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Bob Dylan has long had a love-hate relationship with bootlegs. Ever since The Basement Tapes circulated underground for years, studio outtakes and alternative takes have found ways of leaking out. The Dylan team put a tighter and tighter lid on things for decades, but finally succumbed to pressure and began releasing studio and live recordings as The Bootleg Series. If they’re out anyway, the thinking likely went, you might as well make a few bucks.

One song that still hasn’t seen official release is “Rock Me Mama.” To be fair, “song” is putting it generously. This fragment comes from Dylan’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid soundtrack sessions, but he never seems to have made it past the chorus, which he repeats endlessly on the scratchy recording.

Enter Old Crow Medicine Show to fill in the gaps. They took the snippet and fleshed it out with verses and a bluegrass-pop arrangement as “Wagon Wheel.” The song became one of their most well-known tracks, getting covered by everyone from Little Feat to Against Me! One more recent versions comes from Pat Buzzard. Featuring Marti Dodson on harmony, the song rocks and rolls with some terrific guitar solos to accompany the fiddle and banjo. Continue reading »