Song Book Johnny Cash

Originally included as part of the exhaustive Unearthed box set of Johnny Cash's American Records recordings, My Mother's Hymn Book is exactly what it claims to be – songs directly out of Cash's mother's old hymnal. Featuring Cash alone playing an acoustic guitar, this is a stark, beautiful, and simple album. In the liner notes, Cash calls this his favorite record he's ever made and it's clear that learning these songs as a child is what inspired his love of music. In that sense, despite no original material, these are some of the most personal songs Cash ever recorded; he even includes song-by-song commentaries that help illuminate what each track meant to him. For Merle Travis' "I Am a Pilgrim" Cash writes, "It's one of those old country gospel classics that my mother sang, that I knew I would record it someday." Of course, Cash recorded gospel songs before this album, as in 1959 with Hymns by Johnny Cash and again in 1962 with Hymns From the Heart and he usually included one gospel track per album.

Over the course of five mesmerizing CDs, Unearthed shows us just how Johnny Cash's now-legendary handful of recordings for American Records came to be. Four discs feature previously unreleased tracks from the famed Rick Rubin-produced sessions. Through their inconsistencies and quirks (and, more often than not, brilliance), they shed light on how Cash's final records were shaped, edited, and produced. Here we get some creative pairings: Fiona Apple providing guest vocals on Cat Stevens' "Father & Son," and the late Joe Strummer duetting with Cash on Bob Marley's "Redemption Song."

While Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, the 1968 album that made Cash a household word, spent only two weeks at No. 1, this 1969 follow-up topped the charts for 20 weeks. As with Folsom, the San Quentin LP had to be edited due to space limitations. Now, 31 years after the fact, the show can at last be heard in true perspective. All the original performances hold up, including the album's hit single: Shel Silverstein's "A Boy Named Sue," presented unbleeped for the first time. Equally impressive are the eight restored tracks and unexpurgated between-song patter. Cash's opening renditions of "Big River" and "I Still Miss Someone" are bracing. So are four closing songs teaming Cash with his complete performing troupe (the Carter Family, Carl Perkins, and the Statler Brothers). Their gospel performances ("He Turned the Water into Wine," "The Old Account," and an early version of "Daddy Sang Bass") are electrifying, as is a concluding medley featuring everyone. Cash is presented here at his roaring, primal best.

Recorded July 28, 1990 at The Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Recorded July 28, 1990 at The Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Recorded July 28, 1990 at The Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Johnny Cash - The Complete Mercury Recordings 1986-1991 (2020) {7CD Set, Universal Music 0602567726951}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.99 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 741 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 1986-91, 2020 Mercury / UMe ‎| 0602567726951
Country / Country-Pop / Traditional Country / Country-Folk

In 1986, after almost 30 years on Columbia Records, Country music legend Johnny Cash released his first album on Mercury Records – Class Of ’55, in collaboration with fellow Sun Records alumni Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. Seven years later, his last recording before signing with Rick Rubin’s American Recordings would be another collaboration, “The Wanderer”, with U2.