Nashville Skyline - Recording Sessions

Recording Sessions

In February 1969, Dylan returned to Nashville to begin work on Nashville Skyline. It had been over a year since his last album, John Wesley Harding, was released, and it had been fifteen months since he produced that album, the last time he was in a recording studio. Many of the Nashville area studio musicians appearing on this album later became the core of Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry.

Dylan held sessions at Columbia's Studio A, scheduling the first on February 12, but there is no record of any work from that first session. A second session held the following day produced master takes of "To Be Alone With You", "I Threw It All Away", and "One More Night." Dylan also made several attempts at "Lay Lady Lay"; as with "I Threw It All Away", "Lay Lady Lay" was written in 1968, one of the few songs written by Dylan that year.

The songs on Nashville Skyline were very relaxed with modest ambitions, something reflected in the studio work ethic. "We just take a song, I play it and everyone else just sort of fills in behind it", Dylan recalls. "At the same time you're doing that, there's someone in the control booth who's turning all those dials to where the proper sound is coming in."

Dylan was also singing with a soft, smooth, country-tinged croon, and many listeners were startled by this 'new' voice. Dylan attributed it to a break from cigarettes, but a number of friends and family members were able to draw a connection between his 'new' voice and the one he used while performing at the Ten O' Clock Scholar in Minneapolis and the Purple Onion pizza parlor in Saint Paul, during the winter and spring of 1960.

Master takes for "Peggy Day", "Tell Me That It Isn't True", "Country Pie" and "Lay Lady Lay" were completed on February 14. During the two-day break that followed, Dylan penned another song, "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You."

When sessions resumed on February 17, "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You" was the primary focus, and a master take was selected from a total of eleven takes. An instrumental, titled "Nashville Skyline Rag", was also recorded at the beginning of the session, and it was later included on the album.

Sometime during that session, country legend Johnny Cash stopped by to visit. A friend and label-mate of Dylan's as well as an early supporter of his music, Cash had been recording next door with his own band. The two wound up recording a series of duets, covering Dylan's "One Too Many Mornings" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" as well as Cash's own "I Still Miss Someone." None of these were deemed usable, but Cash returned the following day to record more duets.

The session on February 18 was devoted exclusively to duet covers with Cash. "One Too Many Mornings" and "I Still Miss Someone" were revisited, and rejected, yet again. "Matchbox", "That's All Right Mama", "Mystery Train", "Big River", "I Walk the Line", and "Guess Things Happen That Way", all made famous by celebrated Sun recordings performed by Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, and Cash himself, were all attempted on February 18, but none of these were deemed usable. Covers of Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #1" and "#5", Cash's "Ring of Fire" (written by his wife, June Carter and Merle Kilgore), "You Are My Sunshine", "Good Old Mountain Dew", the traditional ballad "Careless Love", the traditional hymn "Just a Closer Walk with Thee", "Five feet high and rising", and "Wanted Man" (a song written by Dylan specifically for Cash) were also attempted, and all were rejected. There was little enthusiasm for any of these tracks, but one duet of Dylan's, "Girl from the North Country" (which originally appeared on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan), was ultimately sequenced as the album's opener.

With primary recording complete, three more overdub sessions were held on February 19, 20, and 21. After these sessions were completed, acetate pressings were made for a preliminary sequence to Nashville Skyline. Originally a nine-track, twenty-three minute program, Dylan ultimately kept this sequence intact with one significant amendment, adding "Girl from the North Country" as the opening cut.