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Bob Dylan releases track, “Full Moon & Empty Arms,” from new album coming this year

by Jay Gabler

May 13, 2014

Still as full of surprises as his fellow Minnesotans Prince and Paul Westerberg, Bob Dylan has just released a new track, "Full Moon & Empty Arms," streaming on his website. The song isn't an original: it's a 1945 song written by Buddy Kaye and Ted Mossman, best-known in the version performed that year by Frank Sinatra. A representative for Dylan told Rolling Stone that the song will appear on a new album to be released later this year, but shared no other details—not even the title of the album, though Dylan posted the above image with the title shadow-cover-new.jpg.

While you speculate as to what the Hibbing native has in store, click below to listen to the new track. The Current's Bill DeVille has heard from a contact in Nashville that Dylan's kicked smoking, which—if true—might account for the relatively smooth sound of Dylan's voice here. (Dylan earlier attributed the unusual sound of his voice on 1969's Nashville Skyline to a smoking cessation.) Classical music fans will recognize the song's melody, which the songwriters adapted from a Rachmaninoff piano concerto.

Bob Dylan Full Moon and Empty Arms
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This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.