New Morning

Don't know why this one is called New Morning. Maybe the author spent all night putting this collection together and sat back enjoying the fruit of their labor as a new morning dawned. If so it certainly was a night well spent. The premise of the DVD is nice. We get a smattering of several shows given in the UK over a reasonably condensed period of time. The chapters are stylishly labled and the editing is crisp. It is fun to watch the slightly different vibe that Bob gives off at the various shows. For instance, in the opening cut, Serve Somebody, Dylan almost looks and moves as if it was his '66 tour only he is dressed up in older guy makeup. This in contradistiction to the next tune, Silvio, where D is sorta hunched over his axe and looks as if he feels his age. Talk about wearin' you heart on your sleeve...

A minor complaint is the homogeneity in the texture of the DVD. Each track is carefully edited to provide a neat presentation of the showcased tune with a very similar full body shot of Bob as he puts the song through its paces. The editor has cut and polished each track to an admittedly admirable standard. However bright this gems may be, though, they lose just a little brilliance without the juxtaposing contrast often found in either a complete show or a wide ranging retrospective. This is, however, certainly little more than nitpicking.

Dylan's acoustic solo in Forever Young is hot, and the volume is turned way up. I did like the edit from this brightly colored uplifting acoustic tune, to the starkly cold and grey mood piece Love Sick.

The performances herein are almost universally strong. Lots of energetic, heartfelt, and passionate music. The sound is good and the visuals are generally pleasing. This dvd is a really nice way to sample the late nineties incarnation of live Bob. Highly enjoyable and worthy of four strong stars, even knock, knock, knockin' on that fabled fifth shooting star.

There is an acoustic trailer on this disc of a very unique performance of Gates of Eden. It is hard to place the vintage. Early eighties? If anyone out there knows I'd be curious.

Thanks again to silentype - please be patient, for though it may be true that nothing has been delivered, it has also been said that everybody must give something back for something they get...

This was simply a very pleasant hour watching a very good Dvd.

I have not got much material from this time period, infact i have only 1 Dvd from both 1997 (#D120 New York, NY, Irving Plaza (08-Dec-97) and 1998 (#D449 Glasgow,UK(21-Jun-98)both equally enjoyable.

Four of the tracks used on this Dvd come from the Glasgow gig.
Overall the videos although from the audience are very easy on the eye and the audio quality is very pleasing too.

Highlights for me included all the ones i had not seen before but especially these ones
Silvio (Bornemouth 02-Oct-97),

Forever Young (Newcastle 20-Jun-98 and my personnal favorite

To Ramona (Manchester 23-Jun-98), such a sweet song sang in a sweet way.

There is not a bad song on the Dvd and i think this is the first Dvd i have given 5*****'s to any Dvd.

So In My Humble Opinion it is one that all should have.

Check Trade Board maybe next week for a offer of this as a freebie - so that you can then make your own mind up and then share your thoughts about this excellent Dvd with the rest of us too.