This time the focus is on the multiple Grammy award-winning album Time Out Of Mind, originally released in 1997.

Dylan - Fragments (The Bootleg Series Vol. 17) - Discogs Bob Dylan - Fragments (The Bootleg Series Vol. 17) - Discogs

At times, it can feel overwhelming – to the casual fan, knowing where to start can be an intimidating experience. But Dylan was not happy; he has self-produced since then, and it is no surprise that the Lanois influence is less evident on the remixed album, though it remains a singular work: defiant, intriguing, moving – a man confronting life’s vicissitudes in a manner only Bob Dylan can.

A fifth unreleased performance, Dylan’s interpretation of “The Water is Wide,” a traditional folk song of Scottish origin (and spiritual precursor of “Highlands,” Time Out of Mind‘s epic closer) opens Disc Two. As the ’90s progressed, he started writing again, jotting down lyrics with a fervor he hadn’t experienced in some time. Recording for Time Out of Mind took off in earnest in January 1997, when Dylan moved the sessions to Criteria Studio in Miami and the studio ensemble was expanded to encompass a mix of all-star session players and members of Dylan’s touring band including Bucky Baxter (acoustic guitar, pedal steel), Duke Robillard (guitar, electric Gibson L-5), Robert Britt (Martin acoustic, Fender Stratocaster), Cindy Cashdollar (slide guitar), Tony Garnier (bass guitar, upright bass), Augie Meyers (Vox organ combo, Hammond B3 organ, accordion), Jim Dickinson (keyboards, Wurlitzer electric piano, pump organ), and drummers Jim Keltner, Brian Blade, and David Kemper.

Fragments - Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997): The

Grey cover; beige, blue, grey, brown and purple Columbia retro inner sleeves; grey-blue Columbia retro labels. It is akin to 'Cold Irons Bound’ and ‘Love Sick' and the burn-it-all-down of ‘Standing In the Doorway’, though a truer old-style blues than any of them. But it remains a great irony that such a collection of songs so focused on age and the passing of time was written immediately before such a serious episode in Dylan’s life. Dylan’s Mexicali-blues-ridden voice, with his Guthrie intonation and his clear joy in spinning out the story that sounds like it came from well before Modern times, and in the words themselves and the tune, is such a pleasure to hear.Recording for Time Out of Mind took off in earnest in January 1997, when Dylan moved the sessions to Criteria Studio in Miami and the studio ensemble was expanded to encompass a mix of all-star session players and members of Dylan’s touring band including Bucky Baxter (acoustic guitar, pedal steel), Duke Robillard (guitar, electric Gibson L-5), Robert Britt (Martin acoustic, Fender Stratocaster), Cindy Cashdollar (slide guitar), Tony Garnier (bass guitar, upright bass), Augie Meyers (Vox organ combo, Hammond B3 organ, accordion), Jim Dickinson (keyboards, Wurlitzer electric piano, pump organ), and drummers Jim Keltner, Brian Blade, and David Kemper.