Johnny Cash

A giant of American music, in country and beyond. Hard to credit this year marks a decade since the death of both his talented wife June, in May, and the man himself, in September.

To start things off, here's one of his that she helped write:

Ring of Fire

Discovering Cash
An amusing 3/4 hr with various musos & journos running through the well-worn story of how a man from Dyess, Arkansas rose through battles with drugs, concerts in prisons, marriage to "country royalty", and his unexpected 90s renaissance. The general tone was refreshingly respectful, given the nature of the contributors.

Johnny Cash: Song by Song
6 half-hour shows, relating the overall story of his life through the way a particular song resonated with a phase of his life.

So the first, 'Walk The Line', established his credentials and his ethos. The second, 'Ring of Fire', reflected his tempestuous love match with June. The third, 'Jackson', focused on their marriage partnership. The fourth, 'A Boy Named Sue' was linked to his prison concerts and identification with the forgotten in society. The fifth, 'Sunday Morning Coming Down' compared to his battles with drink and drugs. The last, inevitably, was 'Hurt', which rounded off the story with his redemptive decade-long lap of honour.

Assorted talking heads paid homage along the way, as usual. The format I think worked well given the chosen songs. 'Hurt' still clearly makes a big impact even a decade on.

Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison
Not a straight concert, but a documentary about the country singer's other prison concerts, and the importance of this most famous one. The story also covered the sad tale of Glen Sherley, then an inmate, who wrote and sang himself. Cash sang one of his numbers, and campaigned for the man's release. Sadly, the outside world was not as kind, and Glen took his own life. This was a thoughtful tale, interspersed by many songs from the actual concert.

Johnny Cash: Live at Montreux
From July 5th, 1994, as his renaissance was really taking off. A polished and charming performance, and both his son John Carter Cash & wife June helped out, besides the usual crew  

The Unauthorised Biography of Johnny Cash
From 2005, a long look back, though mainly covering his formative years through to the early 1960's, after which point it skipped over most of the details to close off the story of how he finally conquered his drug addictions, and married June Carter. Even his 1990's renaissance with Rick Rubin barely rated more than a couple of minutes. But in fairness, his early years were worth the telling.

Johnny Cash in San Quentin
Footage of a (or the) legendary jailhouse concert, mixed with clips of prisoners and guards reflecting on prison life. The music is great.

Johnny Cash: Half Mile A Day
Impressive hour & half long 2001 doc covering the familiar highs and lows of the JC story, with an impressive roster of talking heads to sing his praises: Merle Haggard, George Jones, Merle Kilgore, Judy Collins, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings to name but a few.

YES! He's got a new album coming out!

Out Among the Stars comes out in March and features 12 tracks by the American singer, recorded for Columbia Records in 1981 and 1984.

It includes duets with Cash's wife June Carter and friend Waylon Jennings.

The tracks have never been made public before.

found by chance

'Out Among The Stars' entered the charts at #4, so there's still a market here even though the Rick Rubin series seems to have finally been exhausted.

Johnny Cash - The Man, His World, His Music
From 1969, an intriguing warts & all look at Johnny, at home, on tour, on stage, with his wife, with his family, listening to a newcomer backstage, in studio with Bob Dylan, and so on. The historical value both of Johnny Cash, and a documentary style you rarely if ever see these days, really raised the merit here.

Johnny Cash: Music In Review
Some people who had actually worked with him were used here, though "Cowboy" Dick Clement and WS "Fluke" Holland are always excellent contributors to these things. His latter-day renaissance was treated well, and rightly so. Rick Rubin really had an almost spiritual impact on his life.

Artists in Love: Johnny Cash & June Carter
Amiable entry in this series, re-telling the familiar story with help from their son John, biographer Mark Stielper and Bill Miller from the Johnny Cash Museum. They had differing childhoods, but were drawn to the world of music. They met at the Grand Ole Opry, but married other people. Once they hit it off in 1961, they conducted an affair in spite of his drug problems. When the gaffe was blown, they soon got divorces and after his career revived, they got married. As if often recounted, his career dipped in the 80s before its resurrection in the 90s. They both died in 2003, just 4 months apart, expecting to be reunited in Heaven.

The Highwaymen - Friends 'Til The End
A comparatively short account of how Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash came together to form a country supergroup which made a few albums and did a few tours before health caught up with them. Waylon's wife Jessi spoke up for him, but his son Shooter was AWOL. Kris spoke fondly of how Cash gave him his big chance, like an angel reaching down to raise him up (OK, that wasn't his metaphor). John Mellencamp and producer Don Was spoke warmly, as did Kris and Willie, of course. There was a lot of performance footage to pad things out, which turned out to come from...

Willie, Waylon, Cash & Kris - Highwaymen Live
From the Nassau Coliseum, Long Island, 1990, a couple of hours of the guys singing their own songs and other folks' ones. The crowd were happy, the guys were happy, everyone was happy. Can't ask for much more.

I Am Johnny Cash
A recent and fairly thorough recounting of the familiar story, covering his early years, successful years, wilderness and resurrection. I rarely usually notice that Roseanne was his daughter from his 1st marriage, whereas John is his son from his marriage to June. A few unfamiliar faces shared opinions, including Sheryl Crow and Kid Rock. Clive Davis unsurprisingly stuck his $0.02 in about Columbia Records. Archive of Pete Seeger was nice, as was some of the duet footage from his telly show - he really worked with all kinds of acts.

Cash
A blatant cash-in from Rolling Stone magazine published soon after his death, reprinting old RS chats with Cash and Rick Rubin, further articles about his ups & downs, and a lengthy potted biography, and discographic reviews. Good in-depth facts, and tributes from friends and performers.

The Gospel Music of Johnny Cash
Dan Rather fronts a retelling of the tale with a religious slant, including relevant performance footage. His Damascus road pretty much led him to the Nickajack cave, and Rick Rubin helped him find career redemption at the 11th hour too.

We're Still Here - Johnny Cash's Bitter Tears Revisited
His 1964 concept/protest album using the lyrics of Peter la Farge, was revamped here with help from Emmylou Harris and others. Steve Earle and Rosanne Cash were also on board in some ways or other. It was a good reminder of a minority group who don't attract quite as much attention as some others.

Focus On Johnny Cash
Phil & Sophie's series reaches another legend in Dyess' most famous son. Footage was included of Phil on location at Dyess itself from one of his coach tours last year, under a hot sun. Many familiar songs were covered, some surprising ones too. His awards, his children, his marriages, his Halls of Fame appearances, and so on.

A Concert: Behind Prison Walls
A gig from Tennessee State Prison, Nashville, with Johnny starting off, then giving way to Foster Brooks, Linda Ronstadt and Roy Clark, before main eventing himself. Foster did some comedy, but did do a song, Linda did Desperado and You're No Good, whilst Cash, who had Carl Perkins himself in his backing section, closed on A Boy Named Sue, a performance I've seen clips of in other shows. Quite a good 1976 show.

Urban Myths: Johnny Cash and the Ostrich
Comic and sometime actor Frank Skinner wrote and starred as the Man in Black himself, in a vignette from the early 1980s, where troubles with drugs and a down-time in his career seem to coalesce around a sad tale of Waldo the bereaved ostrich. Isy Suttie plays feed mainly as a trainee hotel manageress trying to help sort Cash out.

Cash
Autobiography from the late 1990s, helpfully during the early part of his Rick Rubin-fed resurgence, and before his health really took a nosedive. He relates his story in an engaging manner, mixing up past and present and covering almost all the areas you would hope for him to cover.

The Johnny Cash Roadshow - Live!
Yes, a tribute act, Clive John. He did a good job of covering Cash's career, even including Hurt. But it was mainly the early, golden years, which to be fair is what an audience would most likely want and expect.

Billy Connolly's Great American Trail
A 3-part series with the legendary Scottish comedian visiting spots along the East Coast of the USA, a guitar factory, a music shop, some places music-related and not, and finishing up  to sing "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" at the Grand Ole Opry.

One note-worthy place was the home of AP Carter, where Billy sat in AP's old chair and talked to one of the surviving Carters about the family legacy, and Johnny Cash. There was footage purportedly of Johnny's final gig too. Billy got the daughter to laugh when he spoke about much of a drinker he had been.

Johnny Cash - The Line
I suspect this might just be a repackaged version of other shows, just a cheap compilation of performance clips, with a huge rush in the last few minutes to get through the Rubin years etc. Still a fun hour or so.

Showreel: Johnny Cash
Much as you'd expect, touching most bases from Ring of Fire to Folsom Prison  Blues to Sunday Morning Coming Down to Hurt. No bad thing.

The Man In Black - In Britain
An amusing angle on the familiar story, as Johnny turned out to have Scottish ancestry. Both Rosanne and John Carter had stuff to say, partly as JCC has been involved in a new album putting a classical orchestra behind Johnny's vocals. There were also some more intriguing star memories, as Elvis Costello and Peter Gabriel had praise to offer. His turn at Glastonbury in 1994 was a triumph too.

Johnny Cash - A Night To Remember
A concert at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, in May 1973. After a steady opening section, and a medley of railway-themed numbers, June came out for the remainder.

Music Legends: Johnny Cash
Another run-through of a familiar story, how Arkansas' son was one of seven, starting writing songs at 12, married and remarried, found a stage name, worked with Sun Records and the Carter family, had troubles with drugs, found a sort of redemption, made albums in prisons, suffered a career slide, was resurrected by Rick Rubin, and died. Many musical moments featured, as ever the more interesting being the less over-used.

Johnny Cash - Cash For Kenya
From Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in some church, around the time of his Mystery Of Life album, in July 1991, so presumably life not long before Rick Rubin came into it. He did plenty of classic material through the first half, then brought his wife on to sing along with him, and then to sing along with her sisters instead. Son John came on in their big version of Will The Circle Be Unbroken? The theme of the show was a fund-raiser of some description for a charity which worked in Kenya, leading to the double meaning of the show title.

Later... presents Johnny Cash
The great man came to town around 1994, it seems, and did quite a few tracks actually, as well as talking to Jools and observing a clip of him with Bob Dylan. This 2003 tribute show ended with the Hurt video too.