Johnny Cash American

Johnny Cash was fortunate enough to enjoy a massive resurgence of attention and respect in the last decade of his life, but while no one seemed to be paying much attention to him from the early '80s (when his contract with Columbia ran out) to 1994 (when the Rick Rubin-produced American Recordings reminded listeners that a great artist was still in our midst), Cash continued to make good-to-great records and play for fans around the world, and this album, taken from a 1987 taping session for the long-running television series Austin City Limits, shows the Man in Black was still in sterling form as he traveled beneath the radar of country radio and the hipster music press.

Johnny Cash - Koncert V Praze - In Prague Live (2016) {Columbia 88875169582 rec 1978}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 275 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 106 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 9 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1978, 2016 Columbia / Sony Music | 88875169582
Country / Traditional Country

For decades, the only way to enjoy Johnny Cash live in your home was on his two arguably finest albums, both recorded at penitentiaries; At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin. Since they are established classics, the argument can be made there really wasn’t a need for more. That has changed as labels dig ever deeper to mine material from legends like Cash from their vaults. It has resulted in no less than two recent concert recordings from Cash; Man in Black:Live in Denmark 1971 released in early December last year and now this show, recorded in Czechoslovakia circa 1978. Add these to 2003’s A Concert Behind Prison Walls, Johnny Cash at Madison Square Garden (a 1969 date finally seeing the light of day in 2002), and 2011’s 53 track Bootleg Vol lll:Live Around the World. And that’s just for starters. Considering how much he performed, it’s likely more are on the way.

Though on the surface Bitter Tears is just another installment in the seemingly endless series of Americana albums that Johnny Cash released in the '60s, it was a more daring collection than any of its predecessors or successors. Where Cash's previous Americana albums had previously concentrated on cowboys and Western pioneers, Bitter Tears is all about Native Americans and their trials and tribulations. It isn't a crass move – it's a sensitive, clear-eyed take on the unfair treatment of the American Indian that uses traditional folk ballads and newly written songs in the same vein. It's stark and moving, his best Americana album of the '60s.