To my ears, New Morning always sounds a bit like Nashville Skyline ... only without the country. No fiddles or pedal steels, but it’s still Bob trying once again to work in the songwriter-for-hire mode. Sure two of the songs are lyrically little more than veiled anecdotes from Bob’s life (meeting Elvis in “Went To See The Gypsy” and getting an honorary doctorate in “Day Of The Locusts”). But for the most part this is Bob writing outside of himself. He’s doing work for other writers and projects (“Three Angels” and “Father Of Night” from the nowhere near completed Devil and Daniel Webster musical). On my two favorite songs off this album, he’s showing off his range and versatility with a schmaltz-waltz that would be perfect for the Lawrence Welk show (“Winterlude”) and then switching directly into Jazz (“If Dogs Run Free”). Even the Blues (which Dylan had often played with and stretched into his own image) is given a fairly straight run-through with “One More Weekend”. He’s even trying to write straight-ahead pop songs like the title track, “The Man In Me”, and “If Not For You” (which sounds like it should be a hit for Olivia Newton-John... and it was). While New Morning is not nearly as brave or interesting as Self-Portrait or even Nashville Skyline, it’s a solid, fun, and occasionally weird album.