High Bias refreshed

JOHNNY CASH
The Fabulous Johnny Cash
Hymns by Johnny Cash
Ride This Train
Orange Blossom Special
Carryin' On With Johnny Cash & June Carter
America
Ragged Old Flag
(Columbia/Legacy)
Music critics love to toss around terms like "Americana" to describe certain kinds of American roots music, but there's never been a nuts-and-bolts definition of the term. We're not going to offer one here, either, but instead submit to you a defining example: Johnny Cash. Rich veins of country & western, rock & roll, folk, gospel and the blues run through the legendary musician's work, and his iconoclastic individuality is beyond debate. This is a man who damn near personifies the American spirit, even when we're not entirely sure what exactly that spirit is. In celebration of the man's 70th birthday this year, Columbia is using its American Milestone series to highlight selected titles from their vast catalog of Cash items.

The Fabulous Johnny Cash, originally released in 1958, earns immediate distinction by being the first album Cash recorded for Columbia, after a successful run of singles for Sun. This album is a basic Cash primer, containing many of the elements associated with him to this day: reworked folk songs ("Frankie's Man, Johnny"), a train song ("One More Ride"), gospel ("That's Enough," "Pickin' Time"), a couple of Cash standards ("I Still Miss Someone," "Don't Take Your Guns to Town"), the distinctive cut-time chunk of the Tennessee Two (guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant, augmented by drummer Morris Palmer) and, of course, the star's instantly recognizable, deeply resonant baritone. Don Law keeps the production appropriately spare, except for the unintentionally intrusive background vocals by the Jordanaires. This edition includes a half dozen bonus tracks, including formative versions of "Oh What a Dream" and "I'll Remember You" and the classic outtakes "Fool's Hall of Fame," "Mama's Baby," "Cold Shoulder" and "Walkin' the Blues." In retrospect, Fabulous is the blueprint on which Cash would build his repertoire.

1959's Hymns by Johnny Cash and 1960's Ride This Train set other precedents that Cash would follow throughout his career, though less frequently. Hymns sets Cash's deep Christian faith to music—an approach he returns to from time to time, much like his old compadre Elvis Presley, whenever he needs artistic renewal. It's a straightforward collection of gospel tunes, with Cash backed by the Tennessee Two, a drummer and pianist and a small choir. While it features good readings of standards like "These Things Shall Pass," "Lead Me Gently Home" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," the best tracks are Cash originals like "The Old Account," "He'll Be a Friend" and "It Was Jesus" (which also appears in a mono mix as a bonus cut). Ride This Train is a concept album that follows the path of the early railroad through the fields of American history. The record features Cash narrating in the voice of various characters as well as singing themed songs by himself and others, with everything hooked together by train sounds. This could be the proverbial straw for many listeners; often it seems like the narrative bits are longer than the songs themselves. Especially at the front of the record, it seems like he'll never shut up and just start singing. It's worth it, though, to get to beautifully rendered tracks like Merle Travis' "Loading Coal," Tex Ritter's "Boss Jack" (which is admittedly in dubious taste in these politically correct times) and Cash's own "Dorraine of Ponchartrain," "Slow Rider" and "When Papa Played the Dobro." The quartet of bonus tracks is highlighted by "The Fable of Willie Brown" and "Smilin' Bill McCall."

1965's Orange Blossom Special makes explicit the connections between (then) contemporary country and folk, which seems run-of-the-mill today, but was actually a risky move in the turbulent 60s. The political associations of the conservative C&:W establishment and the liberal folk movement had driven a wedge between two genres that should have been filed in the same record bins. Whether by conscious design or natural instinct, the iconoclastic Cash casually kicks that wedge away. His performance of the great country songwriter Harlan Howard's "The Wall" sounds like a lost Pete Seeger track, and the guitar-and-vocal arrangement of his own "You Wild Colorado" highlights an approach he would exploit more fully 30 years later on American Recordings. He includes strong versions of the Carter Family's "Wildwood Flower" and, as a bonus track, "Engine 143," as well as the faux-traditional story song "Long Black Veil" and, of course, Erwin Rouse's choogling title track, a staple of Cash's live set to this day. He also encloses "All of God's Children Ain't Free," his own contribution to the catalog of protest music. Even more importantly, the record includes three Bob Dylan tunes: "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," "Mama You Been On My Mind" and "It Ain't Me, Babe" (the latter his first duet with his future wife June Carter), spicing the arrangements with a horn section. The mutual admiration society formed by Cash and Dylan is well-documented today, but back then it was akin to John Lee Hooker covering a Jimi Hendrix tune, an acknowledgment of current innovations and an obliteration of the generation gap. Despite an overly sentimental "Danny Boy" and a ridiculously over-the-top "Amen," Orange Blossom Special holds up well as a Man in Black classic.

Carryin' On with Johnny Cash and June Carter, originally issued in 1967, preceded the pair's nuptials by only a few months, though it fairly revels in marital harmony. Besides reprising the duo's version of "It Ain't Me, Babe," the album includes alternately tender and giddy duets on everything from Richard Farina's "Pack Up Your Sorrows," Carl Perkins' "Long-Legged Guitar Pickin' Man" and a practically galloping take on Ray Charles' "I Got a Woman." The couple doesn't skimp on its own songwriting pen either, contributing the co-written "Shantytown," "You'll Be All Right" and the homey "Oh, What a Good Thing We Had," as well as Cash's "No, No, No" and Carter's "Fast Boat to Sydney." Of course, the most famous cut is the rollicking "Jackson," a standard for feisty male-female duets for decades. While there's little here that deserves enshrinement in the pantheon of Cash greats, most of the tracks have a light and unpretentious air about them, making the performances a delight to hear. All except one, that is: the album proper closes with a horrendous version of Charles' "What'd I Say" that was undoubtedly a hoot to record but agony to hear. The bonus tracks "The Wind Changes" and a heartfelt and surprisingly non-corny "From Sea to Shining Sea" almost make up for it.

1972's America, subtitled "A 200-Year Salute in Story and Song," follows the story/song pattern of Ride This Train to relate the history of the United States, as seen through Cash's eyes. The singer keeps the narration brief here, giving almost impressionistic snippets about the frontier, Westward expansion, the Civil War and various democratic ideals. Most of the tunes have a homespun, folky feel, as if Cash gathered his musician buddies (including Carl Perkins, Marshall Grant, Norman Blake, W.S. Holland and Charlie McCoy) in his living room to tell them stories. Standards like "The Battle of New Orleans," "Paul Revere," "Remember the Alamo" and Ramblin' Jack Elliott's "Mister Garfield" sit side-by-side with originals like "The Big Battle," "Come Take a Trip on My Airship" and "These are My People." Cash tempers the traditional patriotism with "Big Foot," a self-penned tale of Wounded Knee that makes clear his feelings toward the government's treatment of American Indians throughout U.S. history. The heartfelt intentions make up for the occasional stodginess; this isn't one of Cash's classic records by any means, but it's more entertaining than you might think.

The celebration of America motif works better on 1974's Ragged Old Flag, which not only continues the thematic thrust but also holds the distinction of being the first album on which Cash wrote all the songs. Instead of telling a story (or cluttering up the flow with narration), Cash simply focuses on different aspects of American life. He covers pollution in "Don't Go Near the Water" through the eyes of a father taking his son fishing, unemployment in "I'm a Worried Man" and the virtues of hard work in "King of the Hill." He even takes the point of view of a career inmate to look at that great American business, the prison system. He also stretches the concept a bit to cover that universal subject, love ("Lonesome to the Bone," "While I've Got It On My Mind") and sing the gospel ("Good Morning Friend," "Pie in the Sky," "What On Earth Will You Do [For Heaven's Sake]"). The lean, straightforward production suits the parsimonious songs perfectly; even the normally overheated Oak Ridge Boys keep their harmonies relatively tasteful. Though modest in presentation, Ragged Old Flag is one of the best of the current batch of reissues. All of these are worthy, however, and hopefully they'll be merely the first group of many more to come from the Columbia catalog of the Man in Black. Michael Toland

For fans of: Merle Haggard, Woody Guthrie, Junior Brown