Notable CDs

Smugness and nostalgia are the Scylla and Charybdis between which hootenannies such as this 2013 concert sail. The former occurs when the singers can be heard priding themselves overmuch in having finally discovered one or another stratum of musical folklore, the latter when a rendition of “This Land Is Your Land” fails to remind listeners of why anyone ever found socialism appealing in the first place. Many of these performers end up shipwrecked. The Milk Carton Kids, Keb’ Mo’, Bob Neuwirth, Jack White, and (maybe) Oscar Isaac survive.

Don’t Lose This

Recorded in 1998 and ’99 when Pops Staples was an ailing octogenarian, these gospel performances were supposed to be the final Staple Singers longplayer. But Mavis and Cleotha decided that, given his proximity to death’s door, their father should do most of the singing. So he did, eventually rallying his instantly recognizable bluesy tenor and laid-back phrasing for an album’s worth of strong takes. He died in 2000, 14 years before Mavis and Jeff Tweedy added their ever-so-sensitive finishing touches. He’d have loved every one.

Lost on the River: The New Basement Types

If anyone would know what to do with these abandoned late-’60s Dylan lyrics, it’s T Bone Burnett. And although most of the melodies concocted by his semi-super supergroup—Marcus Mumford, Elvis Costello, the Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Rhiannon Giddens, Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James—fall short of alchemy, “Stranger” comes close. Overall, the performances surpass much recorded by the principals under their own or their band’s names. Question: By refusing to gender-switch pronouns, is the heterosexual Giddens tossing the lesbian lobby a bone?

Dylan’s Gospel

If, as Bob Dylan has said, The Staple Singers were the kind of artists whom he hoped would record his songs, he must love this recently excavated 1969 transformation of 10 of his best-known early songs into full-blown church. And if, as he has also said, Billy Graham was one of his inspirations, he also must love how well this choir, its female soloists, and its inventive arrangers bring out elements in his worldview that would otherwise remain latent until Slow Train Coming a decade later.

Spotlight

Between his recent AARP: The Magazine interview and MusiCares “Person of the Year” speech, Bob Dylan reveals a lot. The singer-songwriter talks about why he recorded Shadows in the Night (Columbia), his new album of songs best known for having been minted by Frank Sinatra. What Dylan, 73, has yet to reveal is the bushel under which he’s been keeping his latest singing voice.

Tender and clear even when creaking under the weight of age (most noticeably on “Lucky Old Sun”), it bears little resemblance to the rocks-and-gravel bluesman’s delivery showcased on his last quarter century of recordings.

It’s not the singing alone, however, that makes Dylan’s performances of “Why Try to Change Me Now” and the prayerful “Stay with Me” especially convincing. It’s also the understated accompaniment of his subtly brass-augmented road band, the hero of whom is Donnie Herron. The quiet wonders wrought by his pedal-steel guitar deserve a Grammy category all their own.