Track Listing

1. Girl from the North Country - Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan
2. Nashville Skyline Rag
3. To Be Alone With You
4. I Threw It All Away
5. Peggy Day
6. Lay Lady Lay
7. One More Night
8. Tell Me That It Isn't True
9. Country Pie
10. Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1740 in Music
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2004-06-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Customer Reviews

Bob Dylan goes country
"Nashville Skyline" was released in 1969, a country-rock album before country rock.
It is a warm, pleasant record, not one of Dylan's classic albums, excactly, but a great record by almost any other standard. And the songs are unusually short and tight (all of them clock in at less than four minutes), literate, low-key love songs about as far away from Dylan's usual surreal imagery as you can imagine.

On the quiet, wistful "Girl From The North Country", Dylan duets with one of the few men who can just about match his own reputation is the music business, the late, great Johnny Cash.
And those who are usually turned off by Dylan's nasal whine of a voice should pick up this album right away...he delivers in a much gentler, softer voice, almost a baritone, employing a little bit of the technique of an opera singer to produce a pleasant low croon which threw many listeners for a loop (and enhanced Dylan's AM radio appeal).

Highlights include "I Threw It All Away", the almost Eagles-like "Tell Me That It Isn't True", and of course the classic "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You". That song has been cited more than once as one of Dylan's own personal favorites, a gentle mid-tempo shuffle in traditional country format (a I-IV-V chord progression), and one of Dylan's best and most sensitive vocals. It has been reinterpreted live as a raucous rock song, but this simple original version has so much charm...the song features some wonderful rolling piano and some fluid steel guitar by Pete Drake.
The gently rolling "Lay Lady Lay" is another classic, perhaps the most memorable song here, highlighted by Dylan's "new" voice and a rock n' roll-flavoured bridge with some brief, bluesy guitar licks.

"Nashville Skyline" is not the greatest artistic achievement in Bob Dylan's catalogue, but it is a highly skilled record with several excellent songs at its core. Very enjoyable.

On my short list for a desert island.
I love this album! I used to listen to it years ago and rediscovered it recently -- it just holds up incredibly well. The artistry is consistent and of very high quality, and Dylan's voice is atypically rich and melodic. The range of tunes is perfect: from the heartbreakingly beautiful "Lay Lady Lay" (I'm a sucker for pedal steel), the bittersweet "I Threw It all Away" and the lovely "Girl From the North country" sung with Johnny Cash, to the sunny, uptempo "Peggy Day," the tongue-in-cheek "Country Pie," and the sexy and mellow "Tonight I'll be Staying Here with You." The whole CD is totally uplifting -- Thanks, Bob!

Surprisingly Good
I've always been a huge Dylan fan, in fact I have most of his albums, but this one I had always kind of held off on, thinking, "Hmm, Dylan doing a pure country album, this might be one to hold off on for a little while." I was absolutely shocked. While the lyrics might not be as profound as Bob's greatest and the music not as groundbreaking, the album is positively infectious. I heard that this was a happy album and always kinda cringed thinking on other disasters that artists had created in "happy" moments. This is far from a disaster, in fact, it is an absolute triumph. Nashville Skyline is as good as country gets and then some. The slower songs, like the haunting remake of "Girl From the North County" with Johnny Cash are touching and the more upbeat and playful songs like "Country Pie" and "Peggy Day" are fun like they should be. The musicianship is superb and Dylan's vocals are smoother than usual. Maybe not top 5 Dylan, but an excellent album, even a classic in my opinion.