Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Country Bob Remastered, Made Better, September 28, 2003
Reinventing himself still again, Mr. Dylan has released a true country album with "Nashville Skyline." Gone are any hints of Dylan the protester, Dylan the rocker. This is pure country, purely enjoyable too. "Lay, Lady Lay," is the big hit from this album, but the eerily, haunting remake of "Girl From the North Country," done with the late Johnny Cash, is the song that sets the mood for this too short CD.Unlike the botched job of remastering Sony did on "John Wesley Harding" this one is superb, so much better than the original, it's hard to believe. Reviewed by Stephanie Sane
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favorite Dylan , January 22, 2005
Although I certainly don't think this is by any means Dylan's best album (that honor probably falls on BLONDE ON BLONDE or maybe even JOHN WESLEY HARDIN), NASHVILLE SKYLINE remains my favorite Dylan work.
If for no other reason than for the utterly gorgeous, reckless (by the end of the song, it becomes obvious that the two singers are plowed as they can't remember the lyrics!), haunting (they sound like ghosts lamenting a lost love in an ancient boothill graveyard), cinematic and romantic duet Dylan sings with Johnny Cash, the remake of "Girl From the North Country", SKYLINE is a must own.
"Girl From the North Country" is a fine example of sound and instruments painting a vibrant picture. Cash's resonant bass and Dylan's rolling tenor/baritone work miracles together to tell a story that I describe as William Faulkner meets John Ford and Bret Hart as remade by Billy Bob Thorton. That someone hasn't adapted or used "GFNC" as source material for a film is beyond me. Well, to be honest, it has inspired two works in my catalouge.
"Lay Lady Lay" arguably finds Dylan singing at his most "normal" and romantic. Granted it sounds the least like a Dylan song, but its hazy eroticism coupled with simple imagery works to create a direct and hearfelt love song, free from any flowery baloney.
Originally written to be used on the soundtrack of MIDNIGHT COWBOY, "Lay Lady Lay" is as equally cinematic as "GFNC" and certainly more libidinously driven.
There are many other small gems on this, perhaps Dylan's least pretentious alblum. Much of NASHVILLE SKYLINE sounds like a series of bootlegged outtakes capturing a group of fine musicians sitting around and jamming a summer night away.
I suppose that this why the album ultimately works for me.
That and I grew up with NASHVILLE SKYLINE playing constantly in the backgroud. This along with THE BAND, THE VELVET GENTLEMAN featuring the music of Eric Satie, the soundtrack to EASY RIDER and watching "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" framed, defined and formulated my childhood.
Enjoy!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dylan's warmest album, December 15, 2003
Most Dylan albums are so long that in the days of the 33 1/3 LP, the needle on my record player would often swing back to its resting place without making it to the final groove. That wasn't a problem with "Nashville Skyline." With a total running time of 27 minutes, Dylan's landmark retreat from rock and roll into the world of country music is one of his most compact works. It's not his most ambitious album, but it is one of his most charming. The opening track, a revival of 1963's "Girl From the North Country," is a beaut, an intimate duet with the legendary Johnny Cash. It's slightly offkey, and the two singers are not always in synch (with Cash reciting one lyric while Dylan recites another) but there's a warmth to the performance that might not have survived a more studied interpretation. "Warmth" may be the key word in describing this collection. Having exorcised quite a few demons on his previous albums, Dylan is relaxed here, expressing almost no anger, although there is room for regret in the classic "I Threw It All Away" and suspicion in the lushly produced "Tell Me That It Isn't True." The best tracks are probably "Lay, Lady, Lay" and "Tonight, I'll Be Staying Here With You," but even such simple ditties as "Country Pie" and "Peggy Day" offer their share of fun. This may not be "Blonde on Blonde," but it wasn't meant to be either. Listen to it on its own terms and you're not likely to be disappointed.
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Bob Dylan: "At last I was here, in New York City... I was there to find singers, the ones I'd heard on record--Dave Van Ronk, Peggy Seeger, Ed McCurdy, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, Josh White, the New Lost City Ramblers, Reverend Gary Davis... most of all to find Woody Guthrie." Read more musical excerpts from Chronicles, Vol. 1 on our Music You Should Hear page.
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by Bob Dylan 
