Johnny Cash - Cash: Ultimate Gospel
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Free Music Notes for Cash: Ultimate Gospel
Free Music Review: The sacred side of Johnny Cash
Hit: 4 Stars
Much like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash evinced both sacred and profane sides. Unlike Williams, however, Cash didn't split his sanctified and secular work under two different names - he intertwined them on singles and albums from early in his career. Cash's run at Sun is often said to have ended with Sam Phillips' disinterest in recording gospel, and while Cash's first full album of sacred songs was recorded for Columbia, he waxed such songs in his last year at Sun. Backed by the basic twang of the Tennessee Two, Cash recorded his own "Belshazzar" and a cover of Governor Jimmie Davis' "I Was There When it Happened" while under contract to Phillips.
Arriving at Columbia, Cash wasted no time in recording more songs of faith. His debut LP included "That's Enough," and his second album was composed entirely of hymns, including the original "It Was Jesus" and covers of the traditional "The Old Account" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and his third LP (the concept album "Songs of Our Soil") featured his rendition of "The Great Speckle Bird." The Columbia sides expand upon the basic click-clack of the Tennessee Two with some piano and backing singers, but it's Cash's dominating baritone that takes the faithful home.
The ups and downs of Cash's life lend varying shades of meaning to his songs of praise. At times they're clearly expressions of joy, while at other junctures they're cries for help. He continued to record sacred works throughout his tenure at Columbia, both solo as on 1962's second album of hymns, "Hymns From the Heart," and together with the Carter Family. Maybelle Carter's autoharp provides the introduction to Cash's slow, wailing take of "Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)," and together with her daughters she provides the bracing mountain harmonies Cash's session singers could never achiceve.
Mid-70s sides "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder" and "In the Sweet By and By" are more fully produced, with pop horns and backing vocals that lose the intimacy of the earlier works. Cash's singing is subservient here to overblown, generic arragnements. The unreleased 1974 side "My Ship Will Sail" pares things down effectively, leaving Cash to intertwine with a small gospel chorus, and 1976's June Carter duet, "Far Side of Jordan" rests on the tic-tac twang of the guitar, even with string accompaniment.
Carl Perkins' "Daddy Sang Bass" is the best known title here, a staple of Cash's live show in the late '60s that pulled together the Statler Brothers and Carter Family as harmony singers. "Children Go Where I Stand" is a bouncy duet with June Carter, backed by an army of choral singers, and the closer to this 24-track, 67-minute collection. In addition to sampling 23 years of Cash's gospel sides (from 1957 through 1979), this set includes three previously unissued tracks, "How Great Thou Art," "It Is No Secret (What God Can Do)," and "My Ship Will Sail." The bonus tracks (and a few others) create some hiccups in the disc's chronological ordering, and the jumps is production quality are disconcerting. Though not as cohesive as his purpose-built albums of hymns and gospel, this is a nice overview of work from throughout his career. [©2007 hyperbolium dot com]
Free Music Review: Cash Always Sings from the Heart - Here He Sings from the Soul
Hit: 4 Stars
Johnny Cash passed away on September 12, 2003. If you were to judge exclusively by the number of CD's that suddenly became available in the wake of his death, his legendary status as a hero of both rock and roll and country music grew instantly and exponentially. This huge amount of posthumous releases usually dedicated themselves to portraying multiple aspects of Cash's monumental talent, as filtered through his even more remarkable persona. The fact is that there were so many releases that it overwhelmed much of his audience. Cash has always suffered (or celebrated) an incredible number of compilations and collections (allmusic.com features a list that contains over 300 entries for compilations alone!), so it becomes nearly impossible to sift through all of this to determine what is essential and what is peripheral, redundant or extravagant.
For all of the above reasons, I fear that "Ultimate Gospel" may fall through the cracks and be overlooked, and that would be a shame. It is a plainspoken title for a beautiful, plainspoken concept album that handpicks Gospel favorites from nearly three decades of Cash's career. Before he sang rock and roll or country music, Cash considered himself a Gospel singer. In fact, he `failed' his first audition for Sun Records by relying exclusively on Gospel songs. Despite this rather inauspicious beginning, Cash has often returned to his roots as a Gospel singer, and some of his most heartfelt performances fall into this category. He revisited some of these selections on the (also posthumous) collection entitled "My Mother's Hymnbook," but while that collection features stark arrangements with nothing but Cash's guitar for accompaniment, these versions are considerably more elaborate, sometimes including lush instrumental accompaniment and a backing chorus. Some of the best selections here ("I Was There When It Happened" and "Belshazzar") date back to the 1950s, when he was still in Memphis and perceived as a rockabilly artist, while the latter-day selections from the mid-seventies capture an artist remaining true to himself in spite of commercial trends ("In the Sweet By and By" and "Amazing Grace").
In the tidal wave of Johnny Cash collections that are flooding the market, it would be easy to dismiss this as something less than essential, but I'm certain that Johnny Cash himself would consider this to be some of his best work. If you are interested in Cash's Gospel side and wish to buy only one collection, I strongly recommend that you choose "Ultimate Gospel." A Tom Ryan