On this day (February 17) in 1969, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash stepped into CBS Studios in Nashville, Tennessee to record a new version of “Girl from the North Country.” The duet version of the song would appear on Dylan’s country-leaning album Nashville Skyline later that year.
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“Girl from the North Country” has appeared on multiple albums including the Travelin’ Thru bootleg series. However, the version with Cash on Nashville Skyline is the most popular recording. While neither Dylan nor Cash released the song as a single, it remains a favorite among fans.
[RELATED: “Remembering Johnny”—the Eulogy Bob Dylan Wrote for His Dear Friend Johnny Cash]
“Girl from the North Country” either solo or with Cash, is one of Dylan’s most talked about songs. It has long been a mystery who he wrote the song about. Some believe he penned it for Echo Helstrom including Helstrom herself. Others think the song is about Bonnie Beecher. Dylan knew both of the women before leaving New York for England, where he wrote the song. Some believe the song is about Suze Rotolo. Then, there are those who believe that Dylan intentionally left the lyrics ambiguous to garner favor with multiple women. Until he clears up the rumors, though, that’s all they’ll ever be.
The Deep Mutual Respect Between Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash
From a musical standpoint, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash seem incredibly different. However, their sonic differences didn’t stop the pair of legendary singer/songwriters from being friends or fans of one another’s work.
When Johnny Cash passed away, Dylan wrote a short piece for Rolling Stone about the Man in Black. In it, he praised Cash’s songwriting, calling him “the North Star” and saying “You could guide your ship by him—the greatest of the greats then and now.”
“There wasn’t much music media in the early ‘60s, and Sing Out! was the magazine covering all things folk in character. The editors had published a letter chastising me for the direction my music was going,” Dylan recalled in the piece. “Johnny wrote the magazine back an open letter telling the editors to shut up and let me sing, that I knew what I was doing. That was before I had ever met him, and the letter meant the world to me,” he added. “I’ve kept the magazine to this day.”
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