THEME TIME RADIO HOUR, BOX 1-4

BOX 1: Episode 1: Weather Episode 2: Mother Episode 3: Drinking Episode 4: Baseball  Episode 5: Coffee Episode 6: Jail Episode 7: Father Episode 8: Wedding Episode 9: Divorce Episode 10: Summer

BOX 2: Episode 11: Flowers Episode 12: Cars Episode 13: Rich Man, Poor Man Episode 14: The Devil  Episode 15: Eyes  Episode 16: Dogs  Episode 17: Friends & Neighbors  Episode 18: Radio  Episode 19: Bible Episode 20: Musical Map

BOX 3: Episode 21: School Episode 22: Telephone Episode 23: Water 
Episode 24: Time  Episode 25: Guns  Episode 26: Halloween  Episode 27: Dance  Episode 28: Sleep  Episode 29: Food Episode 30: Leftovers 

BOX 4: Episode 31: Tennessee  Episode 32: Moon Episode 33: Countdown
Episode 34: Christmas/New Year's 2 Hour Special  Episode 35: Women's Names Episode 36: Hair Episode 37: Musical Instruments 
Episode 38: Luck Episode 39: Tears Episode 40: Laughter

Bit of a strange thing to review, hence no setlists as such, just the 'Theme' for each episode. These are Bob Dylan's "Theme Time Radio Hour" shows, which have all been released as a 10cd box set by an unnamed label.

Unless you've had your head under a rock, you'll be familiar with these shows. It's Bob as a DJ - 50 shows broadcast via XM satellite Radio in the US and BBC Radio 2 in the UK beween 2006 and 2007. Tkae a look at Wikipedia for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theme_Time_Radio_Hour   The musical tracklists for each setr are easy enough to find via a search engine, so I'll leave that for you if you are so inclined. 

It's a difficult thing to review in the context of a bootleg, since all the music tracks are official releases by other artists. It would be easy to dismiss these set as purely pirare discs, which is a legitimate argument in many ways. Yes the tracks are 'irate', but that's only part of the story here....

What you get is Bob Dylan as the DJ. His unique comments, wit and wisdom between tracks. It's like listening to Bob's personal record collection, with him giving a running commentary in between. From this point of view, it's a wonderful insight and essential listening. The music itelf is of course very diverse, ranging from rap to old-time country and blues and everthing you could imagine in between. 'Songs from the tree of life' as Bob might say. 'Bob the DJ' is relaxed throughout, spinning tall tales, telling jokes...and that voice will hold you spellbound. There just as much magic and artistry here as there is in his live shows, you'd better believe it!

These shows were circulated via Bit Torrent as soon as they were broadcast. There are also several sets doing the rounds on CD-R from a couple of Japanese labels and a couple of versions from 'Hollow Horn'.  So although there's lots of ways for Bob fans to pick this material up, if you're in the market for these as a 'collector's item' and can get over the 'pirate' nature of the musical content, these really are the ones to get. They're all on factory pressed cd, all lovingly presented (complete with booklet), and all ready to be neatly lined up on your shelves.

At the time of writing, the first four sets have been released - I've included photos of the first two only for this review. As stated earlier, each box has 10 cds (one show per disc) except Box four, which has 11cd because of the double 'Christmas' show. Each box is a different color - brown, green, red, blue. The fifth and final box is due out soon.