Bob Dylan debuted his Bootleg Series in 1991, and 14 more volumes have followed. The Bootleg Series Vol. 15: Travelin’ Thru, 1967-1969 reflects the music Dylan was making after a self-imposed exile precipitated by his motorcycle accident in the summer of 1966. Although billed as covering the years 1967-1969, it actually also includes songs from 1970.
The music is primarily derived from sessions for his first two albums after Blonde on Blonde: John Wesley Harding, released in 1967; and Nashville Skyline, released in 1969. Much of the material features music that Dylan worked on with Johnny Cash.
While there had always been some elements of country music in Dylan’s sound, the recordings with Cash were a radical, almost reactionary departure for many reasons. The country music establishment of the time was politically and culturally at the far end of the spectrum from where Dylan was up through Blonde on Blonde. His sound went from folk to rock, and lyrically at least, reflected the surreal aspects of psychedelic culture. Also, much of the music here was recorded in Nashville, a place at the time where the country music establishment was firmly entrenched.
Yet, curiously, Dylan fit right into the scene, as he and Cash immediately developed a warm musical and personal rapport.
Featuring 40 previously unreleased tracks, The Bootleg Series Vol. 15: Travelin’ Thru, 1967-1969 is best enjoyed on the three-LP vinyl set – there is also a three-CD and single CD sampler – with its acoustic sounds. Several tracks are also presented in mono on the third disc. While not as expansive as some of the previous sets, this music has been met with near unanimous acclaim. The emphasis is on the various outtakes, rehearsals and intimate glimpses inside legendary sessions by two icons of American music, but Travelin’ Thru actually covers a wide variety of time periods, styles and configurations of musical backing.
Along with the John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline material, there is a medley of the music of Jimmie Rodgers. Several live performances were taken from Bob Dylan’s appearance on the Johnny Cash television show, which was taped in June 1969 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, with two tracks previously released on DVD.
There are also sessions that include Carl Perkins on five tracks, incljding first takes of the early rock ‘n’ roll staples “Mystery Train” / “This Train Is Bound for Glory,” “That’s Alright Mama” and “Matchbox” that are imbued with a rockabilly feel. The sessions with Perkins are particularly poignant given the history Cash and Perkins had recording at Sun Studios in December 1956 as one half of the legendary Million Dollar Quartet with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis.
If that wasn’t enough, there are performances here of Bob Dylan with Earl Scruggs from May 1970, which was part of a documentary on Scruggs. Rounding things out are some tracks from the 1970’s Self-Portrait sessions, which oddly enough have already been the focus of a 2013 retrospective entitled The Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (1969–1971), making them outside the scope of the time period billed here.
Casual music fans will enjoy alternate versions of such songs as “Lay Lady Lay” and “All Along the Watchtower,” and country fans will have a chance to hear a rehearsal of “Wanted Man,” which Johnny Cash performed on his 1969 live album At Sam Quentin. The most famous song Dylan and Cash performed together, “Girl from North Country” from Nashville Skyline, appears three times on this set: a rehearsal, the first take and a live version from the Cash TV show.
While The Bootleg Series Vol. 15: Travelin’ Thru, 1967-1969 is meant to focus on Dylan’s Nashville excursion, music from previous Basement Tapes recordings – including The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete, released in 2014 – also overlap, as they were made between June and October 1967. The sessions covered in Travelin’ Thru were held in October and November 1967.
Many would also point to this time period of Bob Dylan’s music as the birth of country rock. Fans of Gram Parsons’ work with the International Submarine Band, and his joining the Byrds for 1968’s Sweetheart of the Rodeo, would add that these factors also contributed to the emergence of the genre. Of course, the Band’s collaborations with Dylan on the Basement Tapes and their own 1968 debut album Music from Big Pink – with which Dylan had a tangential involvement – also played a key role.
This has been quite a year for Bob Dylan fans, with the release of The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings and the companion Netflix film by Martin Scorsese. His Bootleg Series will continue, and its anyone’s guess what comes next.
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