When I Paint My Masterpiece (The Band)

Bob Dylan is the greatest American songwriter. His lyrics explore, expound, confuse, and confound - but also always liberate. His is a generation's greatest poet, philosopher, jokester, and sometimes delinquent. In the hands of the Band - at one time Bob's backing band - his lyrics find their greatest interpreters (if we do not count Roger McGuinn and the Byrds). The Band is neither the beginning nor the end of Americana - especially considering they were mostly Canadian - but they certainly were a notable mile marker on that long highway.