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Anyone who knows me knows that I’m an XM Satellite Radio fanboy.  I listen religiously every day from the time I get up until the time I get home, and then I listen some more.  When I’m not tuned in to Opie & Anthony or Ron & Fez, I like to check out some of the other headliner shows.  Tom Petty has a show called Buried Treasure which isn’t bad, but my personal favorite is Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour. 

The first time I heard the concept of this show, I thought it was a joke.  Bob picks a theme for the week and then plays music relating to that… themes ranging from dogs to flowers to coffee.  In any other hands, this show would probably be a boring, predictable gimmick, but instead, it’s a weekly invitation into Dylan’s personal music collection. 

Take any of the themes that he’s chosen, like Jail for example.  List the first five songs that come to your head… and you’ll be lucky if he plays one of them.  In that episode he played Folsom Prison Blues and Back on the Chain Gang, but filled the rest of the hour with obscure country, blues, and big band tracks that you’ve probably never heard. 

And that’s what makes this show great…  it’s a “musical journey”, if I could use the cliche.  He literally opens his musical archives to play things that you might have never heard otherwise.  One episode he apologized for a song having a lot of static… it was an old vinyl that he had played to death… and the master recordings of it had been destroyed, so he couldn’t even buy a new copy if he wanted to. 

His collection spans every genre, even those that I wouldn’t typically listen to, but the way Dylan presents it keeps my attention and I enjoy every minute.  He weaves this huge variety of songs together with clips from old radio shows or commercials, as well as his own poetic musings.  He can make you laugh or make you think, but it never sounds pretentious or contrived.  It’s always creative and interesting… once in a while you’ll even get a song out of him.

If you’re interested in checking out the show but you’re not an XM subscriber, you’re in luck.  I’m not sure of the legality of this, but you can download all of the episodes over at WhiteManStew.com’s Theme Time Radio Hour forum.  My favorite episodes so far are #22 Telephone and #5 Coffee.  If you listen to any of them, let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Edit:  If you’re considering becoming an XM subscriber, Sears is going to have the Samsung Nexus 25 for a mere $50 on Black Friday and Saturday.  That’s $80 cheaper than the list price.  XM service is $12.95 a month.  Alternatively you could get an online subscription for $7.99 a month.