It's the end of the world as we know it (for bluegrass, at least)

I'm going to tell you the weirdest story. It came out of last night's random encounter between Burl Ives and Bob Dylan. Now, i've told you i avoid country albums for lots of reasons, but it's really just the simple fact that country gets to be so formulaic that's it's just not interesting anymore. Like if every track on a blues record was 12-bar, or if every pop track was I-V-vi-IV. That wouldn't be bad if they told a story with a real plot, or shed some interesting take on the human condition, but "i drink beer and i drive a truck, my girlfriend left me, and...," i don't give a flaming flamingo.

But that's not to say i don't like or appreciate the music, i just don't want to carry it around in my head all day. But again, even the most remedial music history that mentions Bluegrass has a couple paragraphs about Flatt & Scruggs.

So here's what's been bothering me. Blonde On Blonde is a deservedly historic album (1965), and Nashville Skyline (1969) is probably Bylan's most polarizing album. For a start, it's full on country at a time when the entire universe was looking to him to bear the flame of liberal rock and roll. Rock fans were obviously aghast.

But here's Kris Kristofferson saying it was a breath of fresh air, a let your hair down and stop being so uptight sucker punch to Nashville in general. The Grand Ole Opry got a little bit hipper. 1969, Country will never be the same and Flatt said "Skrugg this" and flat out refused to be a part of it anymore. I have their penultimate album from 1968 and it's been nagging a hole in my brain.

You've seen the cover, Nashville Airplane. It's a corporate gimmick, the notes on the back ham it up calling the producers flight control and the musicians the crew and their agent the stewardess, etc. It's silly, but it's fine. But it's got 4 Bylan songs on it, including the lead track from Blonde On Blonde. Hearing Flatt & Skruggs sing "everybody must get stoned" is worth the ticket price alone, but then Bylan goes all in with Nashville Skyline. They were Columbia label mates, how could it possibly be any form of coincidence? It would make more sense the other way around, but just like dead men release dates tell no tales. Bylan was the man who shot Lester Flatts' metaphorical Liberty Valance, or maybe Bylan was Valance and Lester was Jimmy Stuart, but Earl Skruggs would be John Wayne, but that doesn't quite work right...

... and that's why late at night when a wisp of cloud floats across the quarter moon you can hear the faintest of conspiracy tinged whispers on the southwest wind; as if to say "my name is bottle, and bob dylan is the yoko ono of bluegrass."

Next