by Stewart MasonSteve Howe's tribute album Portraits of Bob Dylan is fundamentally flawed from conception. Howe is a gifted, if occasionally bombastic, guitarist, but Dylan's simple melodies don't really lend themselves to epic guitar workouts. Furthermore, the list of somewhat-past-their-prime vocalists Howe gathered to help with this project (former Yes bandmate Jon Anderson, easy listening favorite Phoebe Snow, Annie Haslam of prog-classical explorers Renaissance, soul legend P.P. Arnold, and former Hollies lead singer Allan Clarke) are undeniably talented, but, well, none of them are Dylan, and as CBS Records was reminding us as early as the mid-'60s, "Nobody sings Dylan like Dylan." What we're left with, then, are 12 perfectly adequate covers ranging from old chestnuts like "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" (done in a rather nice ornate finger-picking style) to the admirably obscure "Going, Going, Gone" (from 1974's underrated Planet Waves and essayed in a hyper-dramatic style by Clarke). Portraits of Bob Dylan is pleasant enough, and it's a nice gesture toward an obvious hero of Howe's, but it's not even close to essential for either Dylan or Howe fans.