Bob Dylan Nashville Skyline CD

Personnel: Bob Dylan (vocals, guitar); Kenny Buttrey, Charles McCoy, Pete Drake, Norman Blake, Charlie Daniels, Bob Wilson, Johnny Cash.
Includes liner notes by Johnny Cash.
Personnel: Bob Dylan (vocals, guitar); Johnny Cash (vocals); Kenneth A. Buttrey, Norman Blake, Pete Drake, Bob Wilson , Charles McCoy, Charlie Daniels.
Dylan's (first) country record helped provide template for Americana movement, and yielded top-10 hit "Lay Lady Lay."
John Wesley Harding suggested country with its textures and structures, but Nashville Skyline was a full-fledged country album, complete with steel guitars and brief, direct songs. It's a warm, friendly album, particularly since Bob Dylan is singing in a previously unheard gentle croon -- the sound of his voice is so different it may be disarming upon first listen, but it suits the songs. While there are a handful of lightweight numbers on the record, at its core are several excellent songs -- "Lay Lady Lay," "To Be Alone With You," "I Threw It All Away," "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You," as well as a duet with Johnny Cash on "Girl From the North Country" -- that have become country-rock standards. And there's no discounting that Nashville Skyline, arriving in the spring of 1969, established country-rock as a vital force in pop music, as well as a commercially viable genre. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
It is hard to recall now how deeply unfashionable country music was in 1969-- Dylan's label, Columbia, dismayed at his apparent retrogression, begged him to remove the word NASHVILLE from the album's title. However, as usual, he proved ahead of the game; his embrace of country ushered in Gram Parsons, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and scores of subsequent artists under the Americana banner. Prescient too was his nod to Johnny Cash, with whom he duets on the gorgeous "Girl From The North Country." Buoyed by an altered, near-crooning vocal style, most of the tracks are pleasant and enduring; the chart hit "Lay Lady Lay" remains one of Dylan's most engaging songs.Rolling Stone (5/31/69, p.36) - "...continues Dylan's rediscovered romance with rural music....a jewel of construction....NASHVILLE SKYLINE achieves the artistically impossible: a deep, human, and interesting statement about being happy..."