Rare performances by Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and other legendary artists will be revealed when the "Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City--A Monumental Compilation Album" comes out on June 16.

Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, The Byrds, Simon & Garfunkel, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Linda Ronstadt and The Monkees came to Nashville in the late 1960s and early 1970s to record with Music City's exquisitely versatile session musicians, known to insiders as the "Nashville Cats."

"Nashville has a reputation, and a well-earned one too: the Tennessee city is the home of country music. But, as the Country Music Hall of Fame points out with a new exhibition...that deserved reputation doesn't mean that Nashville's musical horizons are limited to one genre alone," Time magazine noted.

"Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City" features previously unreleased version of Bob Dylan's "If Not For You."

Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, and Country Music Foundation Records announce the upcoming release as a 2CD audio companion to the historic exhibit currently on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum exhibition, "Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City Presented by Citi," opened March 27, 2015 and will run through December 31, 2016.  The featured songs will be accompanied by special commentary from Charlie Daniels, one of the Nashville Cats.

"Bob Dylan surprised many when he came to Nashville and began working with the city's unmatched session musicians the Nashville Cats," Michael Gray, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum historian, said in a statement.

"Around this same time, Johnny Cash was recruiting folk and rock musicians-including Dylan-to appear on his groundbreaking network television show. This album and Spotify playlist, with commentary from Nashville Cat Charlie Daniels, explore this magical time in 'a new Music City.'"

The new album explores the relationship between pop, rock, folk and country music. When Dylan' decided to record "Blonde On Blonde" in Nashville in 1966, counter-cultural and establishment musicians came together in Nashville.

"When recording Highway 61 Revisited in 1965, Dylan was in New York working with producer Bob Johnston, a former Nashville resident," reads the press statement. "Johnston asked multi-instrumentalist Charlie McCoy to play guitar on Dylan's "Desolation Row." Johnston urged Dylan to record his next album in Nashville and the result, 1966's Blonde On Blonde is considered one of the great achievements of Dylan's career and a benchmark of American popular music. Dylan's subsequent late '60s and early '70s albums--John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline, and portions of Self Portrait--embodied the sound and soul of Nashville."

The new record explores Dylan's musical relationship with country legend Johnny Cash. "The two cemented their friendship at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival and were reunited in Nashville in February 1969," reads the statement. "Dylan had recorded most of Nashville Skyline when he went into the studio with Cash, where the pair cut more than a dozen duets in two days."

Johnny Cash went on to further bridge the culture gap through his successful television program, "The Johnny Cash Show," which was taped at Nashville's Ryman Audition, "The Johnny Cash Show" brought country, pop and rock musicians like Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot and Eric Clapton's Derek & the Dominos to country audiences and pop fans to country.

Artists who followed Dylan to Nashville to record or to appear on Cash's show wound up recording with the world-class musicians known as the Nashville Cats. Musicians like David Briggs, Kenny Buttrey, Fred Carter Jr., Charlie Daniels, Pete Drake, Mac Gayden, Lloyd Green, Ben Keith, Grady Martin, Charlie McCoy, Wayne Moss, Weldon Myrick, Norbert Putnam, Jerry Reed, Pig Robbins and Buddy Spicher laid down perfect tracks to create lasting masterpieces

Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City

(Legacy Recordings/CMF Records)

Disc 1

1.Absolutely Sweet Marie - Bob Dylan

2.Harpoon Man - Charlie McCoy & the Escorts

3.It Ain't Me, Babe - Johnny Cash

4.Down In The Flood - Flatt & Scruggs

5.The Way I Feel - Gordon Lightfoot

6.I'll Be Your Baby Tonight - Bob Dylan

7.You Ain't Goin' Nowhere - The Byrds

8.This Wheel's On Fire - Ian & Sylvia

9.Gentle On My Mind - John Hartford

10.Some Of Shelly's Blues - The Monkees

11.Turn Around - The Beau Brummels

12.I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Tracy Nelson

13.If You Don't Like Hank Williams (1968 Demo) - Kris Kristofferson

14.Bird On The Wire - Leonard Cohen

15.Hickory Wind - The Byrds

16.Blowing Down That Dusty Road - Country Joe McDonald

17.The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel

18.Stone Fox Chase - Area Code 615

19.The Byrds Sweetheart Of The Rodeo Radio Ad (Bonus Track)