Together Through Life

Together Through Life has been knocked out relatively quickly over the space of just a few months; accordingly this record exudes spontaneity and light-heartedness. It's standard 12-bar blues, Dylan's guitar accompanied most notably by a nearly ever-present accordion – perhaps a compromise as he files away the trademark harmonica. The sharp-tongued lyricism is still present and correct; likening his wife to Satan on 'My Wife's Home Town' has the proof. The album can even, if you so choose, read as an example of the healing power of music: at the beginning Dylan is found wallowing in the idea there's nothing for him without the love of his woman, by the end of his latest journey he's convinced a change is coming and that, in the end, 'It's All Good'.

It's hard to see Together Through Life grabbing a Dylan disbeliever and turning their world upside down but you suspect this was never the intention anyway. For those simply searching for some old fashioned roots music, this latest chapter in a true legend's career is more than capable of standing up to the influx of bluesmen doing the rounds at the moment.