CMT News

Bob Dylan, widely considered one of the greatest singer/songwriters of all time, celebrates his 60th birthday today (May 24). While his recordings have never made the country charts, Dylan has had great impact on country music and the Nashville recording scene. Three of his most influential albums -- Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline -- were recorded in Music City in the 1960s with Nashville session musicians including Pete Drake, Norman Blake and Charlie Daniels. Dylan's most straightforward country album, Nashville Skyline, includes a duet with Johnny Cash. Cash won a Grammy for the album's liner notes and later booked Dylan on his national TV show. "The fact that my dad was doing a song with Bob Dylan made me unutterably cool," Rosanne Cash says. "I had a good sense of who my father was as an artist, so their pairing didn't seem incongruous. In fact, it seemed very natural -- these guys are complete originals, of course they should do something together." Dylan continues to make relevant music, winning three Grammys and an Oscar in the last three years. Countless country, folk and bluegrass musicians have covered his songs over the past four decades. "To Make You Feel My Love," a track from Dylan's last studio album, Time Out of Mind, was a No. 1 country hit for Garth Brooks in 1998. 05/24/01