Steve Howe to release Portraits Of Bob Dylan and Natural Timbre on vinyl for the very first time

(Image credit: Will Ireland)

Yes guitarist Steve Howe is to reissue two of his solo albums, 1999's Portraits Of Bob Dylan and 2001's Natural Timbre, on September 12, on CD and also vinyl for the very first time, through his own HoweSound label.

The former saw Howe paying tribute to one of his main inspirations, with an impressive array of guests performing an intriguing selection of Dylan songs including Jon Anderson, Max Bacon (GTR), Allan Clarke (The Hollies), PP Arnold, Annie Haslam (Renaissance), Keith West (Tomorrow) and Phoebe Snow along with his son Dylan Howe on drums.

“What I loved about it was having the chance to arrange them as I wasn`t going to copy what Dylan had done; I wanted to bring a little bit more to it. The Portraits idea was always a sort of pipe dream, and I originally recorded one song to start the project, and I thought, 'This will be good, I'll do lots of Bob'.”

Natural Timbre saw Howe, again with son Dylan, exploring acoustic music using an array of instruments including acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, dobro, lap steel guitar, mandocello and koto.

"The idea behind Natural Timbre was to show that the beauty of acoustic instruments is universal. I really set about it, putting the electric guitar away wanting to do another kind of exploration, because like the piano, you can't get away from the tonality of acoustic sound. It's one of those beautiful, harmonising, soothing things."

You can see the tracklistings for both releases below.

Steve Howe

Portraits of Bob Dylan
1. Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands
2. Mama, You’ve Been on My Mind
3.It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
4. Going, Going, Gone
5. Just Like A Woman
6. Well, Well, Well
7. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
8. Lay Lady Lay
9. One Too Many Mornings
10. I Don’t Believe You
11. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
12. Buckets Of Rain

Natural Timbre
1. Distant Seas
2. Provence
3. Intersection Blues
4. Family Tree
5. J’s Theme
6. In The Course Of The Day
7. Dream Rive
8. Golden Years
9. The Little Galliard
10. Up Above Somewhere
11. Curls & Swirls
12. Pyramidology
13. Lost for Words
14. Winter (Vivaldi)
15. Solar Winds
16. Your Move
17. Disillusion
18. To Be Over

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.

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