It was the year of Woodstock and Altamont, but for Bob Dylan, the concert that epitomized the hippie subculture, and Altamont, symbol of the end of that subculture, were not on the radar.

For Dylan, 1969 was the year he released his full-on country album, Nashville Skyline, an album of mostly simple, straightforward love songs: “Lay Lady Lay,” “To Be Alone with You,” “I Threw It All Away,” “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You” and the others.

The album was recorded in early 1969 at Columbia’s Music Row Studios in Nashville, and was the followup to another album Dylan recorded in Nashville, John Wesley Harding.

For me, a highlight of the album in the Dylan/ Johnny Cash duet, “Girl From The North Country,” a song that was recorded on February 18, 1969 during a jam session that found Dylan and Cash singing old rock and country songs including “Matchbox” and “Blue Yodel” along with Cash classics like “Big River” and “I Walk the Line” and Dylan’s “One Too Many Mornings.”

Listen to a bunch of Dylan/Cash outtakes from the Nashville Skyline sessions:

1- MOUNTAIN DEW
2- I STILL MISS SOMEONE
3- CARELESS LOVE
4- MATCHBOX
5- THAT’S ALRIGHT MAMA
6- BIG RIVER
7- I WALK THE LINE
8- YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE
9- RING OF FIRE
10- GUESS THINGS HAPPEN THAT WAY
11- JUST, A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE
12- BLUE YODEL
13- BLUE YODEL #5 ~THE JOHNNY CASH SHOW:~ 05-01-69
14- I THREW IT ALL AWAY
15- LIVING THE BLUES
16- GIRL, FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY

Listen to Nashville Skyline:

– A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blog post –