Infidels is the first Bob Dylan album I bought as a new release. It’s maintained a spot in my rotation for four decades. Scott Dean Taylor and Seth Andrew Davis apparently share my affinity for the undervalued 1983 recording.
The itinerant drummer and the Kansas City guitarist exchanged banter about Infidels during a performance featuring Maria Elena Silva and Devin Gray last year. The four track titles of their new improvised duo album Infidels are lyrics from the Dylan songs "Jokerman" and "Union Sundown".
Portions of “They Used To Grow Food in Kansas” could pass for guitarist Mark Knopfler and drummer Sly Dunbar warming up at Dylan’s recording session. The duo’s squiggles, blurps, taps and thumps intimate melodic intent.
The 17-minute opening selection “You were born with a snake in both of your fists while a hurricane was blowing” is more aligned with the severe extemporization that characterizes much of Davis’ output.
Dylan accuses an antagonist of being a “noisemaker, spirit maker, heartbreaker, backbreaker” on the Infidels’ song “License to Kill”. Taylor and Davis fit the bill on their remorseless version of Infidels.