Bob Dylan Nashville Skyline CD

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Dylan's (first) country record helped provide template for Americana movement, and yielded top-10 hit "Lay Lady Lay."

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.

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. [In 2003, Columbia/Legacy reissued 15 selected titles from Dylan's catalog as hybrid SACDs, playable in both regular CD players and Super Audio CD players. Each title is packaged as a digipak, containing the full original artwork. On each of the titles, and on each of the layers, the remastered sound is spectacular, a considerable upgrade from the initial CD pressings.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Originally released in 1969, this reissue is a hybrid CD consisting of remastered regular version playable on all players and a super audio CD version for players equipped with the format. Features 10 tracks including the hit 'Lay Lady Lay' as well as a duet with Johnny Cash on 'Girl From The North Country'. Digipak. Sony. 2003.

Includes liner notes by Johnny Cash.

Personnel: Bob Dylan (vocals, guitar).

Liner Note Author: Johnny Cash.

Photographers: Al Clayton; Elliott Landy.

Unknown Contributor Roles: Bob Wilson; Bob & Pauline Wilson; Kenneth A. Buttrey; Norman Blake; Pete Drake; Charles McCoy; Charlie Daniels.

Personnel: Bob Dylan (vocals, guitar); Kenny Buttrey, Charles McCoy, Pete Drake, Norman Blake, Charlie Daniels, Bob Wilson, Johnny Cash.

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..."