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| Track Listing (Click to hear a sample) | |
| 1. | It Was Jesus |
| 2. | I Saw A Man |
| 3. | Are All The Children In |
| 4. | Old Account, The |
| 5. | Lead Me Gently Home |
| 6. | Swing Low, Sweet Chariot |
| 7. | Snow In His Hair |
| 8. | Lead Me Father |
| 9. | I Call Him |
| 10. | These Things Shall Pass |
| 11. | He'll Be A Friend |
| 12. | God Will |
| 13. | It Was Jesus - (mono, EP version) |
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Liner Notes In this inspiring collection, Johnny Cash turned his attention from the popular songs that have made him one of the brightest stars of today to the simpler songs of faith and devotion, presenting a program that combines religious feeling with music in splendid fashion. There are many fine hymns to choose from, and sometimes the old favorites are too often chosen, at the expense of the excellent new religious songs being written every day. For this program, Johnny Cash has chosen a few old favorites and some splendid new creations, including several he composed himself.
Johnny Cash, in fact, began his remarkable career as a composer, jotting down musical ideas that occurred to him. He started out in his home town of Dyess, Arkansas, singing with his friends and in church, and, after the army, attended radio school. It was there that his interest in music really flowered, and he began to take his pastime seriously. At last he gathered together a few of his songs and started to call on record companies, and within a short time was signed not only as a composer but as a performer as well. His first four songs were all big hits, as were several subsequent numbers, and his records shot to the top of the best-seller lists. He joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry, working with
such stars as Marty Robbins, Carl Perkins and Ray Price, and then, with a movie career in the offing, moved to Hollywood, where he lives today, with his wife and three small daughters.
Here he is heard in his selection of hymns, singing them reverently and fervently, and investing them with deep meaning. Among the songs are It Was Jesus, formerly called Who Was. It and the ever-moving Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, sung in his own arrangement. The hymns which he himself has written include It Was Jesus, Are All the Children In (written with Oliver Greene), The Old Account, I Called Him (written with E. Roy Cash, Sr.), He'll Be a Friend and Lead Me, Father. No one can listen to Johnny Cash singing these hymns, or the others in this program, without sensing at once the warm blend of artistry and sincerity that has so quickly made him a star, and no one can listen without sharing in that sincerity.
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Personnel
Comments Although Sam Phillips steered Cash away from gospel and sacred music in the mid-'50s at Sun Records, in fact much of what Cash recorded in his early career still had a devout tone, often with piety and imagery that wouldn't have sounded foreign in a gospel context. So although this 1959 album was entirely devoted to religious songs, it didn't really sound that different from his prior work, and remains accessible to Cash fans whether or not they're religious or have an interest in sacred song. The arrangements remain as sparse as most from his 1950s catalog, though stately backup vocals are often present. Too, these aren't strictly traditional numbers, as Cash writes or co-writes about half the tunes. Sure, "Are All the Children In" skirts bathos with its spoken sections, yet songs like "The Old Account" and "It Was Jesus" have the country-rockabilly bounce characteristic of much of his secular material. In fact, despite its specialized focus, it's somewhat generic 1950s Cash at a casual listen, though even generic 1950s Cash is good. The CD reissue adds just one bonus track, and a peripheral one at that: a "mono EP version" of "It Was Jesus," which is lacking the backup vocals found on the LP one.
Re-Release Notes Producer: Don Law. Reissue producer: Al Quaglieri. Includes liner notes by Johnny Whiteside. Digitally remastered by Mark Wilder and Seth Foster (Sony Music Studios, New York, New York). When Johnny Cash left Sun Records for Columbia, it was to pursue his desired artistic directions, one of which was his strong interest in gospel music, as borne out by his second Columbia release HYMNS. This may have been the first gospel album for Cash (who was one of many Southern country and rockabilly artists with a faith-based passion for the style), but it would be followed by many others over the course of his long career. Still, it's probably the best of Cash's spiritual albums, as its place in his chronology places it the closest to his early, raw sound. Sure, there's church choir-style background harmony here, but the core of the sound is still the famed boom-chicka-boom of Cash and his Tennessee Two. Whether Cash is engaging in celebratory call-and-response on "It Was Jesus" (whose mono EP version is also included here as a bonus track) or delivering a Luke the Drifter-like monologue on "Are All the Children In," he rarely sounded more committed than he does when expressing his religious convictions here for the first time.
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