Dylan lets his hair down on satellite radio show

Through the years, Bob Dylan’s dealings with the public have been difficult. Hear him live and he can be a mumbling and aloof musician. Riffle through interviews with Dylan on YouTube and you discover a contentious, pretentious artist who is laconic, distant, apparently indifferent to enunciation, pleasantries and other everyday social constructs.

But listen in on Dylan’s weekly satellite show, “Theme Time Radio Hour” on XM Radio -- now in its second season -- and you discover quite a different Dylan. He’s voluble, generous, articulate. He’s liable to quote a poem, give tips on hanging drywall, pass along a recipe. In his show on baseball, he broke into “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” -- a cappella.

The one thing missing, oddly enough, is his own music.

Keen listener Elvis Costello said Dylan’s shows “are a bit like those films of Picasso painting on glass. They don’t pretend to explain anything about the host, but they offer just a little glimpse of the musical -- and literary -- taste of a great singer and songwriter without obliging him to confess every dark secret.”

As part of the contract, Dylan, 66, is given total artistic freedom. Every show begins with a noir intro -- spoken sotto voce by whiskey-voiced Ellen Barkin. And for the next 60 minutes, the listener is transported to Bobby’s World. Each show is built around a theme, and the music is a deep and multicultural trove of musical history. He plays tunes by artists such as the Andrews Sisters, Hank Williams Jr. and Darlene Love.

“I don’t mean in any way to diminish the importance of the quality music he plays,” said magician and loyal listener Penn Jillette of the duo Penn & Teller, “but Dylan’s heart is so in this show that you hear Dylan even in other people’s music.”