Recordings: Traveling Wilburys keep it loose and light
Toledo Blade - November 25, 1990

"Volume 3" -- The Traveling Wilburys (Wilbury)
OK, so the Traveling Wilburys don't travel and aren't really named Wilbury. That doesn't mean the music is a sham. Tom Petty, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, and Jeff Lynn (Muddy, Spike, Boo and Clayton Wilbury, respectively) have come together for a second disk, and while it doesn't have spectacular high points it doesn't have many lows, either.

Petty, Harrison, and Dylan share most of the vocals with startling results because they sound strikingly like each other. The late Roy Orbison -- to whom the disk is dedicated -- is missed.

Most of the tunes, especially "If You Belonged To Me," "New Blue Moon," "Wilbury Twist" and "The Devil's Been Busy," are acoustic guitar-dominated lightweights with an amusing tongue-in-cheek quality and a lackadaisical but engaging feel.

"She's My Baby" is an electric rocker dominated by the neo-wall-of-sound production technique of Jeff Lynn and the guitar break by Gary Moore.

Overall, the mood is loose and light. There is no pressure to imbue every word with deep inner meaning or justify every chord change. But neither is there much exploration or energy.