The New Basement Tapes – Lost On the River (Deluxe Edition) (2014)

Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes is a 20-track collection produced by T Bone Burnett featuring a collective of musicians recording under the moniker The New Basement Tapes — Elvis Costello, Carolina Chocolate Drops‘ Rhiannon Giddens, Dawes‘ Taylor Goldsmith, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and Mumford and Sons’ Marcus Mumford. The album consists of a series of tracks based on recently uncovered lyrics handwritten by Bob Dylan in 1967 during the period in which he created his noted album The Basement Tapes.
Burnett was contacted by Dylan’s publisher regarding the box of handwritten lyrics that had been found, dating back to Dylan’s Basement Tapes days, and asked if he had any interest in doing something with them. As soon as Burnett was assured that Dylan was on board with the project, he agreed to it. Burnett selected his band based on their talent and collaborative style, as well as their interest as “musical archaeologists”. Each member of the group was sent the collection of lyrics, and each arrived at recording session with a selection of tunes, some having set only some of the lyrics, others having set all of them. Not wishing to encourage competition, the group decided to record all the tunes, including multiple settings of the same lyrics. Of the resulting 40 tracks, 20 are included on the present album.