Latest Release
- JUN 28, 2024
- 11 Songs
- Christmas Hits · 1963
- Unearthed (Box Set) · 2002
- The Very Best of the Highwaymen · 1964
- The Essential Johnny Cash · 1963
- With His Hot and Blue Guitar (feat. The Tennessee Two) · 1955
- American V: A Hundred Highways · 2006
- With His Hot and Blue Guitar (feat. The Tennessee Two) · 1956
- American II: Unchained · 1996
- The Essential Johnny Cash · 1967
- The Essential Johnny Cash · 1979
Essential Albums
- The fourth album in the American Recordings series that comprised Johnny Cash’s comeback was the last released during his lifetime. It’s no coincidence that The Man Comes Around is the most poignantly elegiac of those releases, with the rumble-toned troubadour transforming such unlikely source material as Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” from an angst-filled alt-rock stomp into a hushed acoustic requiem for all he holds dear. These stripped-down statements from deep within Cash’s indomitable soul are impossible to shake off—not that anyone would want to.
- Fresh off the career-defining At Folsom Prison and Johnny Cash at San Quentin, just-married to June Carter, and newly (if temporarily) sober, Cash had become one of the biggest stars not only in country but also in pop, while still retaining his outlaw aura. Named for his customary introduction at live shows, Hello, I’m Johnny Cash showcased the lean sound of the Tennessee Three at its peak, including a Grammy-winning performance of “If I Were a Carpenter” with June and the first of what turned out to be many Kris Kristofferson covers (“To Beat the Devil”). Though the image remained tough, Cash’s delivery was steady, almost meditative—a simmering intensity that made performances like “Blistered” among the best of his career.
- One of Johnny Cash’s landmark albums, Orange Blossom Special has something for just about anyone in his diverse audience. Its mix of country, folk, and gospel was ahead of its time and remains fresh. “It Ain’t Me Babe” (rendered as a sarcastic duet with June Carter Cash and accented with mariachi-style horns), “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” (sung with baritone earnestness to a tic-tac beat), and “Mama, You Been On My Mind” (with an oddly successful vocal syncopation and spiced by saxophone) find Cash creatively interpreting Bob Dylan material. Cash’s sense of social justice comes through on “All of God’s Children Ain’t Free,” while his rock-solid faith is made plain by “Amen.” Rollicking train songs (the title track), poetic invocations of the West (“You Wild Colorado”), haunting country parables (“The Long Black Veil”), and moody frontier ballads (“When It’s Springtime in Alaska”) add further color to this eclectic release. Johnny holds it all together with a commanding presence that’s by turns somber, tender, playful, and ornery. Orange Blossom Special belongs in any Cash fan’s collection.
- 2024
Artist Playlists
- When the Man in Black comes around.
- The Man in Black scored a comeback with these adventurous recordings.
- Honky-tonking laments and rockabilly-tinged heartbreak.
- The Man in Black influenced country stars and rockers alike.
- Lean back and relax with some of their mellowest cuts.
- Perhaps no American troubadour better embodies the rebellious spirit.
Appears On
- Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra
More To Hear
- Strombo salutes 65 years of the Man in Black’s debut LP.
About Johnny Cash
There were lots of Johnny Cashes: mama’s boy, rabble-rouser, Bible-thumping hymn singer, and middle-fingered outlaw. When he was born to struggling cotton farmers in Arkansas in 1932, country was still considered—and outright called—“hillbilly music”; by the time he died in 2003, the influence he’d had in shaping both the rebellion of rock ’n’ roll and the preservationist spirit of modern country was undeniable. You could hear in Cash what you wanted to hear. But his music contained so much—and yet was so casually singular—that it made room for all. Part of Cash’s paradox is that he was at once a definitive country artist and a persistent challenger to ideas of what country is and could be. Never quite faithful to Nashville but never separatist either, his music seemed to exist on a parallel track, equally informed by the candor of folk and the stability of gospel, by the deference of tradition and the rugged bluntness of outlaw culture. By the time he’d refashioned himself as the Man in Black, with 1968’s and 1969’s twin prison albums At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin, he’d already generated a lifetime’s worth of work. Out of a fallow ’70s and ’80s came the American series, which cast him as a mythic, almost deathless figure, a quiet fireside presence fortified by years of unspeakable weight. He often lived in chaos—substance abuse, run-ins with the law, a suicide attempt, and capitulations to God. But in his voice was a steadiness. Not sentiment—he would never—but resolve.
- GENRE
- Country