Dylan "sings" Sinatra

Y'all might wanna go back and give the new Dylan another listen. It's really good. His singing is much better than expected. -- in fact, he actually can still sing and sing pretty well. Big surprise. Saw him in Charlottesville a few years ago and it was rough, despite Charlie Sexton on guitar. The new songs are very moody and subdued but after a few playings of the CD they begin to stick in your head. Probably wouldn't work well in festival setting. I'm gonna see him in Richmond at the old Mosque theater next month, hoping he doesn't disappoint!

came here expecting to find forum founder dylan had dont some bad sinatra recordings. was extremely disappointed...

Objectively speaking, Dylan never had a good voice. We liked it back in the day but it fit the character of the songs he wrote--and the fact that the thousands of covers, all sung differently, are so great is the tribute to his songwriting--not to his voice.
And he didn't play guitar well either. Any coffee house musician can duplicate it.
Now that his somewhat distinctive but not-that-special voice has faded with age, it's not that we don't like it now, it's that we miss what it was.
And isn't that what happens as we continue to trot out old stars who do not have the chops any more? Aren't we usually--and the majority of the ticket buyers for sure--looking for a rerun of the old days, not something new?

The smart ones work back-up into the act, hopefully not being obvious about it. When I saw Furthur 2 years ago, it was obvious that Phil and Bob needed to have the "chorus" behind them (vocals and instruments). John Lee Hooker was really good at maintaining stage presence but handing over the heavy lifting to younger talent.

At Lockn, Willie failed because he was solo; Taj Mahal and Del (himself) both did well b/c they had support; Gregg could never have pulled off that show and even required the others to go into damage control. Petty worked b/c he didn't try to be the Golden Throat of 1981.
We've mentioned how now that New Riders have lost the distinctive voice, they aren't a show like they used to be.

Prine sounds a lot different from his debut in c1972 and he was what, 19? But his different voice works with his different music although frankly, if he started his career 5 years ago the voice he has now, I don't think he'd draw the crowd or attention.

I always assumed he sang that way on purpose, so people would actually listen to the words. Nashville Skyline proves he could sing if he wanted to. Not opera, perhaps, but he could carry a tune.

Not someone I'm really rooting for, but if he were to get booked, I'd attend his set just like I did Willie's. For those of us unfortunate enough to have been born too late for the first go around for some of these artists, bucket lists are about more than great performances.