CD REVIEW: VARIOUS – DYLAN, CASH & THE NASHVILLE CATS

CD REVIEW: VARIOUS – DYLAN, CASH & THE NASHVILLE CATS
Sony
2015
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8 ½ /10

There was a time when I couldn’t abide by country music – it was all about the hard and heavy rock n’ metal for me and I couldn’t see where country music fit into the overall scheme of things.

We all grow up, however, and the old battle lines delineating rock n’ roll from country music have long since been heavily blurred, if not dispelled completely – not only for me, but in the musical landscape at large… and long overdue it was, too.

No-one did more to blur those lines in the old days than the Nashville Cats – a loose collective of session musicians who first raised eyebrows working with Bob Dylan in the late sixties, then went on to further blur the lines between country and rock (not to mention elements of folk music, bluegrass and Americana) on recordings by Johnny Cash, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, through to Eric Clapton’s Derek & The Dominos, The Byrds, Simon & Garfunkle, The Monkees, Steve Miller Band and many more.

This symbiosis is writ large over these two discs, with joyous explorations full of rock n’ roll attitude, country grooves, rootsy fun and plenty of Dobro, harmonica, and fiddle, courtesy of the likes of Charlie McCoy, Wayne Moss. Jerry & Kenny Buttrey, Pete Drake, Lloyd Green, Charlie Daniels, the brilliantly named Shorty Lavender and more. They may not be household names today in the wider rock world, but these cats are cooking on everything they play.

There’s no point saying this or that track is a standout: everything here shines a light on the many different styles of country and country rock, and it serves as a great one-stop overview of the Nashville scene from top to bottom, as well as a companion piece to the Country Music Hall Of Fame and Museum Exhibit of the same name.

Category: CD Reviews