Jakob Dylan, a two-time Grammy Award-winner and the lead singer-songwriter of The Wallflowers, is recognized as a wordsmith whose songs–filled with vivid imagery and eloquent language–distinguish him from his contemporaries. Since their inception in 1990, The Wallflowers have sold over seven million records worldwide. In addition, Dylan has released two critically acclaimed solo albums including 2008’s Seeing Things and 2010’s Women + Country. In May of 2011, Jakob Dylan received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Idaho State University which marked the first honorary degree conferred through ISU’s newly formed College of Arts and Letters.
Dylan gained national attention with The Wallflowers’ sophomore release Bringing Down the Horse and its radio singles, including “Sixth Avenue Heartache,” “One Headlight,” and “The Difference,” each of which earned Grammy nominations. The Wallflowers have released six albums to date: The Wallflowers (1992), Bringing Down the Horse (1996), (Breach) (2000), Red Letter Days (2002), Rebel, Sweetheart (2005), and 2009’s Collected, a compilation of some of the band’s most popular songs. The band’s music has also appeared in numerous films and television shows (Godzilla: The Movie, Zoolander, American Wedding, I Am Sam, The Guardian, CSI, and NCIS).
In addition to his success with The Wallflowers, Dylan also has an accomplished solo career. He released his first solo album, Seeing Things, with Columbia Records in 2008. The album, produced by Grammy Award-winning Rick Rubin (Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Linkin Park), was a largely acoustic album, featuring Dylan on vocals and guitar, accompanied by minimal instrumentation. The album is, according to Scott Gold (LA Times), “probably his best work, certainly his most graceful, with a range of imagery—of grown-up love and grasshoppers on a country road, but also of darkness and war—achieved only by gifted storytellers.”
In 2010 Dylan released Women + Country, his second solo album, produced by Grammy Award-winning and Oscar Award-winning producer T Bone Burnett (Elvis Costello, Elton John & Leon Russell, B.B. King, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Oh Brother Where Art Thou, and Crazy Heart). This album features rich instrumentation, including tribal drums, pedal steel, horns, and mandolin, along with the harmonies of Neko Case and Kelly Hogan. Randy Lewis, LA Times Music Critic, named Women + Country the Top Album of 2010. He explains, “Songwriting can be viewed as a sort of alchemy, a process through which a musician creates something rare and valuable — whether personally, artistically or commercially — out of the base materials of everyday life. Jakob Dylan’s Women and Country is a glittering example.”
Dylan’s music is widely recognized as being about “significant themes,” often highlighting struggles of the human spirit, disillusionment, and the value of perseverance and hard work. Music critic Anthony DeCurtis notes, “Dylan writes like a poet.” Commenting on Dylan’s songwriting, USA Today offers, “Lyrically, Dylan is less of a traditionalist, drawing more inspiration from poet W.H. Auden than Buddy Holly.”
Jakob Dylan’s Official Website
