After more than a year Bob Dylan starts recording again picking up where he left in 1967 with country music. The short Nashville Skyline is painstakingly recorded in no less than eight long recording sessions in February. Work then continues with three recording sessions in April and May. Some of the covers recorded are later included on Self Portrait. The professional year ends with the famous Isle of Wight concert in August.

2 The Year At a glance

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3 CALENDAR

12-21 February	Nashville Skyline sessions in Nashville, Tennessee.
15 March	Brief telephone interview by Jann Wenner published in Rolling Stone.
9 April	Release of Nashville Skyline
April	Release of I threw It All Away/Drifter's Escape single.
24 & 26 April	Self Portrait sessions in Nashville, Tennessee.
1 May	Three songs for the Johnny Cash Show are recorded in Nashville and broadcast 7 June.
3 May	Self Portrait session in Nashville, Tennessee.
July	Release of Lay Lady Lay/Peggy Day single.
14 July	Guest appearance as "Elmer Johnson" during the encore of The Band's concert at the Mississippi River Festival in Ewardsville. They perform four songs of which three are known: I Ain't Got No Home, Slippin' and Slidin' and In The Pines. Sadly no recording has survived.
9 August	The Daily Mirror in England publishes interview by Don Short.
16 August	The Evening Standard in England publishes interview by Ray Connolly.
27 August	Isle of Wight press conference.
31 August	Isle of Wight concert.
September	An interview by Ian Brady is published in 'Top Pops'.
October	Release of Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You/Country Pie single.
29 November	Jann Wenner interview published in Rolling Stone.
9 December	Birth of Jakob Luke Dylan, Sara and Bob's fourth child.

4 RECORDINGS

12-21 February	Nashville, Tennessee	Nashville Skyline sessions
24 & 26 April	Nashville, Tennessee	Self Portrait sessions
1 May	Nashville, Tennessee	Johnny Cash Show
3 May	Nashville, Tennessee	Self Portrait session
27 August	Seaview At Isle Of Wight, England	Press Conference
31 August	Isle Of Wight, England	Isle Of Wight Festival

For details please refer to the corresponding Still On The Road session pages.

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5 NASHVILLE SKYLINE

This album was recorded during eight different sessions in February in Columbia Studio A in Nashville, Tennessee. Details are known from six of these sessions. Here's a summary:

		# of	take released on
Date	Song	takes	NS[1]	CASH[2]
12 February *
13 February	To Be Alone With You	8	4
	I Threw It All Away	4	4
	Blues
	One More Night	6	6
	Lay Lady Lay
14 February	Peggy Day	3	3
	Tell Me That It Isn't True	8	3\|6\|8 [3]
	Country Pie	2	2
	Lay Lady Lay	5	5
17 February	Nashville Skyline Rag	2	2
	Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You	11	5
	One Too Many Mornings **	11		10\|11 [4]
	I Still Miss Someone **	7
	Don't Think Twice, It's All Right **	3
18 February **	One Too Many Mornings	2		2
	Mountain Dew	2
	I Still Miss Someone	4
	Careless Love	1
	Matchbox	3
	That's All Right Mama	2
	Mystery Train	1
	Big River	2
	Girl From The North Country	3	1\|3 [5]
	I Walk The Line	2
	How High The Water	1
	You Are My Sunshine	1
	Ring Of Fire	3
	Wanted Man	1
	Guess Things Happen That Way	5
	Amen	2
	Just A Closer Walk With Thee	1
	Blue Yodel # 1	2
19 February *
20 February	Lay Lady Lay	1
21 February *

* no details known

** with Johnny Cash

For more details about some of these sessions please refer to the corresponding session page in Still On The Road.

Live history

Song	Debut
Country Pie	Sun Theatre, Anaheim, California, 10 March 2000.
I Threw It All Away	Woodside Bay, Near Ryde, Isle Of Wight, England, 31 August 1969
Lay Lady Lay	Woodside Bay, Near Ryde, Isle Of Wight, England, 31 August 1969
One More Night	O'Keefe Centre For The Performing Arts, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 6 June 1990 with Ronnie Hawkins on vocal and Sunrise Music Center, Sunrise, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 29 September 1995.
Tell Me That It Isn't True	Rec Center. Cal Poly University, San Luis Obispo, California, 11 March 2000.
To Be Alone With You	The Tower Theatre, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, 15 October 1989.
Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You	Shapiro Gymnasium, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, November 22, 1975

Nashville Skyline Rag and Peggy Day have probably never been played live.

Officially released live versions:

Hard Rain

I Threw It All Away, Lay Lady Lay

Performances during The Never-Ending Tour:

Country Pie	2000, 2001
I Threw It All Away	1998, 2000
Lay Lady Lay	1989 – 2001
One More Night	1990, 1995
Tell Me That It Isn't True	2000, 2001
To Be Alone With You	1989-1996, 1998 – 2001
Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You	1990, 1992, 1994 – 1998, 2000, 2001

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6 SONGS 1969

February	Champaign Illinois [6]
	Country Pie
	Nashville Skyline Rag
	One More Night
	Tell Me That It Isn't True
	Peggy Day
	To Be Alone With You
	Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You
	Wanted Man [7]
April	Living The Blues

7 SOURCES

Tim Dunn	I Just Write 'Em As They Come. Annotated Guide to the Writings of Bob Dylan A Not-A-Ces Publishing Venture 1990.
Glen Dundas	Tangled Up In Tapes — 4th Edition A Recording History of Bob Dylan SMA Services, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada 1999. Softcover 334 pages.
Clinton Heylin	A Life In Stolen Moments. Bob Dylan Day By Day 1941-1995. Schirmer Books 1996, 404 pages.
Clinton Heylin	Bob Dylan, The Recording Sessions 1960-1994 St. Martin's Press, 1995, 233 pages.
Michael Krogsgaard	Positively Bob Dylan. A Thirty-Year Discography, Concert & Record Session Guide 1960-1991. Popular Culture, Ink. 1991. 500 pages

8 SUGGESTED READINGS

8.1 General background

Michael Gray	Song & Dance Man III. The Art Of Bob Dylan Cassell 1999. Hardback 918 pages (!!)
Clinton Heylin	Behind The Shades. A Biography. Summit Books 1991, 500 pages.
Anthony Scaduto	Bob Dylan. An intimate biography. New American Library 1973
Robert Shelton	No Direction Home. The Life and Music of Bob Dylan. New American Library 1986.
Howard Sounes	Down The Highway. The Life Of Bob Dylan. Groove Press 2001.

8.2 Article compilations

Carl Benson (ed)

The Bob Dylan Companion — Four Decades of Commentary.

Schirmer Books, New York 1998. Softcover 306 pages.

Craig McGregor (ed)

Bob Dylan. A Retrospective. William Morrow 1972

Elizabeth M. Thomson (ed)

Conclusions On The Wall. New Essays On Bob Dylan.

Thin Man 1980

8.3 Selected articles

Interview: Al Kooper – The Telegraph 37 (Winter 1990)

The third (and last!) issue of the British fanzine Fourth Time Around is a special issue devoted to the Isle of Wight Festival.

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_________________________

[6] Co-written with and recorded by Carl Perkins on the album On Top and reissued on The Songs Of Bob Dylan. No Dylan recording known. Lyrics published in Country Song Hall Of Fame No 16: Bob Dylan (Southern Music, England).

[7] Uncirculated recording attempted February 18 with Johnny Cash. Performed live by Johnny Cash at San Quentin just a week later, this performance is released on Johnny Cash At San Quentin.

Debut

6 SONGS 1969

Bob Dylan, The Recording Sessions 1960-1994

Carl Benson (ed)