Lost On The River - by Dawes
I was going to on a hike this afternoon with my old pal Jim James but our windows of availability didn’t line up so instead I’m here writing this…inspired by a missed catch-up with an old bandmate.
A few days ago I was reminded that this year is the 10 year anniversary of The New Basement Tapes’ album Lost On The River. If all that came out of it was a few credited co-writes that say “Taylor Goldsmith and Bob Dylan” on a vinyl insert, it would be one of the greatest experiences of my life. Not to play that part of it down, but it doesn’t come close to the depth of feeling I have for my cohorts, the music we made, and my memory of those few weeks together.
It started for me with a call from Sam Jones, who directed the album’s corresponding film - Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued. He had directed our music video for Time Spent in Los Angeles and we had stayed friends through the years in between. When he explained this project to me I was aimlessly walking around a grocery store. Maybe I had an aim before he called but once he started talking I think the shock helped me forget wherever I was or what I was doing there. When he broke down what he and T. Bone Burnett were cooking up it all sounded obviously incredible, a little unbelievable, and even a tad confusing. Lost Bob Dylan lyrics? New music? A documentary? Marcus, Jim, Elvis and Rhiannon? Two weeks??
The idea that I was being invited to this kind of soirée didn’t quite jive with my perception of myself in 2014. Everyone else’s name I was hearing was either a bonafide legend, leading one of the biggest acts in contemporary music, winning Grammys, or some wild combination of all 3. Looking back from 2024, my understanding of the way it went down is that when T. Bone was assembling the team, Marcus Mumford suggested including me which was co-signed by Sam. T. Bone wasn’t aware of me or Dawes but looked into it enough to feel like it would be a good fit. I already was forever indebted to Marcus for bringing Dawes along for the Gentlemen of the Road shows in 2013 which really changed the game for Dawes at the time so this kind of double indebtedness means I owe him my firstborn, or my life, or whatever he could possible want, frankly. His kindness knows no bounds.
Before going into the legendary Capitol Studios here in L.A., all we were given was the Bob Dylan unearthed lyrics (eat your heart out Chalamet) and a vague sense of what the plan was for making the record - we’d show up and make an album where us 5 musicians would come up with the music for these found lyrics and get a whole record made in 2 weeks. That’s all we knew for sure. But our interpretations of what it all meant slightly varied. For example: I thought we were supposed to come up with our own potential contributions in the form of demos before the recordings started just so we were walking in prepared. So, being a bit terrified of blowing the opportunity I stooped to the level of Overachiever and I wrote music to every sheet of lyrics I was sent. That is NOT how everyone else saw it though. Jim had a few demos ready, Marcus and Rhiannon had zero because they were under the impression that we weren’t supposed to have anything prepared and that we’d write it all together once the starting gun was fired…and Elvis…he could probably put together 50 demos by E.O.D. any day of the week by simply opening his mouth. I’ve never met someone whose creative spark was so readily available at any given moment. It was truly something to behold. So to say he showed up with a few ideas at the ready would be quite an understatement…
This feels like a perfect moment to pause the narrative. There are a few more anecdotes that are worth sharing but I’ll save it for the next post. I’ve taken up enough of your time. For now, I’ll leave you paid subscribers with a demo for the lyrics to the title track “Lost On The River.” You’ll see that there are two version on the record. #12 by Elvis and #20 by Rhiannon (a personal album highlight for me featuring the musical genius of Larkin Poe before their World Domination began). Well, here’s mine. I don’t remember if we even cut it or not (we cut something around 50 tracks in those two weeks so it’s easy to lose track…more on that in the next post). It’s not as strong as Rhiannon’s or Elvis’s, but it’s fun to see how these lyrics were reinterpreted over and over again - how certain lines were inflected, what lines stayed and which were omitted, and just the differences in the general emotional vibes. Hope you enjoy.
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