The eighth installment in Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series, called Tell-Tale Signs (and out today), compiles outtakes and live versions from the singer's past two decades, during which he went from faded star to winner of several Grammys, an Oscar, and even a Pulitzer. Unfortunately, this collection doesn't tell that story very well. It comes in one-, two-, and three-disc versions, with the most interesting tunes frontloaded on the first disc. And unlike other series installments, the tracks are not in chronological order, which means you don't get a sense of how, say, the excellent Robert Johnson cover ("32-20 Blues") might have influenced Dylan's bluesy "Mississippi," recorded four years later. (Listen below.)

That said, you can't fault the songs: An acoustic version of Oh, Mercy's "Most of the Time" connects Dylan's late period to his Village folkie days, and the live "High Water" is a true barn-burner. (A live album, in fact, is long overdue.) But the showpiece is "Red River Shore," a rewrite of a folk standard (made famous by the Kingston Trio). It's an outtake from Time Out of Mind, and shares that album's preoccupation with heartbreak and loss. But without Daniel Lanois' swampy production, the song becomes an immediate, touching meditation on love and mortality. ("Sometimes I think nobody ever saw me here at all," he sings, "'cept the girl from the Red River shore.") You'll find it, of course, on disc one.