’s early career than the roots rock of The Wallflowers.
His solo debut, Seeing Things (which features today’s SOTD) is the better of the two. Dylan’s melodic tales of war and poverty sound as if they could have been written a hundred years earlier, and the production is pristine and lovely. His sophomore effort, Women and Country, is more fleshed out musically but the tunes aren’t as strong.
Both records, however, are better than The Wallflowers’ comeback album, Glad All Over, released in 2012. I’m a big fan of the band’s work prior to that release but Glad All Over fell flat.
At this point, I’m rooting for Dylan to break free once again and release another solo album.
Our tug of war has only made me want you more
Steeped in hard luck and doomed to roam
My love is braver than you know
My forefathers, they worked this land
And I was schooled in the tyranny of nature’s plans
Dressed in thunder a cloud came around
Oh, in the shape of a lion a hand came down
Now, damn this valley and damn this cold
Well, take so long to let me know
It’s plant and reap and plow and sow
But tell me, will it grow?
Dig my ditches in the golden sun
I’d be robbing these trains if I could catch me one
Now, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday’s gone
Got me stone cold sober in a drought so long
Boarded mansions and ghost filled yards
There’s a boy in a water tower counting cars
Steel trap open in empty stalls
Now there’s a well worn saddle but the horse is gone
Now, damn this valley and damn this cold
Take so long to let me know
It’s plant and reap and plow and sow
But tell me, will it grow?
(Will it grow?)
Jet black starlit midnight rolls
I am down in the garden where I let you go
Up on the surface the earth looks round
But it’s a godless city of cold flat ground
Now, damn this valley and damn this cold
Take so long to let me know
It’s plant and reap and plow and sow
But tell me, will it grow?
Will it grow?
Will it grow?
Will it grow?
Meet Me In Montauk 
I like his sound. Clearly, the kid inherited talent from the old man.
I like his sound too; and Happy Father’s Day to you!
I really enjoyed this …Now to google his face. 🙂