Last Update: 04/05/2026 at 2:50 PM EST
Dylan Revives Roots And Reckoning
Coverage from THE PRESS, Grant Maxwell, and others
Articles
21
Latest Article
01/28
Active Days
8904
Executive Summary
Love and Theft shows Dylan turning old American styles into a sharp late-career comeback, with humor, menace, and lasting critical acclaim
- Released September 11, 2001, Love and Theft became tied to post-9 11 readings and debate
- Dylan self-produced the album as Jack Frost and recorded it live in New York
- The record draws heavily on pre-rock styles including blues, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley, and jazz
- Charlie Sexton, Larry Campbell, Tony Garnier, David Kemper, and Augie Meyers formed the core band
- Critics widely hailed it as a major late-career achievement and a template for later Dylan work
- Songs mix humor, apocalyptic imagery, romance, betrayal, and mortality across 12 tracks
- The album won strong chart and award recognition, including a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album
Quick Facts
- What: Released Love and Theft as a roots-heavy late-career album
- Where: Recorded at Clinton Studios in New York City
- Why: To turn classic American music into a vital modern statement
- Who: Bob Dylan and his Never Ending Tour band
- When: September 11 2001 during Dylan's 60th year
Coverage Timeline: 8904 Days
Featured Article
Grant Maxwell analyzes Dylan's transfiguration in a 2013 blog post on grantmaxwellphilosophy.wordpress.com.
Additional Articles
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In this anniversary review, Stereogum reassesses Bob Dylan's 2001 album Love And Theft, situating it within post 9 11 America and Dylan's later career.
On Sep 11, 2001, Bob Dylan released the album Love and Theft on Columbia in the USA, later attracting major critical honors.
Bob Dylan released the album Love and Theft on Sep 11, 2001, recorded at Clinton Studios in New York City.
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THE PRESS
01-28-2026
A retrospective review on The Press Music Reviews ranks Bob Dylan's album Love and Theft, released on Sep 11, 2001, analyzing its songs, influences, and reception.
This retrospective review examines Bob Dylan's late-1970s album Street Legal, highlighting its dense arrangements, uneven songwriting, and glimpses of impending spiritual and personal change.
In a Village Voice review from New York, a critic reads Bob Dylan's Love and Theft as eerily aligned with the nation's post-attack mood.
On Substack, Greil Marcus reviews Bob Dylan's The Philosophy of Modern Song, emphasizing midcentury selections, performance crediting, narrative detours, and controversy over misogynistic passages.
In a Chicago Reader review, a critic evaluates Bob Dylan's album World Gone Wrong as a bleak, authoritative exploration of traditional folk-blues material.
The Observer published a September 2001 review of Bob Dylan's Love and Theft in the United States.
In a Substack blog post, Matthew Ingate analyzes Bob Dylan's 2001 album Love and Theft alongside other key releases from 2001's global music scene.
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In this retrospective article, Patrick Roefflaer explains how photographers Kevin Mazur, David Gahr, and Danny Clinch created Bob Dylan's Love and Theft artwork through shoots in New York and Los Angeles.
CultFollowing published a review of Bob Dylan's Shot of Love on 2022-10-01 in the United Kingdom.
In 2011, an online article analyzed Bob Dylan's 1978 album Street Legal, recorded at Dylan's Rundown studio in Santa Monica, California.
On October 24, 2001, Good Times reviewed Bob Dylan's 2001 album Love and Theft, evaluating its musical qualities and questioning its cultural relevance in the United States.
Far Out Magazine explores the controversy around Bob Dylan's 2001 album Love and Theft and its uncredited borrowings from Junichi Saga's Confessions of a Yakuza.
Bob Dylan released Love and Theft in 2001, a critically notable album blending pre-rock blues and reworked material, reviewed here in contrast to his recent uneven recordings.
On September 11, 2001, Bob Dylan's album Love and Theft coincided with the terrorist attacks in the United States.
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Bob Dylan performed a recent live show mixing four Love and Theft songs with older material at an unspecified venue.
Dylan released Street-Legal in 1978, a pop-rock album with gospel influences, amid personal turmoil.
Bob Dylan discusses Love and Theft in a Far Out Magazine feature ahead of its 25th anniversary later this year.