Johnny Cash - American V: A Hundred Highways LP

American (2014, Reissue)

Last up in my Johnny Cash American series reviews is the fifth of the bunch, A Hundred Highways.  As I had said earlier, I already had the original pressings of IV and VI, so I won't be writing about them, but adding V to the collection gives me the complete set of six.

Like all of the other Johnny Cash reissues, this one sounds fantastic.  They did a great job of presenting these songs in the best possible light and I really recommend anyone who is a fan to grab them.  They've actually done a box set of all six that I probably should have tried to get.  I just figured since I already had two of them why buy them again, but it would have been worth it to have that nice set in the collection.

Musically, it's hard to talk too much about this record with any sort of perspective.  It was the first of two American albums to come out after Johnny Cash had died.  He sounds weak in some of these songs and there is definitely a mood over the record that is hard to pin down.  Despite any frailties due to age or illness, Cash is still a master of presenting songs and making them his.  While I don't think this is my favorite of the bunch, it's still an amazing assortment of incredible songs.

I love the six Johnny Cash American records.  It's what opened the door to his music for me.  I've spent a fair amount of time going backwards and listening to his older albums as well and he was just a once in a lifetime performer.  I'm hopeful at some point they decide to put out the Unearthed box set on vinyl as well.  It deserves as respectful of a treatment as these LPs have received.

Johnny Cash - "Like The 309":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuFUZmtY1t4

Johnny Cash - "A Legend In My Time":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KChi4xWmcuU

Johnny Cash - American III: Solitary Man LP

American (2014, Reissue)

The third of the Johnny Cash American Recordings releases is as great as the previous two.  When this album came out I was an intern at the radio promotions company that I eventually ended up working at for several years.  So while I didn't officially promote this record, it was nice to feel that I was involved with it just a little bit.  The three main promo folks in my department all got autographed Johnny Cash posters out of this campaign.  I was pretty jealous of those.

As far as the record itself goes, once again Cash has picked some incredible songs and somehow made them his own.  From "I Won't Back Down" to "Solitary Man" to to his incredible take on what may be the only U2 song I actually like, "One," it amazes me how Johnny Cash can put his stamp on a tune like no other.  For me, the absolute highlight is "The Mercy Seat."  The way that song reaches its slow building crescendo is just a thing of beauty.

Like the other two before it, this reissue sounds just fantastic.  I won't call it a flawless pressing, because I'm not sure I'm enough of an audiophile to really make that sort of judgment, but I can tell you that I don't think this record has ever sounded better.  I won't actually be reviewing American IV as I already have an original copy of that one (though I am tempted to re-buy as these reissues sound so good), so next up is American V.

Johnny Cash - "The Mercy Seat":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8CzFVm1Yio

Johnny Cash - "One":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGrR-7_OBpA

Johnny Cash - American II: Unchained LP

American (2014, Reissue)

This is the album that turned me into a Johnny Cash fan.  Prior to hearing it, I don't know that I had ever given much thought to him at all.  In my mind he was probably just some old country singer, but after hearing Unchained my opinion was forever changed.  In 1996 I was writing at my college newspaper, mostly doing album reviews but also a handful of interviews when a band came to town.  When I opened up the mail one day I saw that I had been sent the new Johnny Cash record by the label.  I'm not sure that even then I would have really paid that much attention, but there was one thing that made me immediately put the CD into the player.

The first track of Unchained is a cover of "Rowboat" by Beck.  It's one of my favorite Beck songs and in 1996, I was a pretty gigantic Beck fan (I still am, but the pre-Odelay stuff has always been my favorite).  Cash's take on Rowboat is a baritone filled somber affair.  I won't say that his voice elevates the song, but it changes it and gives it a different meaning to me.  I'm not going to be the first person to say that Johnny Cash has a unique ability to make a song his own, but I will reinforce it.

The rest of the record is equally great.  The Soundgarden cover "Rusty Cage" is probably one of his more famous covers and deserves all of the accolades heaped on it.  "Sea Of Heartbreak," "I Never Picked Cotton," "Solitary Man" and "I've Been Everywhere" are all stone cold classics.  I love every one of the Johnny Cash American albums, but Unchained was my first and will probably always be my favorite.  Having this record on vinyl and the vinyl sounding so ridiculously good makes my record collection feel just a bit more complete.

Johnny Cash - "Rowboat":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r0j0T99rmY

Johnny Cash - "I've Been Everywhere":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmFN9C9PVpg

Johnny Cash - American Recordings LP

American (2014, Reissue)

During the holidays it's nice to get some records as gifts, but considering the type of music I mainly listen to, it can prove difficult to list off anything that is readily available at major retailers for family to grab.  This past year, when all of the Johnny Cash American Recordings reissues came out, they seemed to be perfect gifting ideas.  I put the four that I didn't have the original pressings of on my list, and now they're in my collection.  I'll get through all four over the next few weeks.

When the first American Recordings album came out in 1994 I can't honestly say I was paying much attention to Johnny Cash.  Though I know this is the record that made him relevant again, it's not really something that entered my little world way back when.  It was American Recordings II where I came on board, but I'll write more about that some other time.  I did, of course, backtrack and pick up this album a long time ago, but I had just grabbed a used CD.  

It is such a wonderful record and I would never question why so many people loved it.  It's borderline perfect.  The entire record is just Johnny, his guitar and some songs.  The gigantic and epic sound he's able to make on this album with so few tools is more than anything to the powerful voice of Johnny Cash.  He owns each and every one of the performances in this record.  Songs like "Deliah's Gone, "The Beast In Me" and "Like A Soldier" are so impactful and just feel important. 

The other bonus is this pressing sounds phenomenal.  Everything is crisp and clear.  I've honestly never heard these songs sound any better.  The odds of anyone reading this review and buying the record based on what I say about the songs of Johnny Cash are pretty slim.  Most everyone knows who he is and already knows if they like him or not.  But what I can say is this pressing is absolutely worth picking up.  If you don't have the album at all, it's essential and while I don't have an original pressing to compare the reissue to, it sounds amazing and may even be worth an upgrade.  Maybe not though, I've never heard the original.

Johnny Cash - "Deliah's Gone":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1iKEPzF1Js

Johnny Cash - "The Beast In Me":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8tGCVavS5s

Johnny Cash - Get Rhythm b/w I Walk The Line 7"

Johnny Cash - Get Rhythm b/w I Walk The Line 7", a photo by Tim PopKid on Flickr.

Third Man (2013)

Third Man Records has some wacky ideas. I've seen some pretty terrible ones over the years, and that gold vinyl/wooden box $300 version of the truly terrible looking Great Gatsby soundtrack was right at the top of the list of bizarre things to do. But then they will always redeem themselves with a project like this. Third Man is going to be reissuing a lot of the original Sun records 7" singles. While I'm not likely to buy all of them, I absolutely intend to cherry pick some of the cooler ones to add to the collection.

First up, the reissue of the Johhny Cash classic Get Rhythm b/w I Walk The Line. There's very little to say about songs as iconic as these, other than they're obviously incredible. What I'm most impressed with is the faithful way that Third Man has reissued the original artwork. Plus there's the fact that these songs sound better on this 7" than I've ever heard. Though I have miles of Johnny Cash, virtually all of it is on CD. I've been wanting to start replacing that with vinyl, but when you buy as many records as I do with the budget I'm working on, you have to pick and choose your battles, so Johnny is still waiting for some vinyl.

When I ordered this record from Third Man, they actually sent me the wrong record and sent the Sun reissue of the Prisonaires 7" they released by mistake. But as soon as I alerted them they immediately sent me the correct Johnny Cash record and also let me keep the Prisonaires one, so I'll write something up about that tomorrow.

Johnny Cash - Get Rhythm:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QQC-C3sCwQ

Johnny Cash - I Walk The Line:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAC0vuL3A3c