Recordings: Back to the Roots

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Predicting Bob Dylan is a risky proposition, but the listener cannot help feeling that at 27—married and the father of three—he has found some measure of peace with the world. He seems to have brought that new-found relaxation to the recording sessions in Nashville. None of the songs were written down; he had them all in his head, and before recording, would go over them in his soft-spoken way with a hand-picked crew of Nashville sidemen, taking suggestions occasionally from them, or showing them how it should go by playing the guitar or piano. Once the taping began, he was smooth and professional. "Some performers take all day to get a recording right," says Guitarist Pete Drake. "Dylan usually gets them on the first or second take. It really wasn't like working. Everything was so easy." Listening to Nashville Skyline is no work either.