I think it’s only fitting we start with a personal favorite, and recent Notes of Note subject: Bob Dylan.

Today’s music of the morning: Modern Times.

After the music business wrote him off as “dead in the water”, Bob Dylan responded in 1997 releasing the first in a string of some of the strongest material of his career. On 2006’s “Modern Times,” the string of that rebirth continues on. We see an aging Dylan in a modern world reconnecting with and reinventing his way of worship, redefining and rediscovering his idea of love and- most strikingly of all -causing us to rethink our idea of “Bob Dylan.”

The album’s first three tracks alone, clocking in at just under 20 minutes, are the perfect eye-openers for a morning playlist:

#1. “Thunder On The Mountain” – a driving slow-groove shuffle with a positive bent for the hardest part of the morning: getting vertical.

#2: “Spirit On The Water” – a cooled off two-step toasting love and the lust for life to help coast through the daily routine.

#3: “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” – Two eggs down, shoes tied tight and everything looks just as you like, this Muddy Waters cover is the hammer’s head, pounding the last nail in place before it’s time to take the day.

And it just gets better and better as the record continues, blasting on the car stereo the whole way in.

Modern Times has just what it takes to grease your wheels. Take it from a caffeine addict, much better than a cup of coffee.