The Legend (Columbia/Legacy, 2005)
Johnny Cash
Reviewed by Stuart Munro
The set is organized thematically, with discs devoted to his top hits, other Cash favorites, the American Songbook (or certain corners of it - traditional songs and covers of the likes of Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, Leadbelly, Hank Williams and Bob Wills) and collaborations, the bulk with his wife and other Carters, but also with Dylan, Jennings, Kristofferson and others. It's a successful approach to the daunting task of attempting to encapsulate a recording career as lengthy and wide-ranging as Cash's and offers a better-than-brief introduction to that career for someone looking for that.
To entice the Cashophile who's heard it all before, there's seven previously unreleased tracks. And given that those tracks are all drawn from what "The Legend" producer Greg Geller labels the "House of Cash" tapes - hundreds of tapes, left behind by Cash, of demos, outtakes, tapes sent by fans and by radio stations, recordings of live events, the accumulation of a musical giant's lifetime - those tracks are as much teaser as enticement.
CDs by Johnny Cash
©Country Standard Time • Jeffrey B. Remz, editor & publisher • countrystandardtime@gmail.com
About • Copyright • Newsletter • Our sister publication Standard Time