Album: Various Artists, Theme Time Radio Hour With Your Host Bob Dylan (Ace)

Despite the porkie in the title – “Your Host Bob Dylan” actually makes no audible appearance on this 2CD compilation of tracks played on his radio show – this is still a superb anthology of folk, blues, rock’n’roll and country, ranging from the 1930s blues of Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell to The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army”.

Even the biggest music anorak will find something to surprise them: I’d never heard The Valentines’ rock steady “Gun Fever (Blam Blam Fever)”, nor Patsy Raye & The Beatniks’ “Beatnik’s Wish”, but I’ll be hearing them plenty in the future.

And Dylan’s choices sometimes offer insights into his own work – such as the obvious influence of Carr & Blackwell’s “Papa’s On The Housetop” on “Subterranean Homesick Blues”.

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