Johnny Cash What is Truth

Assembling a comprehensive multi-disc Johnny Cash collection is a difficult task for a variety of reasons, not the least of it being the sheer number of records Cash put out in the '60s and '70s. Counting duets, he had over 130 charting singles, which is far too much for the average box set, plus those singles don't necessarily tell the full story of Cash the recording artist, since he was a prolific album artist, as well. Then, there's the sheer variety of what he recorded – rockabilly, folk tunes, tales of gunslingers and Indians, scores of novelty numbers, gospel, Americana kitsch, train songs, pop, and straight-ahead country, he tried it all, giving it all his own unique stamp, distinguished by his booming voice and the distinctive two-step muted rhythm picked out by his guitarist, Luther Perkins.

Johnny Cash - The Legend (2005) [4CD BoxSet] {Columbia}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.76 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 725 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 69 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2005 Columbia / Legacy / Sony BMG | COL 517461 2
Country / Traditional Country / Country Pop

There are several Cash boxes available, but The Legend–spanning the years 1955-2002 but concentrating on his long tenure at Columbia and, to a lesser degree, his beginnings at Sun–probably belongs at the top of the list. Cash's greatest strengths are dramatized on these four, thematically programmed discs: Win, Place and Show: The Hits; Old Favorites and New; The Great American Songbook (mostly traditional songs); and Family and Friends (collaborations).

You've got to be a Johnny Cash fan to truly appreciate what's happening on the third volume in Legacy's Bootleg series Live Around the World. This double-disc collection contains 53 tracks culled from 23 years, 1956 to 1979. The heart of its performances are from the Newport Folk Festival in 1964; a show for the troops in Long Binh, Vietnam in 1969; for Richard Nixon at the White House in 1970, and at the Osteraker Prison in Sweden in 1972…

A study in contrasts, and all the more American because of it, Johnny Cash holds a unique place in pop music history. His fans span generations, and fit in across the cultural spectrum, from teenaged punks to gray-haired congressmen, from Merle Haggard to Snoop Dogg, and seemingly all points in between. His music has always been instantly recognizable no matter what genre – country, rockabilly, gospel, folk – he was working in, and given the sheer volume of material he recorded, it's amazing how uniform it all is, adding up in the end to, well, Johnny Cash. This two-disc set includes Chris Cooper's Johnny Cash's America documentary DVD on the singer along with a second disc featuring the soundtrack from the film, which includes fine performances of "Big River," "Folsom Prison Blues," and "Five Feet High and Rising," among others.

At ten CDs and 200 tracks, this survey of 1970s pop features 20 songs from each year between 1970 and 1979.