Bob Dylan’s Modern Times turns 20 on August 29, marking the anniversary of the album that returned him to No. 1 in America for the first time in three decades and reinforced one of the most remarkable late-career runs in popular music.
by Paul Cashmere
Bob Dylan released Modern Times on August 29, 2006, completing a remarkable sequence of albums that had begun with Time Out of Mind in 1997 and continued with Love and Theft in 2001. Recorded in New York with members of Dylan’s touring band and produced by Dylan under the name Jack Frost, Modern Times became his 32nd studio album and his first US No. 1 since Desire in 1976. At 65, Dylan also became the oldest living artist at the time to debut at the top of the Billboard 200.
The significance of Modern Times was amplified by where Dylan stood in 2006. The critical rehabilitation associated with Time Out of Mind had continued through Love and Theft, establishing that his most commercially consequential work did not necessarily have to come from his 1960s catalogue. Modern Times extended that period with an album rooted in blues, folk, rockabilly and pre-rock ballad traditions while being performed by the working band Dylan had developed through his Never Ending Tour.
The album was recorded during February 2006 at Clinton Recording in New York after Dylan and his musicians rehearsed the material at the Bardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie. The line-up featured Tony Garnier on bass, George G. Receli on drums, Denny Freeman and Stu Kimball on guitar, and Donnie Herron on steel guitar, violin, viola and mandolin.
Engineer and mixer Chris Shaw recalled that the sessions took longer than those for Love and Theft, largely because Dylan was working through multiple versions of songs and arrangements. Freeman similarly remembered a difficult recording process, although he regarded the finished album as musically coherent.
Dylan himself was emphatic about the musicians he had assembled. In a 2006 interview, he described the group as the best band he had worked with, pointing to the advantage of playing with musicians who had performed together hundreds of times and understood instinctively what each player could contribute.
Modern Times opened with Thunder on the Mountain, followed by the seven-minute Spirit on the Water and the blues-driven Rollin’ and Tumblin’. When the Deal Goes Down provided a more traditional ballad setting, while Someday Baby connected Dylan directly to an older blues lineage. Workingman’s Blues #2, Beyond the Horizon, Nettie Moore and The Levee’s Gonna Break broadened the album’s historical palette before the eight-minute Ain’t Talkin’ brought the record to its sombre conclusion.
The commercial response was substantial. Modern Times sold 191,933 copies in its first US week and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland. In Australia, the album reached No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart and was subsequently certified Platinum.
For Dylan, the achievement was part of an extraordinary sequence. Time Out of Mind had re-established him as a major contemporary recording artist, while Love and Theft demonstrated that success was not an isolated comeback. Modern Times made that late-career resurgence measurable on the world’s major album charts.
The album also generated discussion about Dylan’s approach to songwriting. Several songs drew on older musical forms or identifiable compositions. Rollin’ and Tumblin’ came from the blues tradition, The Levee’s Gonna Break drew on When the Levee Breaks, and Beyond the Horizon used the melody associated with Red Sails in the Sunset. When the Deal Goes Down was based on the melody of Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day).
Further scrutiny followed when similarities were identified between Dylan’s lyrics and passages by 19th-century American poet Henry Timrod and Roman poet Ovid. The debate reflected a broader question surrounding Dylan’s long-established relationship with the folk process, where existing melodies, phrases and traditions are reshaped into new songs. Dylan had previously explained that he often works by carrying older songs in his head until new words begin to emerge.
Modern Times nevertheless received widespread critical acclaim. It won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album in 2007, while Someday Baby earned Dylan the Grammy for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance. The album also became the third consecutive Dylan release to top the Pazz & Jop critics’ poll.
Its influence extended beyond Dylan’s own catalogue. Elton John later cited Modern Times as an inspiration for the live-in-the-studio approach he pursued on his 2013 album The Diving Board. The recognition was significant because it placed Dylan’s 21st-century recording method in conversation with another major songwriter’s approach to making records.
Two decades later, Modern Times stands as an important document of Dylan’s late-career period. It captured a veteran artist working with a seasoned touring ensemble, drawing deeply from older American musical traditions while creating a contemporary album that reached audiences at a scale few artists of his generation could match.
Tracklisting
Thunder on the Mountain, 5:55
Spirit on the Water, 7:41
Rollin’ and Tumblin’, 6:02
When the Deal Goes Down, 5:04
Someday Baby, 4:56
Workingman’s Blues #2, 6:07
Beyond the Horizon, 5:36
Nettie Moore, 6:53
The Levee’s Gonna Break, 5:43
Ain’t Talkin’, 8:48
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