Bob Johnston | Music producer, 83

Music producer Bob Johnston, 83, who played a key role in landmark recordings such as Bob Dylan's

Blonde on Blonde

and Johnny Cash's

At Folsom Prison,

died Aug. 14 in Nashville.

Peter Cooper, an editor at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that Mr. Johnston helped open Nashville up to music and musicians from other places.

He said that Mr. Johnston was responsible for Dylan coming to the Music City, and that Dylan's Blonde on Blonde was one of at least three recordings Dylan and Mr. Johnston made in Nashville. Mr. Johnston's influence is showcased in an exhibit called "Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City."

Donald W. Johnston grew up in a musical family in Texas and began pursuing a career in music after a stint in the Navy.

In the early 1960s, after a short career as a rockabilly artist, he began writing songs for Elvis Presley movies and traveling to Nashville to record demos.

Mr. Johnston went on to produce multiple stellar albums by Leonard Cohen, Simon and Garfunkel, Flatt & Scruggs, Pete Seeger, Marty Robbins, and other now-legendary artists, all within a 10-year span. His career continued through the 1990s, when he produced albums for Willie Nelson and Carl Perkins, and into the new millennium. - AP