The story of the Minneapolis musicians who were unexpectedly summoned to re-record half of the
songs on Bob Dylan's most acclaimed album When Bob Dylan recorded Blood on the Tracks in New
York in September 1974 it was a great album. But it was not the album now ranked by Rolling
Stone as one of the ten best of all time. When something's not right it's wrong as Dylan puts
it in You're Going to Make Me Lonesome When You Go-and something about that original recording
led him to a studio in his native Minnesota to re-record five of the songs on that landmark
album including Idiot Wind and Tangled Up in Blue. Six Minnesota musicians sat in on that
two-night recording session at Sound 80 bringing their unique sound to some of Dylan's
best-known songs-only to have their names left off the album and their contribution
unacknowledged for more than forty years. This book tells the story of those two nights in
Minneapolis of the musicians who gave the album so much of its ultimate form and sound and of
their decades-long fight for recognition. Blood in the Tracks takes readers behind the scenes
with these mystery Minnesota musicians: twenty-one-year-old mandolin virtuoso Peter Ostroushko
drummer Bill Berg and bass player Billy Peterson the house rhythm section at Sound 80
progressive rock keyboardist Gregg Inhofer guitarist Chris Weber who owned The Podium guitar
shop in Dinkytown and Kevin Odegard whose own career as a singer-songwriter had paralleled
Dylan's until he had to take a job as a railroad brakeman to make ends meet. Through in-depth
interviews and assiduous research Paul Metsa and Rick Shefchik trace the twists of fate that
brought these musicians together and set them on different paths in its wake: their musical
experiences leading up to the December 1974 recording session the divergent careers that
followed and the painstaking work it took to finally get the official credit that was their
due. A rare look at the making-or remaking-of an all-time-great album and a long overdue
acknowledgment of the musicians who helped make it happen Blood in the Tracks brings to life a
transformative moment in the history of rock and roll for the first time in its true context
and with its complete cast of players--
