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| Home | The Man | The Legend | The Music | News |
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Copyright Maninblack.net 2007
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Liner Notes Johnny Cash and his music are one-blending to produce the kind of songs that bridge the gap from heart to heart. As Johnny says, "There are three things you can't get away from. Loneliness, that certain kind of woman, and God." And so the songs in this album echo the sincerity of Johnny's words and the universal truth of his experience. When it comes to loneliness, You'd think Johnny invented the word. Naturally endowed with a rangy, big, hollow voice, Johnny's melancholy comes through strong on such blues ballads as his composition, "So Doggone Lonesome" or the old railroad folk song, "I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow." If there is an answer to man';s loneliness, it's Woman. A woman can change a man;'s life completely. This is what Johnny says, -a bit teasingly- in "I Walk The Line" (another Cash tune). This record, on single release, hit the top in the country and western field and also made "Top 20 in the Nation" in the pop field. Of course you have to take the bitter with the sweet-hence, "Cry, Cry., Cry." Coming to the third inescapable element, Johnny in this album sings one song of spiritual nature. There's religious conviction in the strong sensitive voice of Johnny Cash when he sings "I WAS There When It Happened." Those who know him say Johnny's religion to him is a very real thing, source of the peace he sings of so knowingly. How does a young man of 23 get to be so serious, so soon? In Johnny's case, it was a matter of facing hard, cold facts from childhood. Brought up on a 40-acre cotton farm at Dyess Colony, Ark., Johnny was one of six children. The Cash family, through of necessity hard-working, always had time to sing together, and it was at home Johnny acquired his love of music. At 18, Johnny enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. It was while serving "three long, miserable years" in Germany that he bought a guitar and taught himself to play. It went along way in combating blues and boredom, and to Johnny it was fun to work out original melodies now and then. Service life completed, Johnny enrolled in a Memphis radio school, determined to become an announcer. On an impulse, he went to Sun Records Company one day and rather shyly asked Sun Records President Sam Phillips to audition him. That was perhaps the most fateful day in Johnny's life, because he was immediately signed by Sun and his musical career was launched. That was late in '55, and one year later, Johnny was named the most promising country and western artist of the year in four separate polls. Johnny writes nearly all of his songs "when I'm on the road, feeling homesick....When an idea comes into my head, I jot it down. Later, at home, I fish out maybe 40 or 50 scraps of paper and see what I've got." Backing up Johnny are two long-time friends, electric guitarist Luther Perkins and bass player Marshall Grant. They supply a strong country beat that never lags. To hear Johnny Cash Album is to know Johnny Cash-the man, the lonely dreamer with a stubborn streak of realism which makes for unforgettable conversation in song. Top Of Page
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Info Personnel
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ChartsSingles - Billboard (North America)
Info Cash's first album, released on Sun in 1957, was a little more folkloric and traditional in bent than what he put on most of his singles, though not pronouncedly so. In fact, four of the tracks ("I Walk the Line," "Cry! Cry! Cry!," "So Doggone Lonesome," and "Folsom Prison Blues") had already been hit singles. For the rest of the set, Cash drew on some older folk ("Rock Island Line," "The Wreck of the Old '97"), country ("[I Heard That] Lonesome Whistle," "Remember Me [I'm the One Who Loves You]"), prison ("Doin' My Time"), and spiritual ("I Was There When It Happened") songs. Filling out the set was a good, rollicking Cash original, "Country Boy," and a rather sassy tune by the young Jerry Reed, "If the Good Lord's Willing." It's a good, solid record that's very much in the mold of his classic early Sun sound, with spare accompaniment that nevertheless often approaches a rockabilly-country bounce. The 2002 CD reissue on Varese Sarabande adds five bonus tracks: the fine, brisk B-sides "Hey, Porter!" and "Get Rhythm," as well as alternate versions of "I Was There When It Happened," "Folsom Prison Blues," and "I Walk the Line." The album's desirability's a little diminished by the presence of the material on numerous other compilations in the CD era, though it still stands well on its own. Re-Release Info This reissue of the 1957 Sun Records release has never been available on CD. Includes liner notes by Bill Dahl. One of the best Johnny Cash albums ever, his Sun Records debut, 1957's WITH HIS HOT AND BLUE GUITAR, features his first single, "Cry! Cry! Cry!," as well as its follow-ups, "Folsom Prison Blues" and "I Walk the Line." A milestone in rock music history in its compelling combination of primal country music and raw, earthy rock & roll, the album also charts the major elements of Cash's future musical direction--train songs, with "The Wreck of Old '97," prison songs in the aforementioned "Folsom Prison Blues" and "Doin' My Time," gospel material in "I Was There When It Happened," and reminiscences of his early, dirt-poor country years in "Country Boy." This release includes the added bonus of "Hey, Porter!" (the original B-side of "Cry! Cry! Cry!"), as well as four previously unreleased alternate takes. ***
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