Springsteen's role models Dylan, Young still creating

Seasoned Americana singer-songwriters are on our mind today and not just 'cause Bruce Springsteen's back in town for two shows. A couple of his major role models are leading our new releases album parade.

BOB DYLAN CD HOUR: How does a musician stay relevant into his senior years? By acting his age and continuing to rail at the winds, even if he earns the title "curmudgeon" for his efforts.

The consummate singer/songwriter Bob Dylan proves the point on "Together Through Life" (Columbia, B+). The title, and the album cover showing young lovers in hot embrace, are meant ironically. The set is full of songs about romances gone bad - sometimes phrased in genteel terms, as on the lulling, Mexicali-flavored "This Dream of You," but other times wailing in harsh fashion. With the classic, blues-flavored "My Wife's Home Town" you might think he's referencing Chicago. Turns out to be Hell.

Dylan surrounds himself with the acoustic textures of wheezing accordion, strummy guitar and ukulele, un-amped fiddle and brushed drums. And he couches his rants in charming, time-warped sonic settings, from the old-timey rock of "Jolene" to the boulevard-strolling "Life Is Hard" (written for a French film) and the zydeco voodoo invocation "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'." Best of the bunch is "I Feel A Change Comin' On," referencing the splendid stuff he once cranked out with The Band at the house called Big Pink.

OLDER THAN SPRINGTIME: Another sourpuss of reknown, Neil Young repeatedly wheels out the theme of automotive transportation on "Fork in the Road" (Reprise, B) as a way to suggest where America's gone wrong and could still steer back onto course.

"Johnny Magic" celebrates a trip in an old Caddy running on bio-fuel (Young's rigged one himself). Elsewhere, he warns "Just Singing a Song" won't change the world and predicts (on "Light a Candle") that "there's a bailout coming but it's not for me."

The rough-and-tumble material and twang-rockin' arrangements suggest Young and friends threw this set together fast. For some, that'll seem a positive.

HARKENING TO THE MASTERS: I'd bet a bundle Brian Blade heard lots of Neil Young's most plaintive, folky, acoustic music growing up. And also sang along with Young's sometime saddle pals David Crosby, Stephen Stills (him especially) and Graham Nash. Mr. Blade's "Mama Rosa" (Verve Forecast, B+) is a bit of all that - the best C, S, N & Y album those guys haven't put out in years, gently buffed for today's adult-alternative music-lovin' market.

Australian export Ben Lee used to be compared to Jonathan Richman and Loudon Wainwright III for his low-fi, whiney/whimsical approach. Lee has sweetened, though, now sounding more Squeeze-ably soft on his cheerful and hook-filled "Rebirth of Venus" (New West, B+). This is sensitive new age pop rock at its sunshiny best, the stuff girls will love and guys (who desire the girls) should get into, too. Try on "Blue Denim."

ALLMAN JOYS! Southern rock is a molasses-thick, stretched-out and testifying genre that just begs to be heard and recorded live. Proof positive is this reverberant double-disc set from the Black Crowes, "Warpaint Live" (Eagle Records, A). The ante's been upped here with three guitars (Luther Dickinson being the noted addition to the Robinson brothers), scorching organ and piano by Adam MacDougal and soulful female backup singers.

Deanna Bogart doesn't get nearly the respect she deserves as a good-timey, blues-tinged singer, able keyboardist and bandleader. Her "11th Hour" (Vista, B+) showcases Bogie's versatility, from her apt cover of John Hiatt's "Have a Little Faith" to the sardonic, Steely-eyed original "High Horse" and instrumental tribute "Almonjoi."

MORE GOOD STUFF: He owns one of the most powerful voices in Jamaican music. Now Buju Banton proves anew that "Rasta Got Soul" (Gargamal, B), putting his gritty pipes to spiritually fired, R&B-meets-reggae entreaties written/produced by Mark Myrie. New Orleans trumpeter/singer Kermit Ruffins' "Living a Treme Life" (Basin Street, B) celebrates the best of the city's musical heritage, from the Dixieland-flavored "Didn't He Ramble" and street-parading "Treme Mardi Gras" to pop chestnuts like "Holy Cow."

JAZZ VIDEOS: That most legendary of modern jazz trumpeters Miles Davis had some iffy tours in his senior years, laying back too much and looking quizzically at his horn when he hit a clunker. But the man was in decent shape and surrounded by able talents on the 1987 tour of Germany that produced the edgy, funk-centric concert video "That's What Happened" (Eagle Eye DVD, B+), building to a super-percussive "Tutu" and kind-of-blue (period) rendering of "Time After Time." Apt camera tracking of his stage prowling helps us forget his back-to-the-audience snubs. A bonus half-hour interview uncovers his color-conscious mindset.

Literally written off as dead (in one jazz encyclopedia) before his time, "Tis Autumn - The Search for Jackie Paris" (Outsider Pictures, B) celebrates a singer who clearly deserved better. Fans of Mel Torme and Tony Bennett will sense a kindred spirit here. *