The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8. Tell Tale Signs - Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006 (2008)


 

Disc One
  1. Mississippi
  2. Most of the Time
  3. Dignity
  4. Someday Baby
  5. Red River Shore
  6. Tell Ol' Bill
  7. Born in Time
  8. Can't Wait
  9. Everything is Broken
  10.Dreamin' of You
  11.Huck's Tune
  12.Marchin' to the City
  13.High Water (for Charley Patton)
  
Disc Two
  1. Mississippi
  2. 32-20 Blues
  3. Series of Dreams
  4. God Knows
  5. Can't Escape From You
  6. Dignity
  7. Ring Them Bells
  8. Cocaine Blues
  9. Ain't Talkin'
  10.The Girl on the Greenbriar Shore
  11.Lonesome Day Blues
  12.Miss the Mississippi
  13.The Lonesome River
  14.Cross the Green Mountain

 

If there was ever a logical next step for Dylan’s Bootleg Series, Tell Tale Signs was it. Where the original Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 mapped the hidden geography of Dylan’s early and mid-career—1961 to 1989—this eighth volume boldly resumes the journey, spanning the years 1989 to 2006. In doing so, it offers not just a continuation, but a critical reevaluation of a period too often dismissed as “late Dylan.”

The contents are, predictably, a blend of unreleased songs and alternate versions—though here the split is roughly equal. This marks a key distinction from the first Bootleg collection, which was heavily skewed toward unheard material. That may trouble purists, but in this case, it proves oddly liberating. Dylan’s commercial visibility may have waned during these years, but his creative restlessness had not. The fact that many of these “released” songs are themselves minor footnotes in the broader Dylan mythos means that even the alternate versions feel like new discoveries.

And what discoveries they are. Can’t Escape From You, Red River Shore, and Dreamin’ of You are not merely worthy of inclusion—they are career highlights by any measure, songs of emotional complexity and musical refinement. Dylan’s voice, now weather-beaten and half-broken, proves to be the perfect vehicle for these meditations. The phrasing is deliberate, the affectation stripped bare. The man who once sang with sneer and accusation now whispers from the shadows with resignation and wisdom.

There are, of course, indulgences. Multiple versions of Mississippi and Dignity stretch the collection a touch too thin, and the repetition of Series of Dreams, already featured in the first Bootleg volume, offers little in the way of variation. But these are minor quibbles in what is otherwise a cohesive, evocative set. The sense of stretching that often dogs multi-disc archival sets is thankfully minimal here.

Stylistically, the material jumps with abandon—no single album or sound dominates. There are acoustic blues reminiscent of Dylan’s early-90s folk revival phase (The Girl on the Greenbriar Shore, 32-20 Blues), atmospheric studio pieces evocative of Oh Mercy and Time Out of Mind, and rollicking jams that nod to the looseness of Love and Theft. The effect is that of a sonic kaleidoscope, a collage of Dylan’s latter-day selves.

More than anything, Tell Tale Signs underscores just how rich, how fully formed, Dylan’s post-’80s material truly is. Far from an obligatory compilation for completists, it functions as a summary statement—perhaps even a corrective. For casual listeners, this might be the first time the so-called “later years” feel accessible, coherent, and, crucially, compelling.

This isn’t just an appendix to Dylan’s story. It’s a chapter in its own right.

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