"Blood On The Tracks" - Bob Dylan

I think I would rate Blood On The Tracks as my favourite Bob Dylan album. I'm a huge Dylan fan, so it is not an easy choice. Highway 61 Revisited and John Wesley Harding are right up there. But I would give Blood On The Tracks the edge. It is one of his most emotional albums and is consistently strong.

The album opens with one of Dylan's most perfect compositions, "Tangle Up In Blue". Much has been made about how the songs on this album were influenced by his divorce to his wife, and indeed it does seem to be one of Dylan's most personal and intimate albums. The final three songs on the album are all emotional stunners and are instantly memorable. "If You See Her, Say Hello"deals with a painful separation and a desire to see his former love again, whom he has never forgotten. "Shelter From The Storm" is one of the most subdued but uplifting songs on the album, while the sparse closing track ("Buckets Of Rain") is the most quietly lonely track and a stunning closer. The longest and densest track is the inscrutable tale "Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts" which takes many readings of the lyrics to get the story! The next longest song is one of the most well-known songs on the album, the spiteful "Idiot Wind," featuring lines such as "You’re an idiot, babe, it’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe".

 Blood On The Tracks is a fairly dense album, and one that only improves upon repeated listenings. Be sure to give it a listen sometime.

"Two Steps From The Blues" - Bobby Bland

Two Steps From The Blues is a very influential album and has been a real favourite of mine ever since I bought it at the HMV annex in downtown Montreal during my first year of university in 1998. Having read about the album in some of my favourite books beforehand (i.e. Greil Marcus' Mystery Train and Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music) I had built up lofty expectations for this album. Thankfully I was not let down.

The title track is a stunner and as with the rest of the album, is a marvelous synthesis of down home Blues and smoother Soul. It is the album opener and makes a perfect introduction to a truly epochal album. Possibly the most famous song on the album is the hard-hitting "I Pity The Fool" (yes, I believe that's where Mr. T got it from), a song where Bobby Bland simply can't fathom that someone else was fool enough to fall in love with his used to be. This song has been covered many times, Ann Peebles does a great version.

The two deepest songs on the album are the ethereal and haunting "I'll Take Care Of You" and "Lead Me On".  The latter is the highlight of the album for me.... The song is barely over 2 minutes but is one of the deepest songs I've ever heard. It opens with the immortal lines "You know how it feels, you understand. What it is to be a stranger, in this unfriendly land", Bobby Bland's voice surrounded by an understated but forceful orchestration. The album has its rowdier side as well, such as a song from a few years earlier ("Little Boy Blue") where Bland really cuts loose, as well as "I Don't Want No Woman" (later recorded by Johnny Jenkins on his cult classic Ton Ton Macoute).

Bobby Bland passed away fairly recently, in June 2013. Thankfully I had the chance to see him in concert in January 2003, opening for B.B. King at Place des arts in Montreal.

Yep, those are two steps.