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Everybody knows who Dylan and Cash are, but who the hell are the Nashville Cats? The name doesn’t refer to a band, but a loose collective of ace session musicians in the 615 area code during the 1960s and 1970s, when Nashville studios had a full-to-bursting Rolodex of some of the best pickers, fiddlers, drummers, bassists, dobro players, and pedal steel guitarists in the country. You might not know who Norbert Putnam is, or Pig Robbins, or Kenny Buttrey, or Buddy Spicher, but odds are you’ve heard them on records by the Byrds, Neil Young, Joan Baez, Steve Miller, three of the four solo Beatles, J.J. Cale, and Simon & Garfunkel, among others.
“The Nashville Cats” was a name applied retroactively to this scene by the Country Music Hall of Fame to lend shape and specificity to the moment. The new compilation Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City is a 36-track companion piece to the Hall of Fame’s exhibit of the same name, and while the release is a little confusing to unpack, it doesn’t diminish the power of the music contained in it. These songs are credited to well-known stars, but in this setting their names are less important than the ones behind them. Casually blurring the lines between country and rock, these session players helped to redefine pop music away from its coastal loci and re-settle it just north of the Deep South.
Blonde on Blonde was the scene’s big bang: In 1966, Dylan decamped to Nashville to record at the CBS studios, hiring mostly local musicians to flesh out songs for what would become one of his best records. In Dylan’s wake, more and more artists flew into Nashville for sessions, some with only a tenuous connection to “country.” They might have sounded like mere tourists in Music City were it not for the so-called Cats who sound alternately funky and stately, majestic and gutterbound, lowdown and high lonesome.
Many artists went to Nashville specifically to cover Dylan, and the well-chosen covers here show how his impressionistic lyrics gave session players license to invent new flourishes. Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats makes a fine primer on country rock. Like any good catalog, however, this album is an extension of the exhibit, not a substitute. Perhaps the best way to hear it is on your way to or from the Hall of Fame, where the exhibit is up through the end of 2016.
Tracklist:
Disc 1
1. Absolutely Sweet Marie (Bob Dylan)
2. Harpoon Man (Charlie McCoy & the Escorts)
3. It Ain’t Me, Babe (Johnny Cash)
4. Down In The Flood (Flatt & Scruggs)
5. The Way I Feel (Gordon Lightfoot)
6. I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight (Bob Dylan)
7. You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere (The Byrds)
8. This Wheel’s On Fire (Ian & Sylvia)
9. Gentle On My Mind (John Hartford)
10. Some Of Shelly’s Blues (The Monkees)
11. Turn Around (The Beau Brummels)
12. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (Tracy Nelson)
13. If You Don’t Like Hank Williams (1968 Demo)(Kris Kristofferson)
14. Bird On The Wire (Leonard Cohen)
15. Hickory Wind (The Byrds)
16. Blowing Down That Dusty Road (Country Joe McDonald)
17. The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel)
18. Stone Fox Chase (Area Code 615)
19. The Byrds Sweetheart Of The Rodeo Radio Ad (Bonus Track)
Disc 2
1. Girl From The North Country (Bob Dylan with Johnny Cash)
2. Driftin’ Way Of Life (Jerry Jeff Walker)
3. Behind That Locked Door (George Harrison)
4. Beaucoups Of Blues (Ringo Starr)
5. Going To The Country (Steve Miller Band)
6. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Joan Baez)
7. City Of New Orleans (Steve Goodman)
8. Blue River (Eric Andersen)
9. Heart Of Gold (Neil Young)
10. If Not For You (Previously Unreleased Version) (Bob Dylan with Lloyd Green)
11. Crazy Mama (J.J. Cale)
12. Seven Bridges Road (1972 Nashville Version) (Steve Young)
13. Will The Circle Be Unbroken (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)
14. Silver Wings (Earl Scruggs with Linda Ronstadt)
15. A Six Pack To Go (Leon Russell, as Hank Wilson)
16. Sally G (Paul McCartney & Wings)
17. Matchbox (Live On The Johnny Cash Show) (Derek & The Dominos with Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins)
Media Info:
Bitrate: 320 kbps
Channels: stereo
Samplerate: 44100
Encoder: FhG
MPEG-1 layer 3
**tyvm and all due respect to zorn and all those who care enough to share
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