Bob Dylan enjoys an extensive reputation of being a tough interview.

He's never been a guy to reveal too much of himself - other than directly through his records and concerts - and he abhors talking about his art. In fact Bob has managed to create a huge blanket of mystery over his career.

So when the opportunity finally came to talk with Bob's son Jakob - the leader of a very successful American band called The Wildflowers - we couldn't help but anticipate a bit of a gruelling affair for both parties. The old like father- like -son- analogy.

Surely some of that tightly controlled media leash might be expected to be evident down the family line, some shades of the reticence that has marked the father's epic career.

We would not be disappointed.

Jakob, at the tender age of 26, not only looks like his dad but he talks like him, even if doesn't talk about him. When the Wallflowers' self-titled debut album was released in 1992, Jakob observed that 'obviously, people wanted to talk about the obvious, and that wouldn't do anyone any good."

Down the track a tad, and with a top five U.S. album to bolster the interview topic agenda, we figured that Jakob might have moved out from the wall and into the spotlight.

Politely accepting our congratulations about the success of the album, aptly named Bringing Down the Horse, he noted from the wilds of Georgia where the Wallflowers were performing: ''We had a lot of success in the States with the first single (6th Avenue Heartache) which had a good run and kinda typically sets up the second one.

The second one (One Headlight) kinda caught US by surprise in doing as well as it's doing." One Headlight is starting to throw some sparks on Oz charts and we asked Jakob to tell us something about the song.

"Well," he mumbled, all too predictably, I'm not real good at describing lyrics or what songs are about." Quickly backtracking, we asked where One Headlight fell in the overall scheme of things.

''Well,it was one of the last songs we wrote for the record. I did it just when we were getting ready to start. We had studio time booked and I thought I was short a few songs and it kinda just snuck in there at the end."

The Wallflowers have evolved quite remarkably since the acclaimed debut and there seems a more natural feel to the band's output. ' Well," explains Jakob, ''I'd been writing songs longer and there's some new members in the band.

"Typically when bands make first records, they spend a lot of time looking at that record and learning from it. That's a pretty normal procedure. We just evolved, that's all."

Jakob finds no shortage of reasons why the debut album failed to crack with the mainstream marketplace. "None of the reasons are that important," he shrugs, "and I don't think that we made a record that was capable of selling. I don't think the record company where we were had the desire to try. That was also a time when groups like Nirvana was very very big and groups like mine were not!"

Bringing Down the Horse was produced by T-Bone Burnett, a veteran whose studio credits are too numerous to mention here. ''Yeah, well I've met T-Bone sporadically throughout my life but I hadn't seen him in many years so it was pretty much like starting over.

"He turned out to be a great choice. I wanted to work with a singer/songwriter and that's what he is. There aren't a lot of singing and songwriting producers out there. But I wanted to work with someone like that to help direct me personally with a lot of the songs."

The album is titled after a Iyric line from one of the tracks, Visible City. ''When I was thinking of a name for the record, I went through all of the songs to see if there was something that felt like a summary of the record - and that line did.

"This group has gone through a lot of challenges In the last couple of years trying to make this record. To me, the experience was like trying to bring a horse down."

The album is dedicated to long-time Nashville pedal steel guitarist, the late Leo LeBlanc. ''He was a player from Nashville who ended up in L.A., ' notes Jakob.

"He was an older guy and he spent a lot of time playing with us for two years there. This is the last record that he got to play on.

"He was just an incredible player who took a liking to us guys and the least we could do - since he was a very generous person - was dedicate the album to him."

As far as ongoing plans are concerned, Jakob says 'we've been on the road for about a year and a half in the States with only the holidays off. We've got another week here, then we're off to Europe, and we return to the States for a summer tour co-headlining with Counting Crows."

So far down under hasn't figured in the Wallflowers' itinerary but Dylan says that he hopes to get here soon. Long-term ambitions are difficult to prise free from our subject. '' I don't look that far ahead," he says. '' It's more important to chase the next day. I wanna keep doing that. I'd like to start a new record real quick - hopefully we'll get started by the end of the year."

Which all leads to the most obvious question - how does Dad regard his progeny's endeavours ? No prizes for his answer. ''I kinda try to let people try and ask him," he volunteers. ' It's rude to speak for other people so I'll let him answer that."

Fair enough but surely somehow there must be some indication that Bob's

buzzed to see his son high on the charts in his own right. ''I'm sure most parents would like to see their kids do well," he responds, another master of the understated and the un-stated.