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By ALAN K. STOUT; Times Leader Staff Writer
Sunday, March 02, 1997     Page: 1G

It’s a Thursday night in Philadelphia and Jakob Dylan and The Wallflowers
are pounding out the final chords to a fiery, well-played set. After opening
the concert for Sheryl Crow at the Tower Theater, the band leaves the stage to
a roar and a standing ovation.
   
It’s par for the course these days for the Los Angles-based band.
    With a critically acclaimed gold album sitting comfortably on the charts,
lots of radio airplay and two Grammy nominations, The Wallflowers have
arrived.
   
And Jakob Dylan — son of you-know-who (OK, son of Bob Dylan. There, I said
it) — has stepped out of dad’s shadow to become one of the most interesting
songwriters in pop music today.
   
But for Dylan, 27, success hasn’t come overnight. Or easily. He makes it
clear that he has received no preferential treatment in the business because
of you-know-who, and that The Wallflowers’ merits are self-earned.
   
“I know how I got where I am, and I know the work I put into it,” Dylan
says in an interview with The Times Leader. “But people ask. They’re always
going to be curious whether I’ve just been given a lot of things. The reality
is that this is not an overnight band. I’ve been working on it for about seven
years.
   
“I spent a year where I couldn’t get arrested. I couldn’t get a record
deal. I couldn’t get anybody to my shows. I couldn’t find a record producer
who wanted to make this record. Nobody was into it. … It’s not unique — a
lot of bands go through that kind of thing.
   
“I don’t know what people’s impressions are … but in reality, I think
there’s been moments where I worked harder than most people have to work.”
   
The band’s 1992 self-titled debut album, although critically well-received,
didn’t exactly burn up the charts. And friction between the band and Virgin
Records prompted the The Wallflowers to leave the label.
   
“It was pretty typical of a lot of groups that make their first record,”
Dylan says. “It didn’t really work out. They were frustrated with us and I
didn’t really think that they were listening to us that much. A lot of the
people that did champion us there had left while we were on tour. You have to
play as a team in those kind of situations, and we weren’t really getting
along.”
   
Things are going much better with album number two. “Bringing Down the
Horse,” released by Interscope Records, has been certified gold. The album has
sold over half a million copies, with cuts like “6th Avenue Heartache” and
“One Headlight” attaining strong radio and video play. “6th Avenue” was
nominated for two Grammys: Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance by a Duo
or Group.
   
Dylan says The Wallflowers — which also includes guitarist Michael Ward,
drummer Mario Calire, bassist Greg Richling and keyboardist Rami Jaffee —
have been on the road for about a year supporting the album. He says that
although he once considered a different career — art was a possibility — the
appeal of playing music and his love for songwriting eventually won out.
   
“I wouldn’t advise this job for anybody unless they think there’s nothing
else they’re ever going to want to do,” he says, adding that commercial
success is a long shot. “If I didn’t do this, I would always be daydreaming
about it. I’d be doing it in my garage. It’s unavoidable … I looked for a
little while to see if I could fill that space with something else, but I
couldn’t.”
   
Interestingly, Dylan’s inspiration for pursuing a career in music didn’t
come from you-know-who. Like any other kid, Dylan — as a young teen in the
early ’80s — began listening to new wave acts like Elvis Costello and The Jam
— and his favorite, The Clash.
   
And like any other kid, he we wanted to be in a band.
   
“I went out and saw shows when I was 12,” he says. “I looked up at that
stage and saw those guys and wanted to be there at some point.”
   
Not long after, he began composing music.
   
“The thing about writing songs is that if you write them, you should like
’em, because you may end up singing them for the rest of your life,” says
Dylan, who reveals that “6th Avenue Heartache” was inspired by a homeless man
who camped across the street from his home.
   
“The songs that I’ve always appreciated the most of my own were the ones
that were written about some type of experience that was memorably good or
bad. I (also) like songs where you use your imagination … I don’t think you
have to narrow it down to just one.”
   
Dylan, who joined Crow on stage in Philadelphia for several numbers, says
he also couldn’t “narrow down to one” any particular artist with whom he would
collaborate. And although he’s understandably a bit sensitive regarding the
frequent questions about you-know-who, this interview posed him only one:
Would you ever consider working with him?
   
Apparently not too bothered by the question, he laughs and says, “I’d
consider working with everybody.”
   
Tinks Entertainment Complex, 519 Linden St., Scranton.
   
Thursday, March 6, 10:30 p.m.
   
$15.
   
346-8465.