DAVE STEWART DAVE DOES DYLAN
SURFDOG
★★★★✩
As a young teenager learning guitar, Dave Stewart would sing Bob Dylan in his local folk club – so it’s a full-circle moment that, as a seasoned musician, he has decided to cut a low-key album of solo guitar Dylan covers, all laid down in one take. This strippeddown environment suits Stewart’s earnest, sandpaper-rough voice: his reverence for these songs elevates tracks like Forever Young and To Ramona. Elsewhere here, the album-closing Visions Of Johanna is a grizzled and wistful elegy, while Lay Lady Lay is a hushed acoustic gem.