The Life Of the Party / They May Be called The Wallflowers, But the Band Led By Bob Dylan's Kid is Finally Getting Invited to All the Best Dances

3.22.97 By Steve Morse (Boston Globe) for the St. Paul Pioneer Press

Jakob Dylan, center (photo missing), and the retro-spiced Wallflowers are all dressed up with a lot of places to go.

Being the son of a rock 'n' roll god isn't everything. Just ask Jakob Dylan. He's the son of legendary folk-rock laureate Bob Dylan, but Jakob still isn't sure whether that's been a help or a hindrance.

``There are times when people think it helps me, and times when people agree that it has hurt me quite a bit,'' says Jakob. "As the cliche goes, yeah, you might get in the door because of it, but you've got to work a lot harder.''

The younger Dylan has finally made it on his own terms. He and his band, the Wallflowers, are a huge success story with the hits ``6th Avenue Heartache'' and "One Headlight,'' a pair of rootsy rockers that have been all over the radio, MTV and VH1. The songs are from the band's sophomore album, "Bringing Down the Horse,'' which came out in 1996.

"I guess a lot of people think it happened overnight, but it's been a steady climb,'' says Dylan, 26.

The Wallflowers have stuck it out for seven years. It must sometimes feel like 70 to Dylan, who was viewed as ``a great non-success story,'' he says, when the band's self-titled first album in 1992 failed to sell. The band then asked out of its contract with Virgin Records, but word spread that Dylan was "difficult'' to work with, and other record labels shunned him.

"We couldn't get arrested for a year,'' says Dylan. ``I had the songs on our latest album on a demo tape, and people (in the industry) passed on them. They wouldn't even come down to our shows. We played two nights a week in Los Angeles for about a year, playing the same songs you're now hearing, but nobody wanted to touch us.''

The Wallflowers' first album signaled a promising talent. But Dylan's voice was mixed too low in the studio, and then he didn't do the promotional plugging that some record executives sought.

"We were pretty much 21, 22 and 23 years old, and we didn't have much more desire than to make a record and go across country playing some shows,'' says Dylan, the fifth and youngest child of Bob Dylan and former model Sara Lowndes. "But certain people in the record company got frustrated with me because I wasn't willing to go on `Entertainment Tonight' and do that kind of thing. Some of them assumed it was a no-brainer that I was going to do those types of things. But I wasn't interested. I didn't have anything on the radio, and I didn't have a band that was very successful, so it didn't make any sense to me.''

Enter Interscope Records, which took a chance on him, and producer T-Bone Burnett, who had also worked with his dad. Burnett elevated Dylan's voice in the sound mix so the lyrics were suddenly comprehensible, and voila, the new disc started selling and earned the Wallflowers a Grammy nomination for best rock performance by a duo or group.

Yet Dylan is still modest about his voice, which has some of the nasal characteristics of his dad's, but has a rough-hewn charm that makes everything he sings (from love ballads to songs of the road) feel genuine.

"My voice still isn't my favorite thing to listen to,'' says Dylan. "If I was making my own tapes at home, I would probably put it back down (in the mix). But I had to realize that in the records and the music that I always liked, you have to hear the vocal and you have to believe it. And I wasn't really doing that. So as uncomfortable as it makes me at times to hear my voice that loud, I think you have to do it.''

As for influences, Dylan cites several favorites. ``Elvis Costello is amazing. And I've always loved Smokey Robinson's words. `Tears of a Clown' is something I wish I had written.''

Fortunately, the general music climate has opened up to allow the Wallflowers' retro-spiced sound to be accepted. ``The cycle of music has changed,'' says Dylan. "When our first record came out, it was pretty much the peak of grunge music. I don't think anyone wanted to hear pianos or organs or see anyone onstage unless they were destroying something. But that's changed now.''

Dylan has tried to keep his songwriting simple. He has the lyrical flair of his father but says that "6th Avenue Heartache'' came quickly, which is his ideal.

"Songwriters spend a lot of time trying to impress themselves with chord changes and wordplay, but the simpler ones that happen real quick are usually the ones you remember most.''

As for his dad's reaction to his success: "He's let me know what he thinks, but if he wanted to say it to other people, he would,'' says Jakob, who remains protective of his dad's privacy. "But I'm sure any songwriter would want his compliments.''

WHO: The Wallflowers, with Polara
WHEN: 6 p.m. today
WHERE: First Avenue (Mainroom), 701 First Ave. N., Mpls.
TICKETS: $15
CALL: 338-8388