or better or worse, we here at Stylus, in all of our autocratic consumer-crit greed, are slaves to timeliness. A record over six months old is often discarded, deemed too old for publication, a relic in the internet age. That's why each week at Stylus, one writer takes a look at an album with the benefit of time. Whether it has been unjustly ignored, unfairly lauded, or misunderstood in some fundamental way, we aim with On Second Thought to provide a fresh look at albums that need it.

My first exposure to Nashville Skyline (and Bob Dylan in general) was on a family vacation to Florida in my dad’s Pontiac sometime in late 1987. It was one of only four tapes that my dad brought along on the trip (the others were the White Album, an early 80s Merle Haggard album whose name escapes me, and a mix tape consisting mainly of CSNY, ELO, Roger Miller, and Steppenwolf) and, by far, the one I liked the least. And I wasn’t alone, my siblings hated it as well. Every time Nashville Skyline entered the car’s tape deck it was met with a chorus of "This guy can’t sing.", "Put the White Album back in.", or bad imitations of Dylan’s voice. The chorus rang out every two or three hours all the way from Indianapolis to Orlando and back. And it didn’t stop there, it could be heard on frequent trips to visit relatives in Wisconsin and trips to Toronto and New England. Sometime around 1989, my siblings and I just gave up out of exhaustion, and in my case it was growing on me (my brother eventually learned to love it too, my sister probably still hates it). Though for some reason I waited another eight years before I bought a copy of it for myself. But, enough about me.

Nashville Skyline was Dylan’s first country album. Sure, he hinted at country with previous recordings (most notably John Wesley Harding and the Basement Tapes), used country session musicians, and recorded in Nashville prior to this album, but he never completely delved into the genre until this point. Steel guitars and fiddles are added to the mix and the complex lyrics of Dylan’s past are replaced with simple lines like "Peggy Day/stole my fool heart away/good golly, what more can I say? / love to spend the night with Peggy Day". Another change is Dylan’s voice, which is now more of a nasal croon than a nasal bleat. The album has a relaxed feel to it; no song lasts longer than four minutes (the entire album clocks in at 27:08) and everything was seemingly recorded in a single take. On top of that, it seems as if Bob was enjoying himself while he was recording this album (especially on "To Be Alone With You" and "Country Pie").

Among the highlights is his duet with Johnny Cash, "Girl From the North Country". Neither of the legends are in their best form, or even in harmony with each other (especially when Cash sings "Please say hello to the one who lives there" while Dylan sings "Remember me to one who lives there."), but they manage to inject enough of their charm into the song to pull it off. Is there anything better than Cash and Dylan singing "She was once...a true...love...of...miiiiine" in unison?

Another highlight is "Lay Lady Lay", Dylan’s last top ten hit (one of only two) and one of his finest ballads. Dylan perfectly meshes with the light acoustic guitar, pedal steel, and cowbell of the backing track as he softly croons "Lay lady lay/lay across my big brass bed/stay lady stay/stay with your man awhile". Dylan at his most romantic, it’s hard to believe that the same man will eventually write "Idiot Wind". A beautiful song.

Just as beautiful is the closing track, "Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You". Probably the best use of Dylan’s new croon and the best performance from his backing musicians on the album. It’s almost an answer to "Lay Lady Lay" with Dylan in an opposite role as he sings "throw my ticket out the window/throw my suitcase out there too/throw my troubles out the door/I don’t need them anymore/ ‘cause tonight I’ll be staying here with you". Add a great pedal steel solo and you have one of Dylan’s best songs.

I’m kind of glad that I had an album of this caliber shoved down my throat at such an early age. It tasted bad at first, but deep down inside I knew that it was good for me...kind of like broccoli. Except I like broccoli, so that’s a bad example. Or liver, but then again I’ve never had liver...Whatever it is, Nashville Skyline is great album. I just wish I would have thought so earlier.