"There is no way to accurately or adequately laud Bob Dylan. He is the Homer of our time. The next Bob Dylan will not come around for another millennium or two, making it highly unlikely that it will happen at all."—T-Bone Burnett, foreword to Rolling Thunder Logbook


Critics have always been quick to proclaim someone as the Next Dylan. "No sooner was Dylan Dylan," says Gene Santoro in Highway 61 Revisited, "than the search was on for the Next Dylan, the New Dylan—a list that, over the decades, accumulated dozens." Pity the poor soul who writes intelligent lyrics, sings a bit off-kilter, strums a guitar, and—hoist the millstone!—plays harmonica. [...]

Even among music fans the name Ronnie Lane doesn't come up much. I'm not sure why. He was an original—"the East End urchin with the pastoral vision," as Mojo put it —and about as unlikely a rock figure as you're likely to find. The bassist and songwriter for British bands the Small Faces and the Faces, Lane gave it all up for a curious (to put it mildly) solo career: he ran away and formed a circus. But then he never had been a good fit for heady 1970s rock stardom: consider the fact that while the other members of the Faces were buying mansions and Rolls Royces, [...]