In a career that now spans some 20 years, New Brunswick’s Jessica Rhaye has firmly established herself as one of this region’s most accomplished singer-songwriters.
Her music has earned several Music New Brunswick Awards, as well as multiple East Coast Music Award nominations and a Canadian Folk Music Award nomination.
But for her latest project, Rhaye has opted to put her pen down and devote an entire album to the music of another singer-songwriter, one who has served as an inspiration to her and countless other artists for several decades now – Bob Dylan.
“Just Like a Woman – Songs of Bob Dylan” features nine songs from Dylan’s voluminous catalogue spanning a period of over 30 years, from some of his earliest recordings to offerings from the 1970s and ’80s.
When you devote an entire record to the music of another artist, especially an artist as universally revered as Dylan, you’re taking a risk because fans will eat you alive if they don’t think you treated the music with the respect they believe it deserves.
But they need not be concerned here.
While they’ve taken some liberties, Rhaye and her band, the Ramshackle Parade, have served the music and the man behind it very well.
And anyone who’s followed Rhaye’s career would expect no less of her.
“I grew up listening to Bob Dylan in my parent’s home” Rhaye says in a blurb about the record. “I remember lying in the back of my parent’s station wagon on the way to Judo class, listening to my Dad’s Bob Dylan tape cassettes, daydreaming of the images conjured by those lyrics.”
When she began incorporating Dylan songs into her live act, her fans’ reaction was immediate and positive.
Fun Facts
- Jessica Rhaye’s band, the Ramshackle Parade, features the assorted and sundry talents of Chris Braydon, electric guitar/vocals; Sandy MacKay, double bass, mandolin and vocals; Clinton Charlton, drums; and Bill Preeper, electric/acoustic guitar/vocals.
- Producer Dale Murray, who’s also a multi-instrumentalist, also played on the record.
“There is something about Bob Dylan’s songs that we connect with...the melodies and Dylan’s simple ease of delivery when singing and performing his songs, we feel like there’s an invitation, like it’s OK to feel like they can be our songs. Dylan always approached production with a minimalist hand. The real people, the noises of the shirt buttons, chairs scraping the floor or mistakes people made, these were allowed to stay in the final tracks, rather than cut out on the editing floor. These features always made Dylan’s work accessible...you could always tell, there were real people somewhere in a room playing these tunes together. That’s what we hope listeners take away from this record.”
Rhaye, who’s also an award-winning graphic artist, made some wonderful choices here.
While some artists embarking on a project like this might have chosen to go with what was basically a greatest hits package, she chose to mix things up.
Hits like “Blowin’ In The Wind”, “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” and “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” share time and space with tracks like “As I Went Out One Morning” and “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine”, both from Dylan’s “John Wesley Harding” album, and “One More Cup of Coffee” from his “Desire” album.
Produced by Dale Murray this set, which is Rhaye’s sixth full-length record, was recorded basically live with very few overdubs, much the same way Dylan’s earlier recordings were made.
Promotion for the record describes it as a fun folk-rock album with psychedelic undertones, with folkie ballads, a conversation between rockabilly and swing and engaging new interpretations of the master’s works.
Can’t say I disagree with any of that.
Rhaye’s vocals are straight from the heart here and they’re gorgeous. And her band delivers big-time.
It’s one of my favourite records of 2019 so far.
Choice tracks for me include her covers of “Blowin’ In The Wind”, “Lay Down Your Weary Tune”, “Sad Eyed Lady of The Lowlands”, “Ring Them Bells” and “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine”.
Doug Gallant is a freelance writer and well-known connoisseur of a wide variety of music. His On Track column will appear in The Guardian every second Saturday. To comment on what he has to say or to offer suggestions for future reviews, email him at [email protected].
