Bob Dylan's sojourn into the Great American Songbook for his recent Shadows in the Night LP may end up being more than just a one-time thing.

While no one ever really knows what Dylan's going to do next, producer Daniel Lanois has a clearer idea than most: He produced two of his more widely acclaimed latter-day albums, 1989's Oh Mercy and 1997's Time Out of Mind, and the two have remained friends over the years. As Lanois revealed in a recent interview, he was not only privileged enough to hear Shadows in the Night before its release, Dylan also played him songs that could end up being collected for a second volume.

Recalling a lengthy conversation before their private listening party, Lanois explained Dylan's decision to dedicate an album to songs that had been recorded by Frank Sinatra: "He felt that a lot of that music was written not only by great professional songwriters at the time, but a lot of it was written from the heart, from the wartime, and people just pining for a lover," Lanois explained. "He felt there was a lot of spirit in that music. He felt there was a kind of beauty, a sacred ground for him."

Lanois proved a receptive audience. "For one of America’s great writers to say, ‘I’m not gonna write a song. I’m gonna pay homage to what shook me as young boy,’ I thought was very graceful and dignified," he argued, adding that the next Shadows in the Night could already be in the can. "We listened to 21 songs — because he’s made two records of this."

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