Jakob Dylan and The Gold Mountain Rebels

http://www.jakobdylan.com/

On Seeing Things, Jakob Dylan's first-ever solo album, the songs make a listener sit up and take notice. They are spare, unblinking visions, stripped to the bone, full of dread and darkness one minute and spirited optimism the next. After five albums as the leader of the platinum-selling, Grammy-winning band the Wallflowers, Dylan reveals a striking and powerful new approach to his work.

Inspiration arrived when he went on tour opening for T-Bone Burnett. Dylan had only his Wallflowers material from which to draw, but playing those compositions alone on an acoustic guitar led to a revelation. The rest of the album was written over the next few months, at which point Dylan played them for Rick Rubin, who had recently become the head of Dylan's new label, Columbia Records. Rubin's support extended down to the location of the sessions—most of the album was recorded in the producer's Hollywood home.

The lyrics of these songs return again and again to visions of apocalypse and war. Asked if this imagery is a result of the times we live in, Dylan allows that the outside world is an influence, but he is not trying to write actual narratives.

More than anything, songs like “All Day and All Night” hearken back to the timeless language of American roots music. Though Dylan has often spoken of more modern bands like the Clash as his greatest inspiration, he asserts that with these songs, he was aspiring to the majesty and the mystery of the country blues masters.

But there's nothing one-dimensional about Seeing Things; it is also marked by the joy found in such songs as “Something Good This Way Comes.” Dylan explains, “People might sometimes listen to my songs and think I'm depressed, but I'm really not. There's always been hope and humor in what I write.”