It’s difficult for me to listen to this album as anything more than as an interesting one-off. Though excellent, it’s so far out of character for Dylan. Nowhere does he throw acid or even point fingers–his love songs are largely free of suspicion and fatalism. He even sings differently. It’s no doubt because of this that the album became one of his greatest commercial successes.  And while it’s fun to hear Bob Dylan write and sing country songs, the album’s 27 minute length seems to know that the novelty would only last so long, ending before the joke gets old. It’s a wise decision, and one that legend tells would be forgotten on Dylan’s next album as he tried to repeat it.