Search - Johnny Cash :: Return to the Promised Land

Better than Average Gospel Collection from Johnny & June

Kenneth French | Montclair, NJ | 01/28/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Over the years, Johnny Cash has made a number of gospel recordings. It was Sam Phillips' resistance to this idea that led to Johnny signing with Columbia Records. Some of these recordings, like THE HOLY LAND and GOSPEL ROAD, also serve as documentaries of visits Johnny made to the Holy Land. This falls in that vein. Recorded in 1992 for a video, this includes a number of simple versions of religious songs, often recorded with just Johnny and his son John Carter Cash on guitar. Highlights include "Over the Next Hill We'll Be Home" and "What on Earth Will You Do for Heaven's Sake." Recommended for fans of Johnny's gospel recordings."

A Note from the Producer - hugh waddell

Kenneth French | 04/01/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you want some real Johnny Cash, speaking to you between songs, setting them up, then check this disc out. This is the uncut soundtrack put out by Reverend Billy Graham's World Wide Pictures in 1994. A prior reviewer here expressed that this is another gospel soundtrack and didn't dive into the reasons this disc was made.



It merits more than 3 stars... but I digress... NOBODY knows this work exists. It's been a secret, as was the original VHS (no DVDs were ever made) by the same name, of the Johnny Cash project release by World Wide Pictures. In fact, no one has ever attempted to try to re-release this work AUDIO or VIDEO on DVD. The masters for both are long-lost in now-sold House of Cash archives in a basement or box someplace. But I feel that by these tracks being hidden forever, folks are missing a hidden Johnny Cash treasure. To hear him sing, then speak, then strum his guitar, and play songs with some and then no backing tracks... NOTE: a FEW YEARS before he had ever MET of Rick Rubin... You really do feel like you and John are having a private stoll of the Holy Land, with June Carter chiming in.



True, at first listen, this CD could be considered another of John R. Cash's attempts at syrup gospel. His career has had it's fill of these weak attempts by producers to harness Cash's rumbling gospel odyssey. Two of the tracks on the CD were produced by others with full studio sessions and all the bells and whistles. Everything else is naked Johnny or done in a 4-track digital room. The songs are some weak and strong and John loved 'em all and wanted to include them here. Upon closer listen, the vocal tracks have the same honest integrity that has heralded his latest releases in the Rick Rubin era.



You can hear Cash breathe, wax poetic between songs and lay some of his burden down at your feet. A couple of the songs are space-filler, however, the stark richness of hearing only Cash and his guitar pre-dates any of the current stuff.



This CD also features four "hip" Johnny Cash demos recorded shortly after he wrote them and heard here for the first time ANYWHERE! These four bonus tracks are more than worth the price of the damn CD. The entire project, every note and spoken word, was paid for by Cash. No label outsiders suggesting what to say or what to record. This was all Cash's concept.



Lastly, the hidden track features Johnny Cash's late mother, Carrie "Mamma Cash" recalling how John was influenced musically as a child. She explains - only as a loving mother would or could - what Johnny's hard dirt-floor Arkansas existence as a youth did for his ability to reach the masses later as a musical icon. She even reveals her recipe for banana pudding. She was like family to me, and this recording as it appears on the CD was a birthday present I gave John, so he could listen to his mother play piano and read her poems when he was away from home.



This return to the promised land is a metaphor for the attempt to present John - along with family members June and John Carter - in his real mantra. John had done GOSPEL ROAD twenty years earlier, at the same locations in Israel.



Add to the fact that there were only 2,000 of these CDs ever manufactured, this is a unique collector's item that is now being sold in Europe collector circles for over $250. Enough said. I lucked out and bought up several copies I found at truck stops when Rennaisance Records went belly up and liquidated their inventory... only to have the rack-jobber sell them in bulk to Pilot Travel Stores around Tennessee... I bought ten copies at various stores for $7.99... e-mail me [...] and I'll answer any of your Johnny Cash questions I can... I loved the man, his family, especially his mother, and will miss him, as our two families have a long history of growing up together in '70s & '80s Hendersonville, Tennessee.



If you've read this far, you are a true - damned fine - Johnny Cash fan... See also, my book on John "I Still Miss Someone" also here on Amazon.com! I don't mean to be so long-winded, it's just that time erases much, like why and where and how... but the music will remain forever! So if this CD is available, splurge the $200 or whatever and buy one. You'll have a neat item. And with the 10 that I own, there are only 1,990 out there in existance!!!



Go Return To The Promised Land."