“Nashville Cats,” a hit for the Lovin’ Spoonful in 1966, called attention to the musicians who lived and worked in Nashville.

Los Angeles had the Wrecking Crew, Detroit had the Funk Brothers, Muscle Shoals had the Swampers and Nashville had the Cats. A group of top-shelf session musicians whose skill and reputation helped lure artists like Bob Dylan, the Byrds, Joan Baez, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Simon and Garfunkel and three of the four Beatles to Tennessee during the Sixties and Seventies.

From Dylan's Blonde on Blonde to Young's Harvest, the Cats worked on some of the era's most groundbreaking music, building a musical bridge between the Bible Belt and the rest of the country during one of America's most politically charged periods.

Hometown hero Johnny Cash helped strengthen that bridge, thanks to a close friendship with Dylan and a short-lived yet influential TV program, The Johnny Cash Show, whose roster of guest performers included everyone from Derek & the Dominos to Linda Ronstadt.

Various Sources