The songs collectively known as the Great American Songbook apparently are like those famous potato chips, in that singers who start sampling them quickly discover you can't stop at just one.

Bob Dylan has joined the long roster of esteemed musicians who have turned initial explorations of the works of Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Sammy Cahn and their peers from the first half of the 20th century into extended visits so they can delve more deeply into some of the most exquisitely crafted songs ever written.

Dylan began in earnest last year with "Shadows in the Night." Now he's back with a second deeply felt, imaginatively reworked batch on "Fallen Angels."

To the pigeonhole-minded who shorthanded "Shadows in the Night" as a "covers record," Dylan smartly responded, "I don't see myself as covering these songs in any way. They've been covered enough. Buried, as a matter of fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day."

-- Randy Lewis, LA Times