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.

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.