Johnny Cash & Bob Dylan - "Cash & Dylan"

Both fans of each other's work, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan recorded together in Nashville over two days in February 1969. The plan seems to have been to regroup at a later date for additional recording that would result in a duet album. But the later session never came about, and all but one track of what had been recorded was left to bootlegs and rumor. The only other known time the two performed together was on Cash's TV show later that year.

Finally, last year, the latest in Dylan's "Bootleg Series" was issued as Travelin' Thru, 1967-1969, and it includes the Cash/Dylan sessions of 50 years earlier. In truth, the recordings seem more like rehearsals than actual songs for release. But we have what we have, and I tried to assemble the tracks in what could have been released as a duet album.

SIDE A

1. One Too Many Mornings 

2. I Still Miss Someone

3. Mountain Dew

4. Careless Love

5. Matchbox

6. That’s All Right, Mama

7. Mystery Train/This Train Is Bound for Glory

8. Big River

SIDE B

1. Girl from the North Country

2. I Walk the Line

3. Guess Things Happen That Way

4. Five Feet High and Rising

5. You Are My Sunshine

6. Ring of Fire

7. Wanted Man

8. Just a Closer Walk with Thee

9. Jimmie Rodgers Medley No. 2

The songs are mostly ones previously recorded by either Cash or Dylan, with a few old chestnuts thrown in. Many are first takes, and you can't help but think that if the two men had come together again, they might have produced a good album of old country and folk songs. It was never to be, but this remains an interesting curio if nothing more.

For the cover, I chose a frame from a film of the two playing together at the time and added names and a record label logo.