Various Dylan forums are abuzz with alarms, rumors, and excursions in the night that a new Dylan studio album is prepared for imminent release, perhaps as early as the end of April `09.
First report was over at Michael Gray's "Bob Dylan Encyclopedia" site, which said in full...
A new Dylan studio album, which, it had been whispered, was tentatively planned for the autumn may now be in the works for earlier release, perhaps even in time to coincide with Bob's upcoming European tour. I can't say more. I would if I could.
Another source,connected to the U.K. promoters who regularly work with Dylan's people, also began posting in the Expecting Rain forums that the new album was indeed fact, and recently (February 12th) claimed that Jeff Rosen (Dylan's business manager, producer of Tell Tale Signs, et al;) brought the new album to London for a private airing for Sony U.K. execs. and that at the end of the listening session, "...Sony staff were told to go and prepare for an end of April release."
And over the weekend, the on-line Dylan Digest from ISIS magazine released the following...
a completely new Bob Dylan album is in the can. Our understanding is that the album was recorded last October in California (maybe with the recording sessions starting slightly earlier than that). The sequencing of the tracks was completed in January and the album is expected to contain ten tracks.
Jeff Rosen has brought the finished album to Europe for listening sessions in various cities including London, Munich and Oslo. These “listenings” were mainly for sales and marketing staff at Sony. We must assume that similar sessions have taken place in the United States. Several different titles have been put forward for the album but, for the most part, these seem to be little more than internet babble and at the time of the listenings (mid February) no title had been decided upon. At one time, it was suggested that the album would be released in the autumn, then a release date in May 2009 was mentioned but it seems that the release has now been brought forward to the last week of April, to coincide with later stages of Dylan’s forthcoming European tour. There are strong rumours about the circumstances in which the album came about (See entry for “My Own Love Song” below). There are also rumours that the musicians on the album are not all from the current touring band.
As the Dylan Digest excerpt notes, one prevalent theory gaining credibility is that the album is either partially or completely a Dylan-composed soundtrack for a new Oliver Dahan movie, titled My Own Love Song, starring Renée Zellweger and Forest Whitaker. While the IMDB doesn't have any information about the movie's soundtrack, several European media outlets have noted over the past several months that Dylan indeed composed it.
Given that the reports are true - which is at this point is still a large given - 2009 is shaping up to be an excellent year for Bob Dylan fans, with the possibility of a release of Chronicles: Volume Two; the Hank Williams Project also slated for release; and now this new studio album.
http://www.dreamtimepodcast.com/2009/02/new-dylan-album-for-spring.html
