About the Album
Dylan Portraits by Juli Marks
In 1970, Bob Dylan released Self Portrait, his 10th studio album. The album was not what people expected. At the time, he was being called by many “the voice of our generation”, “musical prophet” and “genius”. Instead of trying to live up to these expectations, Dylan put together a remarkable collection of songs reflective of some of his primary influences and inspirations. He recorded over 50 tunes during these studio sessions in Nashville and New York which took place over 11 months. The sessions included many diverse styles; traditional blues, folk, old timey, country, tin pan alley, and gospel, as well as a few songs from contemporary songwriters he admired. He also recorded a handful of originals, several of which were quite “left of center” and atypical for him. His approach to production was also quite unique on this record. Several of the songs contained big, lush arrangements featuring slick studio background vocalists and elaborate orchestration. The original release included 24 songs from these sessions and also included a few live versions of his songs taken from his 1969 set at The Isle of Wright Festival in England. The album was a real “grab bag” of styles and arguably his most diverse album to date.
Self Portrait Art by Bob Dylan
Many of Dylan’s fans did not appreciate this album at the time of its release. It was not what they were hoping for or expecting from the “voice of their generation” as reflected by the infamous opening line to Greil Marcus’ scathing review of this record in Rolling Stone magazine: “What is this shit?” As time has gone on, however, many fans and music lovers have come to appreciate this record as a unique and valuable contribution to his discography.
Album producer, Robert Heirendt shares his story. “I’ve been such a fan of Dylan’s ever since my teenage years when Slow Train Coming was released. I had heard about Self Portrait and how supposedly “awful” it was but never really checked it out until a just a few years ago. One day when I was at our local record store, Clock Tower Records, I saw a vinyl copy of Self Portrait. For some reason it called to me, and I brought it home.
From the first listen I was really surprised by how drawn in I was! Far from being “awful”, I felt that these cover versions of old tunes were really quite soulful. I then ended up exploring the original versions of these songs and through this process was exposed to artists that I was not very familiar with – Hank Snow – Tampa Red – The Davis Sisters and many others…
I got an inspiration that doing a cover/tribute album of this much maligned record would be a fun project. I envisioned it as a place for all of my music projects to come together – my solo work, Tumble, and Boston Ravine. I also loved the idea of bringing together many of my musical friends into one project. I held onto the idea for a few years. In 2019, I started asking artists about collaborating and was thrilled by the response. As the original Self Portrait album was quite an eclectic “grab bag” of styles, the tracks that people contributed also represent a wide array of musical styles. I really love how all of the artists made the songs their own, and I think it all fits together as a musical statement in a beautiful way.” – Robert Heirendt
This compilation album will be released on 6/8/20, the exact 50th anniversary of Dylan’s original release. It is not a track by track cover album, but rather a compilation of original versions of tracks that were recorded by Dylan during these sessions. It’s practically a cover album of a cover album. We hope to bring a new sense of appreciation to this often misunderstood record, called by some “the worst album ever made”.
Tracklist
1. Ben Goldberg & Andrew Stephens – It Hurts Me Too
2. Robert Heirendt – Quinn the Eskimo
3. North Country Blue – Little Sadie
4. Crying Time with Maurice Tani & Henry Salvia – A Fool Such as I
5. Ross Hammond – Railroad Bill
6. Anton Barbeau with Julia VBH – Blue Moon
7. Michael Roe – Send a Message to Mary
8. Mark Dutton – Let It Be Me
9. Flounder – Woogie Boogie (Redux)
10. Boston Ravine – Little Moses
11. The Moore Brothers – Days of ’49
12. Tumble – Wigwam
13. Tom Dalton – Early Morning Rain
14. Juliet Gobert & Homer Wills – I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know
15. Mikail Graham – Time Passes Slowly
16. Scott Weiser – All the Tired Horses
17. Mark Growden – Pretty Saro
Produced by Robert Heirendt
Mastered by Myles Boisen at Headless Buddha Mastering Lab, Oakland, Ca.
Dylan paintings and photo enhancement portraits by Juli Marks
Graphic design by Julia VBH
Web Design by Robert Heirendt
100% of proceeds from Self Portraits will be given to the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, a non profit organization dedicated to supporting unaccompanied children at the US border.