BARRY COURTER: The first thing you notice about “Women & Country” are the names on the front and back. “Dylan” will always grab your attention, and lately so will T-Bone Burnett, who performs on a couple of tracks and produced the CD.
Looking inside, you also find that the names Neko Case and Kelly Hogan are on the guest list. With a lineup like that, expectations can be high. Maybe too high. I expected magic, and what I got was an album full of really good stuff I’ve heard before, at least from Burnett.
We get lots of funereal kick drums, banjo plucking, pedal-steel guitar and mournful vocals from Dylan.
CASEY PHILLIPS: Yes, this, Dylan’s second solo outing, sounds very much like a Burnett project, especially the vocal harmonies with Case, which reminded me strongly of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ work on “Raising Sand.” That being said, carrying a bold signature from Burnett is certainly not a bad thing. Burnett makes all the tracks sound intimately immediate, warm and dark.