{"id":58510,"date":"2017-05-03T11:40:46","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T16:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=58510"},"modified":"2017-05-03T11:40:46","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T16:40:46","slug":"wax-wednesday-7-nashville-skyline-by-bob-dylan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2017\/05\/03\/wax-wednesday-7-nashville-skyline-by-bob-dylan\/","title":{"rendered":"Wax Wednesday #7: \u201cNashville Skyline\u201d by Bob Dylan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"What is Wax Wednesday? Who are you? Pepsi or Coke? All that and more here<\/a><\/p>\n

I always find it interesting when an artist goes outside their genre of comfort. While bands like Gorillaz or Childish Gambino seem to do this every album or so, it\u2019s even more curious when someone so synonymous with a genre decides to branch out. Such is the case with Bob Dylan\u2019s 1969 country-western venture \u201cNashville Skyline\u201d. Not only was this Dylan\u2019s first venture into another genre (that he didn\u2019t define), I would argue that it is his best.<\/p>\n

The album bleeds a simplistic, cheeky sound that\u2019s hard not to tap your toes along to. Listening to songs like the classic \u201cLay Lady Lay\u201d make me feel like I\u2019m staring out over a beautiful Kansas sunset, driving towards some destination typical of a road trip movie. But I think many Bob Dylan songs on this album evoke that feeling. And I love that about this record, it seems to me that the emotion Dylan evokes on the record is distinctly American. That feeling of wanting to be somewhere else, anywhere else than where you are now.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the only emotion the album evokes, however. Many of the songs tackle themes like adultery and the loss of a relationship. The solemn, most likely improvisational jam between legend Johnny Cash and Dylan on \u201cGirl from the North Country\u201d has become my favorite breakup song. There\u2019s more emotion on the track this time as compared to Dylan\u2019s original take on his 1963 album \u201cThe Freewheelin\u2019 Bob Dylan\u201d, a bit more harmony, and a heck of a lot more depth.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s for that reason that I feel this album rises just above some of the others in his long discography. It\u2019s emotional. Now I\u2019m aware that many Dylan albums have this quality to them. But it\u2019s the instruments that further help give the stories around them more weight. Something about those twangy acoustic and whiny slide guitars give an even greater emotion and longing to the songs that is, to me, more distinctly \u201cAmericana\u201d than other projects of his.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Americana, how about that cover? It\u2019s so distinctly Dylan, yet he seems more friendly and close than other album covers (Highway 61 Revisited), with his cap tipped to the listener and huge acoustic guitar in hand against\u00a0a possibly sunset backdrop. This image perfectly complements the warm, sunny, and relaxed feel of the record to a tee and tells the listener exactly what they\u2019re in for, and hopefully, by the end, puts them in the same grinning mood that Dylan exemplifies on the cover.<\/p>\n

Dylan took a bit of a gamble on this record, and it paid of wonderfully. Not only do I think his idea of doing a more Country-Western theme was perfectly executed, but he showed that he wasn\u2019t just a folk singer spilling out countless anti-war protest songs or 13 minute ballads with lyrics that require multiple listens. \u201cNashville Skyline\u201d is a testimony to just how good an album can sound when an artist wants to get out of their comfort zone.<\/p>\n

Next Week: nothing! This is the last Wax Wednesday Column of the Spring 2017 semester! I won\u2019t be posting regularly again until the fall (Mid-August), but if I come across something special, I\u2019ll post it. Until then, thanks for reading and I\u2019ll see you all in a few months!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is Wax Wednesday? Who are you? Pepsi or Coke? All that and more here I always find it interesting when an artist goes outside their genre of comfort. While bands like Gorillaz or Childish Gambino seem to do this every album or so, it\u2019s even more curious when someone so synonymous with a genre decides to branch out. Such is the case with Bob Dylan\u2019s 1969 country-western venture \u201cNashville Skyline\u201d. Not only was this Dylan\u2019s first venture into another […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17009,"featured_media":58511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,4,3268],"tags":[950,6885,6065,7463,7051,1749,6882],"class_list":["post-58510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-on-kjhk","category-music","category-music-articles","tag-bob-dylan","tag-dollar-bin","tag-kyle-wernimont","tag-nashville-skyline","tag-records","tag-vinyl","tag-wax-wednesday"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/wax-wednesday-7.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}