How Bob Dylan’s Forgotten ‘Basement Tapes’ Was Salvaged and Kept Alive by a British-American Musical Supergroup

Bob Dylan is and always has been writing, writing, writing. Writing so much, that he himself doesn’t have the time nor the space to record and feature all of his songs in his own catalog. Hence, the man has gifted a plethora of his songs to artists such as Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, Michael Bolton, and numerous others. The man just has poetry flowing out of his ears, and it would be a shame to see it go to waste.

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However, one time a set of his songs nearly did. In 1967, Bob Dylan once wrote and entire album worth of songs, though, seemingly never tried to record it. That being so, the collective songs lived in obscurity for nearly 50 years, but famed producer, T-Bone Burnett made sure that didn’t continue. In 2014, Burnett put together a group of musicians to record Dylan’s vaulted songs and titled the album, Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes.

Bob Dylan’s Music Came Back From The Dead

T Bone Burnett has produced for Elvis Costello, Elton John, John Mellencamp, Allison Kraus, Robert Plant, and for many so many others. Given his track record, it was seemingly not too difficult for Burnett to acquire these songs, find the talent, and produce a full-length album from these previously lost Bob Dylan tracks, Furthermore, the product sold itself, so, that also surely helped as well.

Regardless, in 2014, Burnett recruited and invited some of the greatest folk musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries to Capitol Records to reshape and record these highly sought-after Dylan songs. The musicians who accepted Burnett’s invitation were Marcus Mumford, Elvis Costello, Jim James, Taylor Goldsmith, and Rhiannon Giddens. Consequently, the super-group known as The New Basement Tapes was formed.

The album was an entirely collaborative effort, as all the musicians took turns playing instrumentals and swapping lead vocals. The full-length album features a whopping 15 songs, and impressively, Burnett and company recorded and cut all 15 songs in just two weeks.

The New Basement Tapes haven’t released any other music nor played live performances since the album’s release, and they seemingly never will. This, and for the sake of Bob Dylan, was a one-time thing. Regardless, the songs now exist and have and surely will be played for more than one time. In his prototypical fashion, Dylan didn’t speak to the media on the matter. So, there is no way to know what he thought about the album. Nonetheless, he surely is grateful for his work continually existing on the airwaves.

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