JAKOB DYLAN - WOMEN AND COUNTRY - TIE FOR #11

The latest solo album by Jakob Dylan, Women and Country, was another album that I really enjoyed from 2010. Reuniting with T-Bone ("Him Again") Burnett - who produced The Wallflowers classic Bringing Down The Horse - Dylan went for a more "full" sound than on his solo debut, Seeing Things (produced by Rick "Him Again" Rubin).

Most of the album has a quiet and laid back sound, but there is one notable exception, "Lend A Hand" which has a Tom Waits goes to New Orleans type marching band sound. It's my favorite song on the album, and one of my favorite songs of the year. Other highlights on the album include "Nothing But The Whole Wide World" and "Everybody's Hurting."

It's a bummer that the press seems to have lost interest in Jakob Dylan, and seem to regard him as a '90s artist who is past his prime.  I don't want to make any comparisons to any other artists, but I think that he'll be making great music for the rest of this decade and well beyond that. Don't sleep on this album just because the press has been.

MORE "HELP" FOR ROLLING STONE'S 500 GREATEST

So, once I was done paring down Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs," it was down to 486.  I tried to add 14 more, but I ended up adding almost 100 more songs.  This isn't my definitive list, but it's my job to share important stuff like this with all of you. Ha ha.  In no order at all, here's the rest of the songs on my "remix" which is now at 570 songs and counting.

• A Tribe Called Quest - "Award Tour"
• de la soul - "Ego Trippin' (part 2)"
• Alicia Keys - "No One"
• Fiona Apple - "O' Sailor"
• Ben Harper - "With My Own Two Hands"
• The Wallflowers - "One Headlight" (although the best version of this is the one from the MTV VMA's where they were joined by Bruce Springsteen)
• John Hiatt - "Have A Little Faith In Me"
• Cowboy Junkies - "Miles From Our Home"
• Jamey Johnson - "High Cost Of Living"
• Everclear - "Strawberry"
• Buddy & Julie Miller - "Gasoline & Matches"
• The Replacements - "Bastards Of Young"
• Gaslight Anthem - "The '59 Sound"
• Steve Earle - "The Devil's Right Hand"
• X - "Los Angeles"
• The MC5 - "Kick Out The Jams" (how'd they miss this one?)
• Pearl Jam - "Corduroy"
• Rancid - "East Bay Nights"
• Social Distortion - "I Was Wrong"
• Jane's Addiction - "Mountain Song"
• Nine Inch Nails - "Wish"
• Fugazi - "Repeater"
• Black Flag - "Rise Above"
• Dropkick Murphys - "The State Of Massachusetts"
• Rage Against The Machine - "Sleep Now In The Fire"
• Faith No More - "Midlife Crisis"
• Soundgarden - "Superunknown"
• Primus  -"Those Damned Blue Collar Tweekers"
• Iron Maiden - "Iron Maiden"
• Alice In Chains - "Angry Chair"
• KISS - "Deuce (live)"
• The Raconteurs - "Steady As She Goes"
• Matthew Sweet - "Dinosaur Act"
• The Jessica Fletchers - "Summer Holiday & Me"
• Cocktail Slippers - "Sentenced To Love"
• The Drive-By Truckers - "This Fucking Job"
• Loretta Lynn - "Rated 'X'"
• Lucinda Williams - "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road"
• Emmylou Harris - "I Don't Wanna Talk About It Now"
• Patty Griffin - "Mary"
• Sade - "By Your Side"
• John Legend - "Used To Love U"
• EPMD - "Crossover"
• Gang Starr - "You Know My Steez"
• LL Cool J - "Rock The Bells"
• Nas - "Made You Look"
• Peter Tosh - "You Can't Blame The Youth"
• Fishbone - "Ghetto Soundwave"
• The Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Can't Stop"
• The Afghan Whigs - "Going To Town"
• PJ Harvey - "Long Snake Moan"
• Florence + The Machine - "You've Got The Love"
• The Avett Brothers - "I And Love And You"
• Crowded House - "Distant Sun"
• Living Colour - "Bless Those (Little Annie's Prayer)"
• The Yardbirds - "Heart Full Of Soul"
• Van Halen - "Mean Street"
• Muse - "Uprising"
• Peter Gabriel - "Solisbury Hill"
• Wilco- "Jesus Etc."
• Pete Yorn - "Don't Wanna Cry"
• Kathleen Edwards - "In State"
• Norah Jones - "What Am I To You?"
• David Gray - "The One I Love"
• Rilo Kiley - "Silver Lining"
• Ben Folds - "Landed"
• Duffy - "Stepping Stone"
• Adele - "Chasing Pavements"
• James Hunter - "No Smoke Without A Fire"
• Levon Helm - "When I Go Away"
• Ray LaMontagne - "Three More Days"
• The Black Keys - "I Got Mine"
• My Morning Jacket - "I'm Amazed"
• Wyclef Jean featuring Norah Jones - "Any Other Day"
• Raphael Saadiq - "100 Yard Dash"
• Michael Franti & Spearhead - "Say Hey (I Love You)"
• Mark Ronson featuring Daniel Merriweather - "Stop Me"
• KRS-One, Kanye West, Nas and Rakim - "Classic (Better Than I've Ever Been)" (produced by DJ Premier)
• Common featuring DJ Premier - "The Game"
• N.A.S.A. featuring Kanye West, Santigold and Lykke Li - "Gifted"
• Mary J. Blige - "Be Without You"
• Black Star - "Definition"
• Mos Def featuring Q-Tip and Tash - "Body Rock"
• Talib Kweli - "Going Hard"

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: SINGER-SONGWRITERS

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET I go on the SIRIUS XM channel OutQ. I am a weekly contributor to The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. Tomorrow I'll be talking about some great singer-songwriters, including one of Larry's favorites.  

A while ago, I wrote about James Taylor's tour with Carole King. It turns out that it is one of the hottest tours of the year! In the early '70s, James and Carole shared a backing band and did gigs together.  They actually did a few shows at the Trobadour in L.A. a while back, and have just released an excellent live album from the shows. It's easy to make fun of this and call it boomer soft-rock or whatever.  But James is an incredible songwriter and in my opinion, Carole is even better. She is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - as a "non-performer." For her career as a songwriter for other people (along with her former songwriting partner and ex-husband, Gerry Goffin). I would argue that she should be inducted for a second time, this time as a performer. 

Speaking of Carole King, Sony Legacy has just released The Essential Carole King. It is a bit different than the many other releases in the Essential series, in that one disc is Carole performing her own songs, the other disc features other artists, including Aretha Franklin, Little Eva, The Cookies and Billy Joel, performing her songs.  Before she was a performer, she worked as a songwriter in the Brill Building (Neil Diamond worked there as well). She wrote a lot of great songs for other people: but her own album Tapestry is a stone cold classic. 

A lot of people classify Jackson Browne along with James and Carole: a singer-songwriter who came of age in the late '60s and early '70s who seemed to be the drier next movement after the hippie era. And like James and Carole, he was never part of a band to reunite with.  James and Carole had both done some stripped down and solo tours, and without a band to reunite with, they reunited with each other (and their former backing band). Jackson has also done the stripped down thing in recent years, but for this live album, he reunited with his multi-instrumentalist collaborator David Lindley.  Their live album was recorded on a tour of Spain in 2006, and features some collaborators from Spain. I'm not a huge Jackson fan.  I love his politics, but I'm not totally into his music.  He is one of Larry Flick's favorite artists though. I interviewed Jackson once, and he was very cool.  

Jakob Dylan just released his second solo album, Women & Country.  His first one was produced by Rick Rubin and was stripped down a la double R's productions of Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond. This time around he worked with T-Bone Burnett who produced his most successful album, The Wallflowers' Bringing Down The Horse. Women & Country is great. I think Jakob is always going to be underrated. First of all, there's dad. Second, that Wallflowers album was so big, he isn't likely to get another album that is that popular. But you have me, so you don't need hype!  Trust me, get this album. 

Jack Johnson has just released his latest album, To The Sea, which apparently had one of the best first week sales numbers of 2010.  Of course, that doesn't mean as much as it used to, but good for Jack. I think even he is surprised at how successful he's been.  I've interviewed him, and he seems to be such a good guy. People think he doesn't have any edge to him, but he grew up listening to Fugazi and Metallica.  It's just not his thing to make that kind of music. Anyway, I like a lot of his songs (I don't know if I'd go to a concert, but I've enjoyed seeing him open for other people and at festivals), and I really like his new song, "You and Your Heart." 

Finally, Karen Elson a new artist who took me totally by surprise. I promise to write more about her pretty soon.  I really like her self titled debut album. 

JAKOB DYLAN'S NEW ALBUM

I really dug Jakob Dylan's solo debut, 2008's Seeing Things, produced by Rick Rubin. Now he's about to release his second solo album, Women and Country, due April 6 according to Billboard. This one will be produced by T-Bone Burnett, who produced The Wallflowers' breakthrough album, 1996's great Bringing Down The Horse. Solo artist/New Pornographers singer Neko Case and a singer named Kelly Hogan guest on much of the album, and Jakob plans to tour with them this summer. People get hung up on two things with Jakob Dylan: one, his last name, and the other is that he's kind of an icon of the '90s. Get over it, he is a great songwriter and is making great music today.