Girl From The North Country

Bruce celebrated Bob Dylan's birthday this past week with a covers post, and since we'll be making this a weekly feature, I thought it fitting to celebrate Bob's birthday this week too (it was last week, he turned 65). "The Girl From The North Counrty" first appeared on Bob Dylan's 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, but was probably overshadowed by Dylan greats like ""Blowin' in the Wind" and "Corina, Corina" and the politically charged "Masters Of War".

Bob released Nashville Skyline, his shortest album, in 1969. It was a decided jump into the country music genre and wasn't met with a lot of love from the music critics of that time. But like many of us still say today, what do critics know? It reached #3 in the US, the album also scored Dylan his 4th UK #1 album. Bob, with friend Johnny Cash, revisited the song at this time.

The songs on Nashville Skyline were very relaxed with modest ambitions, something reflected in the studio work ethic. "We just take a song, I play it and everyone else just sort of fills in behind it," Dylan recalls. "At the same time you're doing that, there's someone in the control booth who's turning all those dials to where the proper sound is coming in."

Dylan was also singing with a soft, smooth, country-tinged croon, and many listeners would be startled by this 'new' voice. Dylan credited it with a break from cigarettes, but a number of friends and family members were able to draw a connection with his 'new' voice and the one he used to use when he played at the Ten O' Clock Scholar in New York City and the Purple Onion coffee shop in Minneapolis during the winter and spring of 1960. - Wiki

During the recording session, Cash, who was recording with his band next door, often stopped by to visit. A friend and label-mate of Dylan's as well as an early supporter of his music, the two wound up recording a series of duets. They recorded two days worth of songs, but most were met with little enthusiasm. "Girl From The North Country" (which originally appeared on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan) ended up as the album's opener.

NPR's Tim Riley describes "Girl from the North Country" as "an absence-makes-the-heart-grow-confused song, but it's suffused with a rueful itch, as though Dylan is singing about someone he may never see again."

Bob Dylan - The Girl From The North Country (The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan version)
Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash- Girl From The North Country (Nasville Skyline version)
Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash - Girl From The North Country (Live from a May 1969 Cash show)

Jim James, M. Ward & Conor Oberst - Girl From The North Country
Secret Machines - Girl From The North Country
Robert Plant - Girl From The North Country (Strange Sessions Version)
Rod Stewart - Girl From The North Country
Eels - Girl From The North Country (KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic)
Eels - Girl From The North Country
Leo Kottke - Girl From The North Country
Counting Crows - Girl From The North Counrty (Live from Shim Sham 2003)
Pete Townshend - North Country Girl (80s-out version of Girl From The North Country) Thanks fo Phil C. - he's sent in quite a few covers since this project started, ended and then became weekly.
Dear Nora - Girl From The North Country
The Black Crowes - Girl From The North Country (Live)
Sam Bush - Girl From The North Country
Waterboys - Girl From The North Country
Francis Cabrel & Jean Jacques Goldman - La Fille Du Nord (Girl From The North Country)

As usual, if you have any versions of this song not included, please send them in and I'll post them up! I know there is a Johnny Cash/Joni Mitchell version out there somewhere.