Blonde on Blonde and Beyond: 50 Classic Albums of Nashville's Post-Dylan Era, Part I (1966-72)

The great Texas-born record producer Bob Johnston, who died in Gallatin, Tenn. in August at 83, is the patron saint of this list, which compiles 50 rock, country, folk and pop albums made in Nashville between 1966 and 2008.

Johnston’s 1966 Nashville sessions with Bob Dylan for the singer’s groundbreaking Blonde on Blonde LP are the starting point for the Country Music Hall of Fame’s current exhibit, Dylan, Cash and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City. And you could say this list serves as a supplement to the Hall of Fame's recent double-disc compilation of music by the artists featured in the exhibit — that collection includes the big names, such as Simon and Garfunkel, Paul McCartney, the Byrds, and Dylan and Cash themselves. This list, however, takes into account many of the less famous (and equally interesting) artists who recorded in Nashville during the '60s, '70s and beyond.

Many of these records feature Dylan-influenced singer- songwriters who came to Nashville to record, but I’ve also picked significant works made by Music City natives whose roots lay in soul, pop and mainstream country. The diversity here suggests that Nashville has been a complex musical melting pot for the better part of the past century — not to mention a city that's produced some very strange records indeed. In almost every way, this confluence of rockers, folkies, soul singers, country crooners and oddball singer-songwriters foreshadowed what is now known as Americana.

Sadly, along with Johnston, several of the famed Nashville session cats who contributed to these records have died in the last year. Guitarist and producer Chip Young and bassist Henry Strzelecki died in December, and keyboardist Bobby Emmons and steel-guitar giant Buddy Emmons died earlier this year.

When I interviewed him in 2012 for the Cream, Johnston offered this chestnut about his days as head of Columbia Records' Nashville division:

They never had me in any fuckin' role. After Dylan did Highway 61 with me, I was in the studio in New York with Dylan, walking around the studio with him, and I got to where the speakers were, and I said, “Dylan, sometime you gotta come to Nashville. They got great musicians down there, and I took all the fuckin' clocks out, and tore the little rooms down where they had everybody workin' with wooden headphones, and put the drums against the wall, and put a 100-foot cord underneath the floor so everybody else could walk around.” Instead of puttin' Dylan in wood, I put him in glass, surrounded him in glass with little levers there, so they could talk to him and see him, and everybody could be together. And Dylan went, “Hmm.” He never answered you, just like Jack Benny. He sticks his thumb on his chin, and when he walked out of there, [Columbia executive] Bill Gallagher and a couple more guys were there, and they walked over and they said, “If you ever mention Dylan and Nashville again, we'll fire you.” And I said, “Why would you do that?” And they said, “Because they're a bunch of stupid goddamn people down there, and we don't want that.”

So, with that in mind, here is part I in this roundup of 50 albums cut in this town or its environs, with the bulk of them recorded before 1981, by which time disco, punk and New Wave had transformed the musical landscape. In some entries, I refer to a song or songs that we couldn't find video or music for, and I hope that will encourage you to seek out the original records. Happy listening! And check back tomorrow to delve into part II of this list!

Moldy Goldies: Colonel Jubilation B. Johnston and His Mystic Knights and Street Singers Attack the Hits (Columbia, 1966)

After finishing Blonde on Blonde, Johnston brought together Mac Gayden, Charlie McCoy, Kenneth Buttrey and others to cut a series of absurdist cover versions of tunes current in 1966, including Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.” As the producer told me in 2012, “I had just done Dylan, and ‘Rainy Day Women’ and all that shit, and I thought, what a great thing, we'll use that band and get them all fucked up and take it sideways, and that's what we did.” Gary Burton, Tennessee Firebird (RCA Victor, 1967)

An early example of avant-garde country-jazz fusion, Tennessee Firebird is richly textured, and the interplay between Charlie McCoy’s bluesy harmonica licks and the cool-jazz lines of vibraphonist Burton and saxophonist Steve Marcus makes “Walter L.” a great track on a fascinating album. As on Moldy Goldies, Dylan’s influence is omnipresent: The album features versions of his “I Want You” and “Just Like a Woman.” Ian and Sylvia, Nashville (Vanguard, 1968)

Sylvia Tyson’s vibrato-laden vocals may be an acquired taste, but she did fine here with Dylan’s “This Wheel’s on Fire.” The high-grade Music City backing of bassists Norbert Putnam and Bob Moore, along with Kenneth Buttrey’s sensitive drumming and the guitars of Jerry Reed, Fred Carter and Harold Bradley, make this a listenable folk-rock collection. The Beau Brummels, Bradley’s Barn (Warner Bros./Seven Arts, 1968; Rhino, 2011)

One of the American progenitors of power pop, The Beau Brummels cut this at Owen Bradley’s famous studio in Mt. Juliet with Norbert Putnam, guitarist Wayne Moss and other Nashville cats. The 2011 Rhino reissue includes outtakes and a 1968 interview with the band. Moby Grape, Truly Fine Citizen (Columbia, 1969)

“Well, if it ain’t Moby Grape,” says a Southern-fried male voice in the radio ad for Truly Fine Citizen. Actually, it was barely Moby Grape: this Bob Johnston production was done with three of the original five members and bassist Bob Moore. John Stewart, California Bloodlines (Capitol, 1969)

Producer Nick Venet brought former Kingston Trio member Stewart to Nashville to cut California Bloodlines with a brace of great session players. Among them was Nashville singer-songwriter John Buck Wilkin, who played rhythm guitar and sang background with his mother, country songwriting legend Marijohn Wilkin. “My mom was good friends with Nick Venet, and when he came to town with John Stewart, we got together in a motel room and worked out those parts,” Wilkin tells the Scene. With Kenneth Buttrey and Norbert Putnam laying down a fat groove, the record peaks with “Never Goin’ Back,” during which Stewart namechecks all the musicians on the session. Alexander “Skip” Spence, Oar (Columbia, 1969)

Recorded at Columbia Studios in Dec. 1968, Oar is the former Moby Grape guitarist and singer’s solo testament. Overdubbing all the instruments, Spence intoned such songs as “Broken Heart” and “Diana” with the sincerity of a man roasting a squirrel over a campfire. Lawrence Reynolds, Jesus Is a Soul Man (Warner Bros./Seven Arts, 1969)

“They say he's a square, that Jesus is nowhere / Jesus is a soul man, and I'm sure sold on him,” sang Alabama-born Reynolds on this gentle folk-rock album's title track. A 1969 hit single, “Jesus Is a Soul Man” was his shot at fame, though he also recorded for the Astro label. Reynolds died in 2000. Dee Mullins, The Continuing Story (Plantation, 1969)

This list mostly avoids straight country, but the work of Texas-born Mullins exemplifies how country attempted to address late-’60s social problems. Dylan himself could not have improved upon Mullins’ incredible “California, the Promise Land,” which found the narrator and his father in deep trouble in the land of sunshine and oranges. Mother Earth, Make a Joyful Noise (Mercury, 1969)

Vocalists Tracy Nelson, R.P. St. John Jr. and Ronald Stallings sing the heck out of the group’s original material and Allen Toussaint’s “What Are You Trying to Do” and “Wait, Wait,Wait.” Professional songwriting gives way here to more idiosyncratic expression: St. John’s surrealistic “The Fly” and “Then I’ll Be Moving On” are masterpieces. Area Code 615, Trip in the Country (Polydor, 1970)

This record is notable for its most famous track, “Stone Fox Chase,” a country-funk instrumental that was later used as the theme for the British Broadcasting Corporation’s pop-music performance show The Old Grey Whistle Test. (It also inspired the name of Nashville music venue The Stone Fox.) The group played San Francisco’s famed Fillmore West in 1970: “We were probably the only band to play The Fillmore with music stands so we could glance down and see what the chords were,” says the group's bassist, Norbert Putnam. Rob Galbraith, Nashville Dirt (Columbia, 1970) 

Galbraith worked as an A&R man for Columbia Records, and cut Nashville Dirt after producer Billy Sherrill heard one of his funky, soul-inflected originals. Galbraith’s relaxed vocals combine with his distinctive rhythm-guitar licks and session bassist Henry Strzelecki’s fat lines. Dennis Linde, Linde Manor (Intrepid/Mercury, 1970)

Today, the Texas-born Linde is probably best known for writing such hits as “Burning Love,” definitively recorded by Elvis Presley. But Linde, who died in 2006, was Nashville’s equivalent to Todd Rundgren — an experimental pop musician. Produced by Jerry Kennedy and Billy Swan at Wayne Moss’ Cinderella Studios, Linde Manor features horn arrangements by Bergen White. DJ Shadow sampled the title track on his 1996 trip-hop classic Endtroducing. Great Speckled Bird, Great Speckled Bird (Ampex, 1970)

Moderately famous as Todd Rundgren’s first production credit, Great Speckled Bird was a Nashville version of the kind of folk-rock Fairport Convention was making at the same time. “Rio Grande” was about a cocaine bust, while “Smiling Wine” was straight country. Bergen White, For Women Only, (SSS International, 1970; Rev-Ola, 2004)

In his long, distinguished career, Bergen White has been an arranger and nonpareil background singer. He was a member of Ronny and the Daytonas, whose John Buck Wilkin-penned “G.T.O.” made the pop charts in 1964. Cut at Cinderella Studios, For Women Only is a soft-pop album in the mode of Bread or The Sandpipers. John Buck Wilkin, In Search of Food, Clothing, Shelter and Sex (Liberty, 1970)

After hitting as singer and writer of Ronny and the Daytonas’ “G.T.O.,” Wilkin created a chamber-pop album of exceptional beauty. In Search of Food demonstrates how a Nashville-bred musician referenced the rock culture of 1970 — ”Apartment Twenty-One” mentions listening to The Rolling Stones. This year, Wilkin contributed incisive liner notes to the two-disc Ronny and the Daytonas The Complete Recordings compilation. John Buck Wilkin, Buck Wilkin (United Artists, 1971)

Wilkin’s second solo album was recorded at Cinderella Studios and Columbia Studio A. Wilkin looks at stardom on “Down on Music Row” and fuses British Invasion-style performance and American art song on the amazing “Star Spangled Girl.” The LP’s cover images were shot at Percy Warner Park. Riley, Grandma’s Roadhouse, (Mo-Fok, 1971; Delmore Recording Society, 2010)

Another record cut at Owen Bradley’s Mt. Juliet studio, Grandma’s Roadhouse is country-rock fusion at its most compelling. North Carolina native Riley Watkins had met future country singer Gary Stewart in Florida, and Stewart played in Watkins’ band before making the move to Nashville. Grandma’s Roadhouse features Stewart singing the hard country of “Drinkin’ Them Squeezins,” but it’s mostly Creedence Clearwater Revival-style country-rock. Tom Ghent, Yankee’s Rebel Son (Kapp, 1971)

After starting Quadrafonic Sound Studios in 1970, session bassist and record producer Norbert Putnam and keyboardist David Briggs cut this record, with Putnam at the helm. Country star Nat Stuckey had already taken Ghent’s “Whiskey Whiskey” into the charts, and Yankee’s Rebel Son combined soul grooves with horns, organ and harmonica. “Follow It All the Way Down” was a great BTO-style boogie, while “Monroe Girl” found Ghent searching for a woman who had “no phone in her home.”  Dianne Davidson, Backwoods Woman (Janus, 1972)

From West Tennessee, Davidson did a soulful rendition of Alex Harvey and Larry Collins’ “Delta Dawn” on this record, and Mac Gayden added sensitive bottleneck-guitar accompaniment. She also shone on her own “Appalachian Boy,” which featured Weldon Myrick’s pedal-steel licks. Eric Andersen, Blue River (Columbia, 1972)

After Norbert Putnam produced Joan Baez’ 1971 million-selling Blessed Are at Quadrafonic Sound Studios, Columbia Records president Clive Davis flew Putnam to New York. “He said, ‘Look, kid, I want you to produce all the folkies on CBS,’” says Putnam of his meeting with Davis. “I said, ‘Clive, I’m from Muscle Shoals, and I’d really rather do black singers.’” Davis was persuasive, and Putnam produced Blue River, a folk-pop album that established Andersen’s reputation. Buffy Sainte-Marie, Moonshot (Vanguard, 1972)

Another Norbert Putnam production, Moonshot gave Sainte-Marie her only top 40 hit, a version of Townes Van Zandt and Mickey Newbury’s “Mister Can’t You See.” Dan Fogelberg, Home Free (Columbia, 1972)

Once again, Putnam gave a folk-pop musician an appealing Nashville veneer on Home Free. Not a hit at the time of its release, it has grown in stature over the years, and Fogelberg’s subsequent work with Putnam would establish the folk-country-pop synthesis that helped to set the tone for the '70s. Bob Frank, Bob Frank (Vanguard, 1972; Light in the Attic, 2014)

From Memphis, Frank briefly attended Vanderbilt University before cutting this self-titled record with producer Cletus Haegert and a troupe of session cats that included Charlie McCoy. Bob Frank is remarkable for its unsentimental tone — ”She Pawned Her Diamonds for Gold” and the astounding “Judas Iscariot” are the work of a great humorist.  Jubal, Jubal (Elektra, 1972)

In the early ‘70s, rock groups were expected to be both rootsy and eclectic, and Jubal fit the bill. Nashville songwriters and singers Rob Galbraith and Dennis Linde contributed songs, while drummer Randy Cullers, guitarist Alan Rush and vocalist Terry Dearmore added pop-rock elements. Dearmore's “Really Not a Rocker,” is a dead ringer for a power-pop track released by Memphis’ Ardent Records at the same time.