An interesting trend in country music this week as Bob Dylan covers from Blake Shelton, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard have all come to our ears.
Nelson and Haggard just released a new collaborative album, Django & Jimmie, and included a cover of Dylan's "Don't Think Twice" on its tracklist. That's the more interesting of the two covers released this week because country fans will recall last year when Dylan went on a seemingly unprovoked attack of Haggard during an acceptance speech for the MusiCares Person of The Year award.
"Merle Haggard didn't even think much of my songs. I know he didn't. He didn't say that to me, but I know way back when, he didn't. Buck Owens did, and he recorded some of my early songs," Dylan said. "Buck Owens or Merle Haggard? If you had to have somebody's blessing, you can figure it out."
The country world went into an uproar but Haggard responded rather calmly that he and Nelson were doing the cover, and offering that as evidence of his support of Dylan's work. The folk icon would later claim that his words had been taken out of context and that the pair were pals now.
Anyway, that's what was going on this week in the world of outlaw country. Closer to the mainstream, a recording from Blake Shelton was released this week where he covers Dylan's 1974 favorite "Forever Young."
The track will be featured on the forthcoming film Max, about the title dog and the family that adopts it after his military owner is killed in Afghanistan. The track also features Gwen Sebastian, a former contestant for Shelton on The Voice that he would later take on tour as an opener.
The song is available on iTunes. No word on when the soundtrack as a whole will become available, however the film is due in theaters on June 26.
