Dylan fans to sing ‘Blood’ in tribute

Every one of them words rang true

And glowed like burnin’ coal

Pourin’ off of every page

Like it was written in my soul from me to you.

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Bob Dylan’s words sum up how participants in a concert Tuesday in New York feel about the man who sang them in “Tangled Up in Blue” and the album they came from, 1975’s “Blood on the Tracks.”

Joan Osborne, Vernon Reid, Jesse Harris, Jeffrey Gaines and others will perform “Blood on the Tracks” at Merkin Concert Hall as a slightly early 30th anniversary tribute to the album that fully put Dylan back on the map artistically after several sporadic early ‘70s releases.

Each performer gets one song, and singer-songwriter Mary Lou Lord will sing “Up to Me,” which had been recorded for “Blood” but wasn’t released until it appeared on Dylan’s 1985 “Biograph” career retrospective set.

“There are so many great songs on that record,” says Osborne, who chose “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” for her turn on stage. “That’s one I’ve always had a certain affinity for. I love the simplicity, the simple heartfelt expression. As much as Bob Dylan is known for other aspects of his writing -- the intellectual power, the social commentary -- I find I gravitate more toward the songs like this, that are just full of love. He has a way of putting it that is just so beautiful.”

Another performer on Tuesday’s show is Mary Lee Kortes, who, as the leader of the band Mary Lee’s Corvette, released her own version of “Blood on the Tracks” in 2002 to enthusiastic reviews. She’ll team with singer-songwriter Gaines and Black Crowes guitarist Rich Robinson on “Idiot Wind.”

Unusual as the event sounds, it’s not the first time this year a group of musicians has performed “Blood on the Tracks” from beginning to end. In March, the studio musicians who backed Dylan on “Blood” did a similar show in Minneapolis, where the album was recorded.

Tuesday’s performance will be broadcast live by New York public radio station WFUV-FM and streamed on the station’s website, www. wfuv.com.

Osborne likens the album to “a classic novel: You can listen to that record again and again and have it reach you in different ways, because you yourself have changed, so you appreciate different aspects of it.”