Johnny Cash
"Johnny Cash was the country icon for people who didn’t like country. He belonged to everyone: Punks, Christians, folkies, rebels, convicts, altrec,24875/'>Nathan Rabin
Johnny Cash was my gateway drug to country music. His songs are direct and evocative, full of bravado and world weariness, faith and frustration, sung with a deep baritone that has a way of carving through artifice and going straight to the bone. He's also one of the most recognizable American music icons of all time, with songs like "Walk The Line", "Ring of Fire", and "Folsom Prison Blues" considered among the best country songs ever written. Interest in Cash's life and work grew exponentially after his biopic ''Walk the Line'' was released in theaters. Because Johnny Cash had such a long career, it can be difficult to figure out where to start your collection. I can show you where I started. Maybe you can take it from there.
The Johnny Cash Albums I Bought
* My journey from liberalsection of his range. In those four albums you'll find everything from winsome songs of lost love to wild tales of outlaws and bad men.
* If you want to increase your outlaw cachet, you want to pick up Cash's At Folsom Prison. It's considered one of the best live albums ever recorded and it plays like a wild time, with Cash riffing with the crowd and performing with raw energy. It also features "Graystone Chapel", the song Folsom inmate Glen Sherley, whose association with Cash ended in tragedy.
* Toward the end of Cash's life, he had another brief come back with his ''American Recordings'' albums. The albums include covers of a wide variety of artists, including his famous cover of Trent Reznor's "Hurt" and Nick Cave's "The Mercy Seat" (which happens to be one of my favorite songs.) Cash was very sick during the recording of these albums, and there's a painful deliberateness that compliments the themes of mortality and regret. Buy these albums. They'll cut you deep.
* In terms of other media, Johnny Cash had a short-lived television show in the late sixties, which showcased collaborations with a wide variety of legendary performers like Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, Louis Armstrong, and many others. Also, someone made a movie about him. It was pretty good, especially the soundtrack.
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