Seeing Things
Artist: Jakob Dylan
Label: Sony 

So after fifteen years selling pop the young Dylan finally gets to be about his father's business. Jakob Dylan's Wallflowers sold more albums in a decade than his dad has in four and a half decades but there was a reason for that. The younger was selling product while his dad wouldn't sell his soul for such easy wealth; not that old Bob is impoverished! Anyway, with Seeing Things, Jakob Dylan strips back that commercial veneer that sells copious amounts of CDs in the States and asks Rick Ruben to do for a young fella what he did for the oldies Cash and Diamond and make sparse sound produce. It works. The son Dylan is 38 and these are songs about life's experience and growing wisdom about vocation, love and, as it have been for any serious American artist since 9/11, war. Whereas he certainly isn't as wordy as dad and not as reportage as dad's war songs he is a good writer with poetic flair and depth of insight. In fact he is closer to his brother-in-law Peter Himmelman's whose Jewish faith infuses his work. It has spiritual fibre threaded through it. Deep and rich in song and soul.

Steve Stockman

Steve Stockman is the Presbyterian Chaplain at Queens University, Belfast, Ireland, where he lives in community with 88 students. He has written two books Walk On; The Spiritual Journey of U2 which he is currently updating and The Rock Cries Out; Discovering Eternal Truth in Unlikely Music. He dabbles in poetry and songwriting and he has a weekly radio show on BBC Radio Ulster (listen anytime of day or night @ www.bbc.co.uk/ni/religion/rhythmandsoul). He has his own web page--Rhythms of Redemption at http://stocki.ni.org . He also tries to spend some time with his wife Janice and daughters Caitlin and Jasmine.