July 1: Bob Dylan, Nashville Skyline (1969)

By the time 1969 had rolled around, Dylan, as if pointing the way of the future, had made politics and social issues less and less important in his music. With this album, coming in at less than half an hour, he had traded in his wordy and righteous indignation for a chance to write and record an album of pretty songs that weren't going to be automatically dissected for their every nuanced meeting. It seems to me that at this point in his career he really just wanted to be Johnny Cash or Merle Haggard, good songwriters and performers who weren't loaded down with the baggage Dylan had been since his early days. Dylan just wanted to make a good country record, so he went to Nashville and went into the studio with some big (or would become big) names in the country scene, including Norman Blake, Earl Scruggs, and Charlie Daniels. Dylan uses his voice in a way that had rarely been heard before, exchanging his high nasally warble for a tenor croon.

The album's opener is a return to a track off of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Girl From The North Country is done as a duet with Johnny Cash. It is a loose performance with a fair more life than the original recording. Nashville Skyline Rag is a fast moving, major key instrumental with a swing blues progression and a melodic theme visited by pedal steel, dobro, flat picked guitar, piano, all so expertly delivered it leaves the usually confident harmonica of Dylan feeling flat in comparison. To Be Alone With You is a soulful, upbeat country rock number with busy piano. I Threw It All Away is a Ray Price like Nashville ballad, a slow moving number with a soulful vocal delivery and Hammond B3 in the background. Peggy Day has an easy moving pedal steel and dobro taking turns, and along with One More Night is a mid-tempo country swing number. Lay Lady Lay, the most well known song from this outing, a soulful slow moving number with a heartbreaking delivery that shows Dylan still has an affinity for a well delivered line, "Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed/Whatever colors you have in your mind/I'll show them to you and you'll see them shine." Tell Me That It Isn't True is a classic country heartbreak number about a man who is willing to take the word of his woman about her fidelity despite stories to the contrary, and is the most interesting song lyrically on the album, "They say that you've been seen with some other man/That he's tall, dark and handsome, and you're holding his hand/Darlin', I'm a-countin' on you/Tell me that it isn't true." Country Pie is a quick moving number with non-sensical lyrics in between his proclamations that "Oh me oh my/I love me some country pie." Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You is full of imagery about not leaving a lover long after he should have been gone.

More than anything this album is a testament to how diverse Dylan's influences are, and how capable he is to jump genres and put together as good a country album as any coming out at that time. There isn't really a stinker on this album, which considering the jump Dylan was taking isn't guaranteed. There is a looseness throughout, and a sense in Dylan's voice that he is just having a good time, which helps make this album so listenable. For those that had become accustomed to Dylan's cutting wit and socially aware lyrics, this album must have been shocking, as there is none of that here. The album is actually filled with clichés, both musically (the perfectly placed bridges) and lyrically. But the fullness of Dylan's voice and experience makes these all the more acceptable.

Listen:

Peggy Day

Tell Me That It Isn't True

Lay Lady Lay