Jakob Dylan

Seeing Things (Columbia)

The rootsy rock Jakob Dylan pasted up with the Wallflowers enabled him to escape comparisons to his father. Seeing Things, his first solo work, will draw him back into that ring even though this Rick Rubin-produced collection demonstrates the younger Dylan is still distinctively his own musician. Like Rubin’s work with Johnny Cash, Seeing Things is mostly guitar and voice, songs stripped to just lyrics and melody, Dylan’s visions charged with war and apocalypse. “Evil Is Alive and Well,” Dylan declares on the set’s opening track, and similar sentiments run through “I Told You I Couldn’t Stop” and “War Is Kind,” while token relief is offered with “Something Good This Way Comes.” With material this naked, a stumble or two is expected, but Seeing Things possesses enough newfound emotion to make even Bob Dylan proud. (2:30pm, AT&T stage.)

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This article appears in September 26 • 2008.

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