--- description: A new exhibition looks at how Dylan changed the Tennessee city's music scene title: Photos: Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen in Nashville image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f4d83464835dd01/698781b90b72e316ac6ddf28/150302-dylan-cash-nashville-cats-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # See Historic Photos of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash in Nashville by [Liz Ronk](/author/liz-ronk/) and [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/) Mar 26, 2015 11:00 AM CUT  Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Bob Johnston. Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Bob Johnston.Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. by [Liz Ronk](/author/liz-ronk/) and [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/) Mar 26, 2015 11:00 AM CUT Nashville has a reputation, and a well-earned one too: the Tennessee city is the home of country music. But, as the Country Music Hall of Fame points out with [a new exhibition](http://countrymusichalloffame.org/exhibits/exhibitdetail/dylan-cash-and-the-nashville-cats-a-new-music-city "undefined") opening Friday (_Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City_, from which the artifacts and photographs above are drawn), that deserved reputation doesn’t mean that Nashville’s musical horizons are limited to one genre alone. Rather, the fact that the city has long been home to accomplished session musicians — like the “Nashville Cats” of the 1960s and ’70s who are the focus of the exhibit — has attracted rock, folk and pop musicians to record there as well. And one of those not-totally-country musicians was particularly powerful in starting that trend: Bob Dylan, who came to the city to record _Blonde on Blonde_ in 1966\. Nashville’s conservative country rep was solid, but the results he achieved with local musicians — and his fruitful relationship with Nashville’s Johnny Cash — spoke for themselves. “His decision to record here in the ’60s was a catalyst for many others to look at what must have seemed like an unusual destination at such a polarized time,” says the Hall of Fame’s Michael Gray. “If Dylan is doing it,” he says other musicians thought, “we should think about going there and checking out those musicians and studios too, in spite of its reputation as a conservative town.” The dozens of rock and folk albums produced in Nashville during the ’60s and ’70s opened the door for the many artists who followed, a broadening that Gray says continues to this day; he cites Jack White and the Kings of Leon as examples of Dylan’s Nashville descendants. And that’s only part of the reason why Nashville has been proclaimed [“the South’s Red-Hot Town” ](http://time.com/13819/the-souths-red-hot-town/ "undefined")by TIME. “Nashville is changing now,” Gray says. “The story we’re telling with this exhibit is that Dylan was changing perceptions of Nashville 50 years ago.”  Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Bob Johnston. Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Charlie McCoy and the Escorts perform at the Jolly Roger in Printers Alley, circa 1965\. Pictured are (l-r): Wayne Butler, Jerry Tuttle, Kenny Buttrey, Mac Gayden, and Charlie McCoy. Courtesy of Charlie McCoy and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Advertisement for Johnny Cash’s single “Man in Black.” Courtesy of Sony Music Archives and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Ernie Winfrey (standing), Joan Baez, and Norbert Putnam (l-r) at Woodland Studios in the 1970s Courtesy of Ernie Winfrey and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Bob Dylan: Nashville Skyline. Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Bob Johnston, Ron Cornelius (seated), Leonard Cohen, and Charlie Daniels, early 1970s. Photo courtesy of Ron Cornelius and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Advertisement for Simon & Garfunkel’s album Bridge Over Troubled Water. Courtesy of Sony Music Archives and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Pictured recording at Soundshop in 1974 are (l-r): Paul McCartney, Buddy Killen, Ernie Winfrey (seated), Tony Dorsey, and Linda McCartney (seated). Courtesy of Ernie Winfrey and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Johnny Cash: The Johnny Cash Show. Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Kris Kristofferson: The Silver-Tongued Devil. Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Advertisement for Leonard Cohen’s album Songs of Love and Hate. Courtesy of Sony Music Archives and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Pictured recording in RCA Studio A are (standing, l-r): Norbert Putnam, Lloyd Green, and Kenny Buttrey; (seated, l-r): Felton Jarvis, The Monkees’ Michael Nesmith, and Wayne Moss, 1960s. Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum  George Harrison: All Things Must Pass. Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Advertisement for The Great American Sound of Nashville. Courtesy of Sony Music Archives and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3728903/dylan-cash-nashville/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3728903/dylan-cash-nashville/"},"headline":"See Historic Photos of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash in Nashville","datePublished":"2015-03-26T11:00:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:50:42.478Z","description":"A new exhibition looks at how Dylan changed the Tennessee city's music scene","url":"https://time.com/3728903/dylan-cash-nashville/","keywords":["Music","photography"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f4d83464835dd01/698781b90b72e316ac6ddf28/150302-dylan-cash-nashville-cats-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Liz Ronk","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f4d83464835dd01/698781b90b72e316ac6ddf28/150302-dylan-cash-nashville-cats-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Bob Johnston.","caption":"Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Bob Johnston.","creditText":"Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3728903/dylan-cash-nashville/","name":"See Historic Photos of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash in Nashville"}}]}] ```