The Nashville Cats
Both part and product of the dynamic Nashville music scene of the late 1960s, the Nashville Cats exhibited a multitude of talents. Their ranks ranged from veteran guitar pickers and Grand Ole Opry legends to pioneer multi-instrumentalists and Muscle Shoals rhythm players. Starting with the easy-going and creative sessions for Bob Dylan's Nashville albums, the Nashville Cats went on to work with a vast cross-section of the recording industry. The Cats' prowess and efficiency revived Nashville as an in-demand music hub, and the hits they played on defined the country and rock genres for many years afterward.
Fred Carter Jr.
When Fred Carter landed in Nashville, in 1961, he became the first top Nashville session guitarist to specialize on the Fender Telecaster electric guitar--and proved just as outstanding on acoustic and twelve-string guitar. He also released several singles as a vocalist, and he had success as a songwriter.
Lloyd Green
Along with Jimmy Day, Buddy Emmons, and Bud Isaacs, Lloyd Green revolutionized the steel guitar with his ability to elevate a recording through dramatic melodic runs and innovative rhythm and harmonic effects. He has contributed to hundreds of country and country-rock classics.
"7 PM - OPRY with Byrds."
-from Lloyd Green's 1968 datebook.
Pete Drake
The pedal steel that Pete Drake added to Bob Dylan's 1967 album, John Wesley Harding, helped set the stage for country flavored rock albums. Drake went on to record with many Dylan contemporaries, including Joan Baez, Ian & Sylvia, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and George Harrison.
Mac Gayden
Mac Gayden became known for playing slide guitar through a wah-wah pedal, as heard on J.J. Cale's memorable "Crazy Mama." Gayden's slide playing drew him work in all genres of popular music.
When Bob Dylan engaged Nashville musicians to craft a series of landmark albums, and when Johnny Cash brought rock, pop, and folk to town to appear on his groundbreaking TV show, they initiated a blending of musical genres that has echoed down through generations. After Dylan and Cash showed the way, acoustic instruments and country-flavored arrangements began surfacing in music made across America, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Today, Nashville's music community includes internationally recognized rockers, pop hitmakers, singer-songwriters of every flavor, and an Americana movement that provides a vision of roots music different from the one created on Music Row.