Search - Johnny Cash :: There Was a Song

One of Johnny's finest albums ever!

mahes | Mississauga, Ontario Canada | 10/29/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Well friends, if there was ever a Johnny Cash album that is true country, this is it. All these great versions of country standards such as My Shoes Keep Walking Back To You, Time Changes Everything, Honky Tonk Girl and the rest are very well done. This is indeed a different Johnny Cash style but like that other reviewer said he is in excellent shape on this album. I wish Johnny recorded more country albums like this, but I think every Cash fan will enjoy this album. I guess back in those days people were so uptight about using words like Cocaine in a song, that's why he had to change it to Transfusion Blues. Now you will hear Johnny's famous style with Luther Perkins on guitar, etc. Enjoy!"

Early one morning while making the rounds...

Johnny Heering | Bethel, CT United States | 05/23/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This 1960 album marked a departure from past Johnny Cash releases in that it is made up of old country standards. It is also unique in that it was recorded at only one session and no master required more than three takes to complete. "Seasons of the Heart" was released as a single from the album, and it reached #10 on the Country chart. Another notable song from the album is "Transfusion Blues", which is a censored version of "Cocaine Blues", which Cash later more famously recorded under the original title on the Folsom Prison album. This is a decent enough album, but it's not one of my personal favorite Johnny Cash albums. For reasons that I can't explain, it just doesn't grab me that much. But a lot of people seem to like it more than I do, so you may want to give it a try. It should be noted that the CD is very short, clocking in at a mere 27 minutes."

Cash does trad country

Greg Brady | Capital City | 03/02/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of the more "Nashville" sounding releases of Cash's. Weeping steel guitar, fiddle, honky tonk piano...it's all here. This reissue sees Cash tackling cover songs from George Jones, Ferlin Husky, Marty Robbins, Ray Price, Bob Wills, Melvin Endsley, Ernest Tubb,Hank Snow, Roy Hogshead, Hank Thompson and Hank Williams, Sr.



Packagingwise, there are pluses and minuses. The liners would benefit from inclusion of lyrics, but it's nice to have the original puff piece from the LP back included. ("It's the kind of singing that makes a listener declare,"Now, THERE was a song!")



The run time is short (about a half hour) so this probably SHOULD have been a "twofer" reissue with another Columbia catalogue Cash LP to make a better value. The price though is only $10 so it's probably reasonable even with the brevity.



HIGHLIGHTS:

Best tracks here are "Transfusion Blues" (actually "Cocaine Blues" with some lyric changes). The track sounds like basic Sun-era "boom chicka boom" Johnny with some Nashville gloss. Another uptempo one, "I Feel Better all Over", is fine..as are drinking her off my mind tune "Just One More" and weeper "I'd Just be Fool Enough (to Fall)".



LOWS:

Perhaps one tune that might have benefitted from a more typical spare Cash arrangement is "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". It never feels as melancholy as it should..perhaps a harmonica would have been better in place of the fiddle to evoke the ghostly air of the Hank classic?



BOTTOM LINE:

It's not an "essential" Cash CD. But if you're a fan of the Man in Black you'll probably like quite a few cuts.



3 1/2 stars"