Emma Swift's Multitudes

As its title suggests, Blonde on the Tracks, Australian-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Emma Swift's first full-length album, re-interprets songs from the heart of Bob Dylan 1960s and '70s catalog, although its span covers his most recent work. Swift belongs to the generations of listeners who grew up on the songs of Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Bill Withers, Leonard Cohen, and other masters of 1960s and '70s-era Great North American Songbook, much as Dylan and his contemporaries were raised on—and, early in their careers, rebelled against—"That Lucky Old Sun" and other chestnuts in the repertoire of crooners like Frank Sinatra. In a recent launch concert for Blonde on the Tracks—which occurred, in our pandemic era, on YouTube instead of before a live audience—Swift half-apologized for performing Dylan's "A Simple Twist of Fate," which many other musicians and singers, including Jerry Garcia, have also performed. But "Simple Twist of Fate," and many other Dylan compositions, have entered the realm of standards, open to endless reinterpretation. Blonde on the Tracks was released, on Swift's own Tiny Ghost Records, around the same time as saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa's Hero Trio and guitarist Rez Abbasi's Django-Shift, albums which interpret compositions by or closely associated with Django Reinhardt, Keith Jarrett, Charlie Parker, Stevie Wonder, and other performers.