Half of the album was recorded with studio musicians in New York. The other half was recorded with Minnesota musicians months later in Minneapolis. Blood in the Tracks by Paul Metsa and Rick Shefchik focuses on the latter group who long went uncredited for their work on Bob Dylan's classic album Blood on the Tracks.
"It was commonly known in Minnesota that these guys had played on the record," says Shefchik. "But the general public had no idea." Many music critics and fans were able to note the two different sounds on the record. "Dylan probably wasn't quite comfortable as much with the New York musicians, and with the material itself." Shefchik notes that the New York session took place in September, while the songs had evolved by December when he worked with the Minnesota musicians.
"I had gotten to know a lot of the musicians that played on that record," says Metsa who interviewed many of the people involved. "I had put together Bob Dylan's 60th birthday party... as part of that 40-band extravaganza I called Kevin Odegaard who played guitar on Tangled Up in Blue... that night we had 5 out of the 6 musicians, and it was the first time that they had played together since 1974." This moment in 2001 was the instigation for finally giving credit to the studio musicians on Blood on the Tracks.
Blood in the Tracks can be found at various booksellers. Tonight (Thursday, September 14th) both Metsa and Shefchik will be at the Zenith Bookstore at 7pm for a Q&A and book signing.
Minnesota Reads is produced at The North 103.3 with funding provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
