In the Groove With Bob Dylan : CHECK LIST: ****Great Balls of Fire***Good Vibrations**Maybe Baby*Running on Empty

***BOB DYLAN. “Down in the Groove.” Columbia.

The fact that only four of these 10 songs were written by Dylan may raise fears this is yet another fruitless group of non-originals in the tradition of “Self-Portrait” in 1970 or “Dylan” in 1972. But a look at the song titles alone should ease those concerns.

Where the earlier LPs contained some marginal remakes of contemporary tunes (including Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”), the focus here is on interpretations of songs from deep in Dylan’s gospel, country and blues roots.

Some of the renditions (notably of Wilbert Harrison’s “Let’s Stick Together”) are of only passing interest, but there is a raw, compelling edge to others (including “Ninety Miles an Hour” and “Rank Stranger to Me”) that gives this disarming album the kind of revealing and introspective tone of Elvis Presley’s late-’60s Memphis sessions.

The intimacy and warmth of the key tracks suggest that this American rock legend enjoys the rare freedom to step away from the expectations and pressure surrounding new collections of his own tunes and simply play music on a more relaxed level.

In “Death Is Not the End,” the most haunting of the four originals, Dylan--who is joined on the album by a large and diverse cast of musicians that includes Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Full Force--wraps all the influences spotlighted on the album into a spiritually tinged number that recalls the grace of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”

While “Groove” lacks the essential quality of a collection of gripping new Dylan tunes, its best moments offer an interesting blueprint of a landmark musician’s own musical heritage.